91.1 F
San Fernando
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

No Money for In-Street Dining Permit Program

Funding for Phase 2 of Los Angeles’ Al Fresco program has run out, resulting in a temporary pause on the issuance of in-street dining permits for restaurants, Deputy Press Secretary for the Mayor’s Office Harrison Wollman confirmed to the Business Journal.That doesn’t mean Al Fresco dining in the city is done – far from it. Wollman said Phase 1, which expedites the permit process for restaurants to set up tables and serve diners on sidewalks and in private parking lots, has no external cost to the city and won’t stop anytime soon.“We have continued to offer permits,” he said. “That has not stopped.”Mayor Eric Garcetti activated Phase 1 in May in an effort to help local restaurants survive the coronavirus pandemic by creating new outdoor dining options as indoor dining rooms remained closed. He expanded the program in late June to allow for the creation of in-street Al Fresco zones in Phase 2. According to Wollman, the city had repurposed $750,000 from the Department of Transportation’s budget to pay for Phase 2 expenses, including closing street lanes and installing concrete barricades to protect diners and tables from vehicle traffic. That funding has run out, resulting in a freeze on new permits for in-street dining.Wollman said the “vast majority” of Al Fresco applications are for parking lot and sidewalk dining permits.So far, he said, the city has issued 1,859 permits for Al Fresco dining, more than 1,000 of which are for sidewalk dining and a few hundred of which are for parking lots. He said the city has received 286 applications for “curbside” dining – or the in-street dining categorized as Phase 2. Of them, 144 were not eligible for in-street dining for reasons such as high speed limits, proximity to fire hydrants or infringement on private property.He said just 50 in-street applications have been approved, and that installing the necessary infrastructure for those 50 restaurants to serve patrons in the street exhausted the initial $750,000 allotment.  “We’re looking for new funding opportunities. I don’t have additional info where that’s happening, but we’re looking at a few potential sources,” Wollman said.The only Valley neighborhood to establish an in-street Al Fresco zone is North Hollywood, which did so last month along a densely populated stretch of Magnolia Boulevard. The Department of Transportation removed the center turn lane and blocked off a parking lane and an eastbound travel lane on Magnolia Boulevard between Lankershim Boulevard and Vineland Avenue to make way for about a dozen restaurants to expand into the roadway. The street retains two eastbound lanes and a westbound lane for through traffic.Other in-street Al Fresco zones in Los Angeles include 1st Street in Little Tokyo, Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, Degnan Boulevard in Leimert Park and Windward Avenue in Venice. Wollman confirmed restaurants that have already been approved for in-street dining can continue to serve customers while the city looks for more funding.Existing Al Fresco permits for both Phase 1 and Phase 2 are set to expire Dec. 31.

Featured Articles

Related Articles