WRITTEN PUBLIC
COMMENTS RECEIVED
From: Jill Goldner
To: City Clerk
Cc: WebCBH MAYORANDCITYCOUNCIL
Subject: OPEN BH
Date: Saturday, December 9, 2023 12:51:38 PM
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Dear The Honorable Beverly Hills City Council:
My letter is concerning how the consideration for permanent OPEN BH will be applied to any other businesses, institutions other than restaurants and their parklets? How will OPEN BH also provide protections for residential neighborhoods?
For example, here in the Southeast area of Beverly Hills the Beth Jacob Temple has a large tent which is permitted for services for up to a 1000 people. Beth Jacob has no parking facilities nor any plans to provide parking outside the local residential streets. Permit parking is not the answer. Parking is not enforced with or without permits. This is an institution that has over 700 family membership and multiple services and events each week severely impacting our residential streets safety and causing extreme congestion. How will OPEN BH play out in our neighborhood, allowing a Temple to expand their acquired lot into meeting place for up to 1000 people without mandating parking requirements?
Currently, events in this tent are all permitted no matter what the impact to our neighborhood with the application of temporary OPEN BH. Seemingly if OPEN BH will apply to a tented parking lot this will circumvent the city’s code to require one parking space for four seats. A lot that was acquired when this city code does apply this rule as well as a conditional use permit (CUP).
According to the Assistant City Manager the Temple is not required to have a CUP for their acquired lot. Every building/development requires a CUP but not Beth Jacob? If OPEN BH somehow (I keep asking no one in the city can tell me) applies to their tented parking lot/playground I am requesting the Council mandate parking requirements outside of the residential streets for these ’special’ allowances of other entities that are not restaurants adding parklets. I am pleading with the Council to protect our neighborhood and stipulate when reviewing OPEN BH there must be clear standards in these situations for required parking spaces.
Point D Procedures on the notice states ‘…since the project does not require construction ….there is no possibility that it may have a significant effect on the environment….’ For the Beth Jacob Temple to continue with their
’tented parking lot’ with increased events, celebrations meetings will absolutely continue to affect the environment.
The congestion from the required parking on the City Streets affects our safety and environment.
Respectfully,
Jill Goldner
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From: Abbey Tenn
To: City Clerk
Subject: FW: Public comment for REVIEW OF THE PERMANENT OPEN AIR DINING PROGRAM Date: Monday, December 11, 2023 12:58:30 PM
FYI … This comment went to my spam folder for some reason.
From: Dimitri Loginowski
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2023 12:44 PM
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Subject: Public comment for REVIEW OF THE PERMANENT OPEN AIR DINING PROGRAM CAUTION: External Sender
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Hi my name is Dimitri Loginowski, I am a co-owner of “Attic Koncept” - located at 350 N canon drive, Suite 1 - and these are my comments to the
REVIEW OF THE PERMANENT OPEN AIR DINING PROGRAM.
A) AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF BEVERLY HILLS AMENDING THE BEVERLY HILLS MUNICIPAL CODE
REGULATIONS RELATED TO OPEN AIR DINING
Our business is completely blocked by a neighboring parklet for 90 out of 180 degree field of view.
Our statistics indicate that 90% of our customers are new walk-ins and the visibility blockage loss projection is approaching $200,000. This is not taking into account the loss of parking and restricted accessibility.
We and the business before us have filed multiple complaints with the city - to no avail. The aforementioned business suffered further losses by being forced to move to a different location.
This is a perfect example of how excessive, unresponsive, ham-fisted regulations are bad for business. I think that the COVID pandemic has been a good lesson of how the cure could be worse than the disease.
B) ADOPTION OF PARKLET DESIGN GUIDELINES PROVIDING A SET OF MINIMUM STANDARDS FOR DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE OF PARKLET DINING.
No amount of guidelines will completely mitigate losses due to restricted parking, reduced accessibility and impacted visibility.
Judging by the fact that we are discussing minimum standards 3 years after these regulations were enacted - it is clear that this policy was never carefully considered, businesses were never adequately consulted and city staff was not responsive to multiple complaints.
I think that the outdoor dining program needs to be scrapped entirely. This was a response to an emergency situation and I hope that lessons will be learned as a result of this to improve future crisis handling responses.
C) RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BEVERLY HILLS AMENDING THE COMPREHENSIVE
SCHEDULE OF TAXES, FEES AND CHARGES TO ADD A SIDEWALK DINING LICENSE FEE AND PARKLET DINING LICENSE FEE FOR FISCAL YEAR 2023-2024
Because the city of Beverly Hills is generating revenue from this policy - it is automatically exposed to liability for all past, current and future losses. I believe that my business is one of many that is entitled to compensation.
Is the revenue that is being generated by these fees aimed to mitigate financial impact - or is it meant to cover the salaries of city planning staff?
It would be very cynical to take advantage of a public emergency to extract revenue from the business community.
I believe that the city would be better served by creating a fair and equitable environment that generates tax revenue from healthy business activity instead of peddling preferential treatment disguised as “permits” and “license fees”.
Monday, Dec 11, 2023
Honorable Mayor and City Council
Beverly Hills City Hall
455 N. Rexford Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Dear Honorable Mayor Gold and Members of the City Council, Re: “Open BH” review | request to maintain provision for lines outside boutiques on Rodeo Drive
We understand that you are reviewing the “Open BH” program and in doing so, the Rodeo Drive Committee urges you to maintain the permitting of lines outside of the relevant boutiques under this program in the interest of safety and security on the street, which is a priority for our members and the experience on the street.
Sincerely,
Kay Monica Rose
President
Rodeo Drive Committee