Agenda Report
Fullerton City Council
MEETING DATE: november 1, 2022
TO: CITY COUNCIL / SUCCESSOR AGENCY
SUBMITTED BY: meg mcwade, public works director
PREPARED BY: STEPHEN BISE, CITY ENGINeer
sunayana thomas, acting community AND economic development director SUBJECT: LAGOS MEXICAN CUISINE – STANDARD OUTDOOR DINING APPLICATION
SUMMARY
Lagos Mexican Cuisine (Lagos) restaurant, located at 139 West Santa Fe Avenue, applied for outdoor dining on August 5, 2022. The application requests use of City paid parking spots in the Restaurant Overlay District. This request requires City Council approval per the Standard Outdoor Dining Guidelines.
RECOMMENDATION
Require applicant to fund a parking study to assess proposed parking reduction impacts within the Downtown area, specifically within the Restaurant Overlay District and return to City Council for consideration of outdoor dining application upon completion of parking study results.
OR
Deny application due to differing objectives with the Restaurant Overlay District parking provisions and Long-Range Property Management Plan and need to preserve critical downtown public parking amidst AB 2097 limitations on imposing parking requirements on any residential, commercial or other development project located within one-half mile of public transit.
CITY MANAGER REMARKS
The City Manager recommends one of the two recommended actions. The City can continue evaluating opportunities to create more outdoor dining moving forward.
PRIORITY POLICY STATEMENT
This item matches the following Priority Policy Statements:
Fiscal and Organizational Stability
Infrastructure and City Assets.
FISCAL IMPACT
The applicant proposes to occupy 2,025 square feet of public right-of-way for private outdoor dining use and provide full liquor service. The applicant would pay $1.71 per square-foot, generating $3,462.75 per month in lease revenue and $41,553 in annual lease revenue, per the Standard Outdoor Dining Guidelines.
The applicant shall be responsible for any parking revenue loss incurred by the City. The paid parking program currently requires a flat rate of $5 per space on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m. Therefore, the applicant would pay an additional $60 per month for each parking stall utilized for outdoor dining. The Lagos application indicates it would utilize 15 parking spaces, which equals $900 per month in parking revenue and $10,800 in annual parking revenue.
City Council approval of the standard outdoor dining application would generate $52,353 in total annual revenue to the City.
DISCUSSION
Dos Lagos (139 West Santa Fe) submitted an Outdoor Dining Application for use of public parking spaces in the lot east of their restaurant. Staff presented this item to City Council on October 4, 2022. City Council requested additional information on downtown parking as well as potential consideration of the alley north of the establishment as a site for Dos Lagos outdoor dining.
Downtown Parking
Businesses, patrons and community groups value Downtown parking. It will become even more critical for the City to maintain public parking given current State initiatives.
AB 2097 Parking Restriction Overview
The Governor signed AB 2097, authored by Assembly Member Friedman, into law on September 22, 2022. The bill prohibits local agencies from imposing or enforcing parking minimums on residential and commercial developments within one-half mile of a major transit stop unless certain conditions are met. The limit of the restriction encompasses the entire downtown area. Townsend, the City’s public affairs consultant, recommends “local governments begin taking inventory of existing parking needs and their proximity to public transit.” The City has increasing Downtown parking needs and the increased limitation on development provided parking makes maintaining public parking critical.
Restaurant Overlay District (2002)
The Lagos restaurant is in the Restaurant Overlay District, which has specific provisions for parking within the Fullerton Municipal Code.
The City established the Restaurant Overlay District (ROD) as a tool for City use when implementing redevelopment goals, objectives and programs under the Community Redevelopment Law, California Health and Safety Code Section 33000 et seq. The ROD allows restaurants to expand and/or locate in and around the Central Business District without providing on-site parking as part of the City's broader effort to revitalize the downtown. The ROD affects only those properties depicted in Section 15.67.020, located in and around the Central Business District and determined by City Council as within a reasonable distance of the City's existing ample public parking supply.
The ROD promotes local businesses by providing parking for the collective. The use of public parking for an individual business may have negative impacts to other businesses in the ROD.
Long-Range Property Management Plan (2015)
The Long-Range Property Management Plan identifies the parking lot proposed for outdoor dining as Asset #9 (see Attachment 2). Agency goals for the lot are to “Maintain public parking and continue to work toward increasing parking to address current and future parking needs in the Downtown and Fullerton Transportation Center areas. In addition, continue to be in compliance with the ROD.” The application to utilize parking spaces for private use will reduce available parking for the ROD, which contradicts the objectives in the Long-Range Property Management Plan.
SOCO West Parking Structure
Can the SOCO Structure be used for ROD overflow parking? Not at this time. As identified in the Long-Range Property Management Plan, the City constructed this parking structure to provide parking for transit riders and is adjacent to the Fullerton Transportation Center including the Metrolink and Amtrak stations as well as the OCTA bus terminal. Per the funding agreement with OCTA, this parking structure must provide parking for transit riders. An existing SOCO structure parking management plan allocated 43 three-hour, short-term parking spaces for City purposes including use by surrounding business. These stalls are marked and utilized in that manner. The plan allows for additional consideration of joint use parking in consultation with OCTA and Amtrak. To effectuate a change, “Owner / Operator shall oversee preparation of a joint use parking analysis by a qualified professional in the field of transportation and parking demand analysis which demonstrates that the proposed joint use program will not significantly reduce parking supply available to transit patrons.” Due to the importance of parking to a vibrant downtown and changing parking regulations, staff recommends denial of the application to preserve existing parking. Staff has proposed an alternative to denial that would enable the applicant to fund a parking study for current and/or future conditions to provide additional data, should City Council require it in advance of application determination.
Alley - Outdoor Dining in the Alley north of Lagos Mexican Cuisine City Council inquired about allowing outdoor dining within the alley, north of the applicant’s property. The alley is 20-feet wide and allows for bi-directional vehicular traffic. Patrons, delivery trucks, trash trucks and public safety personnel use this alley. Blocking a portion of the alley would restrict access for these uses and which staff does not recommend. Additionally, Fire and Police Department expressed safety concerns regarding closure of a portion of the alley for outdoor dining. The applicant may submit an application for this area. Based on preliminary review, however, this location appears infeasible based on various Department concerns.
Next Steps
The request to utilize public parking for private use within the ROD requires City Council approval per the Standard Outdoor Dining Guidelines. If City Council accepts the application, staff will distribute the plans to various departments and divisions for review. If City Council denies the application, staff will notify the and take no further action.
Attachments:
Attachment 1 – PowerPoint Presentation
Attachment 2 – Lagos proposed outdoor dining plan / rendering Attachment 3 – Excerpt from Long-Range Property Management Plan Attachment 4 – AB 2097 Overview
cc: City Manager Eric J. Levitt
Lagos Mexican Cuisine – Standard Outdoor Dining Application November 1, 2022 - Page 3