1 Jaehee Yoon
From: Debbie Huddleston <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2024 2:03 PM
To: Outdoor Dining
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Fwd: Council meeting 2/20
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
EXTERNAL EMAIL: Do not click links or open attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.
This message is in regards to the outdoor dining issue to be discussed at the Feb.20,2024 City Council meeting.
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Debbie Huddleston <[email protected]>
Date: February 13, 2024 at 12:29:22 PM PST
To: [email protected]
Subject: Fwd: Council meeting 2/20
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Deborah Huddleston <[email protected]>
Date: February 13, 2024 at 8:37:07 AM PST
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Council meeting 2/20
Jim,
We just received the email regarding the upcoming council meeting and their proposed plan. As residents of 125 10th St., MB, here are a few of our concerns:
1). We are seeing and hearing more and more kids running up and down the walk street, playing in the garden, on the stairs and running down to the alley, while their parents dine outdoors. The danger and liability of this unsupervised behavior is always worrisome to us.
2). Public seating benches are obstructed by dining tables. 3). Noise has increased from outdoor dining, making sitting in our patio less enjoyable.
4). While outdoor dining tables are out, it is difficult to walk down the sidewalk. People are waiting for tables, and ebikes obstruct sidewalks when leaned up against posts. Sometimes you have to walk out into the street, which is dangerous. It seems that its only a matter of time before someone gets hurt. 5). The traffic has increased, making it nearly impossible to make a left turn from our alley on 10th place, as well as increased traffic down the alley while 2 people circle, looking for parking. People speed and we have to tell them to slow down. Getting in and out of our garage can be difficult during these busy times also.
6). We have definitely seen an increase of smoking in our alley. People disregard the no smoking signs/ordinance, and leave the restaurants to smoke there. The smoke goes into our two back units, and we presently have a baby living there. We say something to people, some apologize, most ignore us.
We bought downtown 12 years ago, because we loved the convenience to everything and the small town feel that MB had to offer. We are hoping that the Council is able to put themselves in the downtown residents position and not disregard our concerns for the sake of more money.
Respectfully.
Debbie and Darrell Huddleston
1 Jaehee Yoon
From: Talyn Mirzakhanian
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2024 4:42 PM
To: Jaehee Yoon
Subject: FW: [EXTERNAL] City Council Agenda Item for 2/20/2024 regarding Outdoor Dining Task Force
FYI
TALYN MIRZAKHANIAN
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
310-802-5503
[email protected]
CITY OF MANHATTAN BEACH 1400 Highland Avenue Manhattan Beach, CA 90266 Office Hours : M-Th 8:00 AM-5:00 PM | Fridays 8:00 AM-4:00 PM | Not Applicable to Public Safety
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From: Richard Montgomery <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2024 4:26 PM
To: Talyn Mirzakhanian <[email protected]> Cc: Bruce Moe <[email protected]>
Subject: Fwd: [EXTERNAL] City Council Agenda Item for 2/20/2024 regarding Outdoor Dining Task Force
Talyn,
This is one you might want to address these claims now versus later !
Richard
Sent by IPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: George Kaufman <
[email protected] >
Date: February 13, 2024 at 4:10:58 PM PST
To: List - City Council < [email protected] > Subject: [EXTERNAL] City Council Agenda Item for 2/20/2024 regarding Outdoor Dining Task Force
2 EXTERNAL EMAIL: Do not click links or open attachments unless you trust the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear Council,
As downtown residents in the 100 block of 10th Street, we are very concerned with the direction the Outdoor Dining Task Force is taking.
At this point, the Task Force is seeking to remake the downtown via, among other ways, a massive public works project to widen the sidewalks of a huge swath of the downtown to expand the capacity of restaurants by "20-30%" (a substantial intensification of use, exacerbated by the absence of an accompanying increase in parking capacity) and create numerous gathering places all over the downtown, including on Walk Streets, for use, among other purposes, as dining areas. We wonder, is the oft repeated mantra, proclaiming Manhattan Beach as a haven of “small town character” meaningless?
Per the direction from the City Council, the task force conducted a public outreach to walk street residents concerning commercial use of walk streets, which is currently prohibited and unprecedented. When this outreach made clear the overwhelming opposition to this concept, at their January meeting, the task force indicated they would not proceed with a recommendation for commercial use of walk streets. Now, unfortunately, we see following their most recent meeting, this concept is apparently back on the table. And beyond that, the task force is seeking to use the walk streets for "flex spaces" where the public can eat (a transparent end run around the commercial use prohibition) and otherwise gather. Our street is targeted for no less than 6 of these spaces, which will irreversibly alter and intensify the environment we live in. They also are currently considering Outdoor Live Music and Outdoor Amplified Music which will create an unnecessary and continuing nuisance, unwelcome at any hour of the day. At least on blocks like ours in close proximity to restaurants, we do not want an ever present “soundtrack” provided by restaurant owners.
The above are just some of the issues pointing up the fact that the Committee is exclusively focused on the interests of the restaurants, to the exclusion of the downtown residents. As it is, Manhattan Beach already has at least 25 downtown restaurants with outdoor dining, which makes this a “solution in search of a problem.” And certainly this is not a task suited to a 15 member body with only 1 representative of downtown residents! This underlines the importance of the Council as a brake on this runaway train, and as the body charged with the preservation of Man hattan Beach’s small town character.
We ask that the Council make clear to the task force that it should sharpen its focus to its limited mission of providing a reasonable amount of outdoor restaurant seating, not remaking the downtown into some sort of mall food court, and that it must give proper consideration to the interests of the downtown residents. We are not occasional visitors to the downtown – we live here full time.
George Kaufman
Kathy Smith
Alexandra Smith