Development of outside seating for restaurants in Los Alamitos will soon require a permitting process that could take as little as 10 days for areas 300 square feet or smaller.
Any outdoor seating larger than that will require a conditional use permit, which takes at least 30 days to process and planning commission approval to obtain.
“It’s a more customer friendly process,” said Los Al’s Director of Community Development Steven Mendoza about the new permit process.
At Los Al’s City Council meeting on Jan. 19, a Zoning Ordinance amendment that sets forth the new permitting process was an item on the consent calendar.
The new ordinance is an effort from the city to “incentivize and encourage outdoor dining,” reads the city’s staff report.
The new process will require an administrative use permit, which requires “detailed and fully dimensioned plans, architectural drawings, elevations, floor plans, landscape plans,” to obtain.
Every year the permit would have to be renewed and a fee would have to be paid.
