Promenade Taskforce Hammers Out Final Recommendations

By Oliver Lukacs

March 21 -- Stopping short of "trying to control market forces," while keeping a moratorium on converting restaurant to retail in place, the Promenade Uses Taskforce Thursday hammered out its final recommendations to the City Council to strike a healthy mix of businesses in the commercial heart of the city.

Among the recommendations -- which are expected to give the shrinking number of restaurants a competitive edge on the Promenade -- are streamlining the permit process for outdoor dinning and alcohol service, while limiting the frontage space retail stores are allowed, and loosening signage restrictions for restaurants.

In addition, the taskforce recommended a "floating cap" on the number of restaurants on the Promenade based on percentage, instead of total number. It also recommended expanding the vending cart program.

The taskforce, however, scraped numerous recommended "disincentives" put on the table by City staff that would have frozen the number of retail businesses on the Promenade whose spread spurred the current moratorium.

Board members and local merchants opposed the measure arguing that it amounted to a disastrous attempt at "micromanaging" unpredictable market forces.

Among the most controversial "disincentives" were the following:

• Limiting the number of "formula" (chain/corporate) retail stores on the Promenade.
  
  
• Requiring retail stores to apply for a Conditional Use Permit if the store's linear frontage exceeds 20 feet, or 2,000 square feet.
  
  
• Requiring newly built retail stores to build onsite parking and charging additional
  parking assessment for retail stores.

The disincentives were denounced in a letter signed by nearly every property owner, retailer, and restaurateur on the commercial strip and read to the taskforce by property owner Barbara Levy.

"Retail is like a living organism; it constantly changes. And restricting uses does not encourage change," the letter stated. Placing restrictions would be "a grave error" that "could bring about sharp economic decline… and a drop in foot traffic" leading to "dramatic financial losses for the City."

According to the letter, the "lengthy and expensive" CUP requirement, "which covers 90 percent of the current spaces," would drive away prospective tenants, resulting in "vacant buildings."

"Multiple vacancies," the letter warned, "would be a commercial blight and a significant security risk. This would create the buzz that 'the Promenade is failing' a la Westwood Village."

Merlyn Ruddell, a taskforce member and property owner, agreed. "Instead of leveling the playing field for restaurants," as it was designed to do, "it unlevels the playing field for retail business competing" with their counterparts in local cities, she said.

Councilman Herb Katz, a taskforce member, concurred. "Let's not control the market place. Every time we try and control it we screw it up really good."

Katz however suggested regulating the frontage of retail stores by incentive instead of dictating land use by denying new "formula retail" altogether.

Katz's recommendation -- dubbed "the 50 foot Herb rule," by Council Michael Feinstein, a taskforce member -- would give extra space to a retail store in a restaurant-retail conversion in exchange for limiting its frontage to 50 feet.

The extra space would be carved out of the backspace of restaurants adjacent to the retail store, which Katz said usually isn't used anyway. This would result in an L-shape, giving the retail extra shelf space and the eatery an equal amount of frontage.

Another key recommendation is to streamline the permit process for outdoor dining by requiring administrative approval - instead of a vote by the Planning Commission -- if the applicant meets certain guidelines, which include aesthetics. The same streamlined system would apply to alcohol permits for restaurants.

Restaurant owner and taskforce member West Hooker noted that there was no silver bullet to stem the exodus of restaurants from the Promenade due to high rents.

But allowing them to expand to the sidewalks and into the middle of the Promenade for outdoor dinning was "the biggest tool the City has to make it affordable" to run a restaurant in the Downtown, said Hooker, who owns the Locanda del Lago Restaurant.

The proposal would allow new and existing restaurants to erect either attached or detached open or covered eating areas, giving them a hook, exposure and extra seating capacity.

The recommendation also would lend the Promenade a "European flair," an essential ingredient for making the strip "world class," according to the New York-based consulting agency helping the taskforce.

"As long is it's designed nicely, not just plastic chairs and tables with an umbrella, (but) something to give it a nice European flair," said Taskforce Member Bill Tucker.

Another proposal would loosen the City's strict signage laws, giving restaurants more flexibility to use menu-boards and "sandwich-boards," which are "a valuable tool for advertising" that is not being currently used to catch the eyes of passersby, said Hooker.

Katz, an architect who pushed for the City's sign ordinance during a previous term on the council, opposed the sandwich boards. "These signs are huge problem," he said pointing out that it's impossible to enforce regulations.

"You watch a merchant get release on it and they put one every three feet. A fish one here, a meat one there," Katz said. "It starts here and moves out there. You can't control these boards."

Feinstein countered that "other cities don't (regulate such signs), and it hasn't ruined them."

Katz agreed to allow menu and sandwich board if guidelines are set. The guidelines would require administrative approval for placing the broads on guardrails or vestibules. However any board exceeding 30 inches above the 2nd floor would require a variance.

In addition to the measures that would help strike a healthy balance between restaurant and retail use, the taskforce recommended expanding the vending cart program throughout the new Transit Mall. However, to eliminate competition for adjacent retail stores, the carts would be barred from selling merchandise and would be limited to providing food and amenities unavailable in stores.

Some taskforce members worried that proliferating food vending would hurt the restaurants they're trying to protect.

"It starts with chips, then comes the hot dogs, and then the pizza guy shows up," said Taskforce Member Jay P. Johnson, who is also a planning commissioner.

City Staff member Mark Richter said vending would be limited to flowers, handmade arts and crafts, and snacks that wouldn't pose a threat to restaurants. "I don't think a Churro is going to substitute a good meal," Richter said.

A recommendation to move the police substation from a kiosk on the Promenade to 2nd Street in order to open up the space for business stirred debate over the level of public safety needed.

Katz argued that "the public needs to feels safe." Without a fixed visible destination people can spot if they need help, Katz said, there won't be a reassuring "police presence," which is the reason the community asked for a substation to begin with.

Richter disagreed. "Service is provided by police on patrol, not be sitting in a kiosk."

Kathleen Rawson, the executive director of the Bayside District Corporation, echoed Richter's sentiment. "Sitting there doesn't provide a police presence."

Katz, however, said he wasn't "buying it."

"We've been short of police since day one, and we're still short," said Katz, who was skeptical that moving the kiosk would mean added police presence on the street. "I'm not buying it."

Ruddell suggested moving the substation to the center of the Promenade, but Johnson, who agreed police presence was needed, felt that was going overboard.

"Were an entertainment venue with a safety element, we're not a safety venue with an entertainment element," Johnson said. "That would just make people more nervous."