By Shawn Landres
Thank you for your coverage of the Planning Commission’s consideration of Pico Boulevard zoning amendments. I‘ve learned a great deal from listening to the diverse voices of our community through more than a year’s worth of workshops and meetings - Wednesday night was no exception. As you rightly noted, the Commission was unanimous that any changes on Pico should occur in the context of sustained commitments to local economic development and affordable housing preservation.
However, the wording of the zoning resolution as approved does not fully address community concerns about large restaurants. These objections are just as important as the concerns you reported about new bars (as distinct from lounges or nightclubs, which many in the Pico neighborhood actually have requested).
There has been widespread opposition to new large restaurants for many reasons, including concerns about gentrification. At the same time, though, there is growing community interest in culturally diverse multi-vendor food halls and performance venues with food & beverage service, as well as dance floors (which the code currently bans).
Along much of Pico, the existing rules prohibit all these food service uses because the zoning code currently conflates these distinct concepts in a single use classification (“restaurants,” subdivided into three size categories), just as it currently lumps together bars with nightclubs and lounges.
There is broad agreement that we need better defined and more clearly distinguishable categories for food halls and performance/event venues, with parameters that make sense along Pico and citywide. However, if seat caps on large restaurants are raised before these improved definitions go into effect, there could be a risk of applications from the very establishments that Pico community members have said clearly they do not want.
To avoid such unintended consequences, we should proceed with caution: move forward with the other amendments but keep current large-scale restaurant and bar/nightclub/lounge limits in place until new community-responsive provisions are ready.
