On Tuesday, July 30, 2024, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced that the deadline for restaurant owners to apply for the city’s permanent Al Fresco program has been extended to December 31, 2024. This means that any restaurants with temporary authorization may continue to offer outdoor dining. The LA Al Fresco program is a popular initiative that came out of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Restaurants were able to apply for temporary authorizations to enable them to use sidewalks and street space for outdoor dining.

The city had previously announced that Al Fresco Temporary Authorization would expire on July 31, 2024. The LA Al Fresco program website states: “All businesses, including those with Al Fresco Temporary Authorization, must apply to offer outdoor dining. As review and inspection process may take time before a permit is granted, early application submission is highly advised to ensure continuity of operations.”

The LA Times reported that Mayor Bass announced that city officials would do the following:

• Review and process all completed applications for new and transitioning Al Fresco within 30 days of the date of submission. This includes departments communicating any necessary changes or guidance. As much as possible, city departments are to conduct all required reviews and approvals simultaneously, not sequentially.
• Issue conditional approvals for all completed applications with fees paid.
• Participate in a webinar, virtual meeting, or application clinic to assist project applicants and restaurant owners with Al Fresco guidelines to troubleshoot project and site plan issues

The permanent Al Fresco program is a streamlined permitting process that allows restaurants to offer dining on sidewalks and streets. However, the process still requires applicants to submit a permit application, review fee, site plans, and liability insurance. Permitting is administered by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and Bureau of Engineering.

More information about the permanent program and permitting process is available here, but as of July 30, 2024, the website did not reflect the Mayor’s announcement.

Restaurants owners with temporary Al Fresco authorization have raised concerns that the permitting process is overly burdensome and expensive, and that applications have been slow to be processed.