Santa Monica Council to Ponder Renewal of Alcohol Ordinance

The Santa Monica City Council is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to extend a temporary law requiring all new and some existing businesses that serve alcohol to seek a conditional-use permit.

City Atty. Robert Myers, who drafted the law, requested the extension so the city staff could have more time for preparation of a permanent ordinance regulating alcohol-serving businesses. The interim ordinance, adopted late last year, will expire Jan. 1.

Intended to restrict the growth or proliferation of alcohol-serving businesses, the temporary law will maintain the city’s right to review and approve on a case- by-case basis both newly proposed alcohol establishments and existing businesses that plan to increase their floor space or seating capacity.

The law says Santa Monica already has “an overconcentration of alcohol outlets” and that “the unconditional approval of additional alcohol outlets would result in a threat to public health, safety and welfare.”

Among the considerations the council will make in granting use permits to such businesses, it says, are how the proposed business or expansion may affect neighborhood residents and increase the concentration of alcohol-serving businesses in an area.