At its Tuesday meeting, the Manhattan Beach City Council will take a first look at a proposed vision for outdoor dining that would include widened sidewalks and reconfigured parking. 

The proposal represents the collaborative efforts of city staff, the city's Outdoor Dining Task Force, and the consultant Moore Iacofono Goltsman Inc. (MIG).

Councilmembers will also hear the results of community outreach workshops and focus groups and the concerns and desires expressed by residents and business owners.

According to city staff, the agreed-upon "preferred program vision" would balance outdoor dining opportunities with residents' quality of life; minimizing concerns such as traffic, parking, trash, visual blight, and noise.

The "preferred" vision would call for permanent sidewalk widening as well as reconfiguring parking spaces. The parking would need to change from parallel to angled parking in some areas such as the east side of the 1100 block of Manhattan Ave. (in front of Manhattan Creamery and other stores), and would change from angled parking to parallel parking in other areas such as the north side of the 300 block of Manhattan Beach Blvd. (in front of Culture Brewing, Bluestone Lane, Love & Salt, Hennessey's, Esperanza, and The Kettle).

The council will also consider walk street commercial options for the east side of 10th Street at Manhattan Ave. Commercial use of walk streets is currently prohibited, but the design proposal entertains the idea of possibly creating either "public flex space" at that corner, or allowing outdoor dining. While community respondents have appeared to be largely in favor of allowing outdoor dining at walk street corners that border commercial districts, those residents closest to those corners have expressed opposition.

Councilmembers will be asked to vote on expanding MIG's contract by an additional $91,726 to develop preliminary plans for the new designs. 

More information about these items are available on the City Council's agenda.