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Council approves study to encourage downtown retail
by Robb Fulcher
Local resident and retail leasing expert Joe Marks has agreed to lead a team that will study how to attract more retail stores to Hermosa’s bar- and restaurant-heavy downtown area.
The city council on Tuesday formally accepted Marks’ offer to lead the study team as a volunteer.
The council also began to consider lifting a yearlong moratorium on some new bars and restaurants in the downtown. The moratorium prohibits new restaurants or bars from moving into spaces last occupied by retail businesses in the downtown area.
Under the moratorium rules, a businessperson may ask for an exception to the ban. Mayor John Bowler said no formal request for an exemption has been made, but added that he fears businesspeople may hear of the moratorium and decline to consider locating in Hermosa.
Bowler had cast the lone vote against establishing the moratorium.
The downtown study area covers Hermosa Avenue from Eighth Street to 16th Court and along Pier Avenue from the Strand to Valley Drive.
In other matters, the city council approved plans for four summer events: two pro volleyball tournaments, the Hermosa Beach Triathlon and the Beach Bash, a four-day orgy of extreme sports, pro volleyball and music in June.
Bolstered in part by the explosive popularity of extreme skateboarding, bicycling and inline skating, the free event last year drew tens of thousands of people to a temporary village at least the size of three football fields.
Organizers estimated the four-day attendance at 80,000, but police estimates soared even higher, placing a Saturday crowd at about 50,000, including a spillover that clogged the Pier Plaza promenade, where a 10-foot tall, 14-foot wide "Jumbotron" screen showed live action from the Bash. ER