Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by amending Table 32-1 of Chapter 21.32, Table 33-2 of Chapter 21.33, and Table 41-C of Chapter 21.41; and by adding Sections 21.15.135, 21.15.2985, and 21.45.114, all relating to alcoholic beverage manufacturing and accessory tasting rooms, read and adopted as read.  (Citywide)
Item two, report from Development Services, recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record, conclude the public hearing and declare the ordinance. Amending the amending Title 21 of the Long Beach Municipal Code related to alcohol, beverage manufacturing and accessory tasting room. Read the first time and lead over to the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading and Adopt Resolution to submit the amendment to Title 21 to the California Coastal Commission for their review and certification and accept the categorical exemption citywide. Thank you. I'm going to turn this over to the city manager and to make a quick, quick start presentation. And we're going to go on to some some comments and council deliberation. Mr. WEST. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the Council. Madam Clerk, I. Believe an oath is required. I don't believe there is an oath required, sir. Correct? That's right. There's no oath required for this item. Okay. Thank you. And then we had that. Here is a note. With that, I'd like to turn over the staff presentation to Amy Bodak, our Director of Development Services. Mr. Mayor, members of the City Council, and particularly to Mayor Garcia and Councilmember Gonzalez, this has been a long time coming for us, and I want to specifically give some history to this current sitting city council and of the efforts to amend the municipal code. A couple of years ago, there was a request by former Council member Garcia to consider amending the municipal code to allow us to expand our flexibility, particularly in the in the realm of manufacturing, of craft beers and craft spirits. As you probably know, there is a trend in the state and in the country to to focus on craft or artisanal products and distilleries and craft beers are certainly a burgeoning industry in Southern California. In order to take advantage of those opportunities, we looked and did a number of of we did a lot of a lot of research on areas within the state that are also doing this, particularly San Diego, who too seems to be a leader in Southern California, but closer to home, Culver City and Torrance, and then more recently, Santa Ana and Anaheim. Those those cities are leading the trend in creating more flexible land use patterns that would allow the manufacturing of craft beers or spirits with with certain proper development standards. So what we are asking for tonight is your consideration to amend the municipal code to allow for a definition of alcohol beverage manufacturing uses and provide clear development standards that would not create nuisance activities for the neighborhoods so that these businesses may go in. We do allow this type of use in the downtown plan area and the first craft brewery is going to be locating soon called the Blender, which is going to be at Long Beach Boulevard, just south of Third Street. That was the first craft brewery that will allow manufacturing to occur on site. And through that, that pilot project, we did determine development standards that would reduce any potential nuisance activities because of those those potential for nuisance activities. We are we are limiting the amount of production that a facility would be able to produce without getting a conditional use permit. We are also requiring that a tasting room not exceed a certain percentage of the floor area, typical of all alcohol business control licenses or ABC licenses. We would not allow any of these facilities to be located within 500 feet of a school, preschool, kindergarten, etc. and that also all production and storage that was used at the facility would be stored onsite and would be properly screened. The production, the tasting rooms would be available for members of the public to go and experience the craft beer or the spirits. And but the but the facility itself would not be open to the public. There would be the ability to have a small onsite restaurant. But again, there would be size limitations on the restaurant as well in order to not impact the neighborhood with parking parking nuisance activities. So with these restrictions or development standards in place, we believe that there is an opportunity to allow this type of use without a conditional use permit in specific areas of the city. And with that, we are proposing that you consider this ordinance and these development standards. I am available to answer any questions you might have. And we also have a couple of staff members who are experts in the craft brewing and can also answer questions from a personal experience as well. Thank you. I think first there's any public comment on the hearing before I go to the council. Casey None. There's a motion on the floor by Vice Mayor Lowenthal on a second, but by Councilman Mongo it just as a note, we actually two separate motions. First is the receiving the ordinance, the second part of the commission piece, correct? Mr. City Attorney That's correct. Thank you. So this is for the first one. And I'm going to make some a couple comments. I'm trying this over to Vice Mayor Lowenthal. This is an item that Vice Marie Lowenthal and I submitted actually just last year in 2014 and February. One thing about Long Beach, it's happening right now, which is really exciting, is there are some incredibly well known and well-respected craft brewery craft breweries that have opened up throughout the city and that are really getting national attention. Places like Beachwood Barbecue, there's a place that's been brewing for a long time, BBC and Councilman Price's district, which is a really well-known place, and there's a lot of interest for these kind of specialty type shops there. They're not they're not bars, per se, but they're places where we're where this kind of growing industry of of beer and craft beer is growing. And there's places like San Diego and Denver and Austin that are really have captured this market. It usually brings a lot of people to enjoy the area and to spend significant dollars in ways. A lot has become a lot like wine tasting for a lot of there's craft beer connoisseurs and there's there's wine connoisseurs. So this policy will help us expand our reach. And I want to thank the staff for working on it. And I also just wanted to add one piece. I want to make sure is Barack that as part of the motion we had discussed after passing this of putting together a kind of specialized brochure like this, like San Diego has to talk about the process of opening up a brewery or a microbrewery or a distillery and want to make sure that we still put put that together. Yes, sir. And I would like to apologize to Vice Mayor Lowenthal. I know that you were involved. And I do want to acknowledge that, because without your leadership, with the mayor's leadership, we would not be able to push this item forward. So I do want to thank you for your involvement as well. But to Mayor Garcia's point, yes, we will be following up with a specific how to guide. We have had interested parties approached the city as recently as this past week, as well as over the past few months, because they have heard that we are interested in relaxing our restrictions. And so there is growing interest in this. And we are becoming you know, we are becoming known in the area as the next potential wave for this type of industry to occur. Thank you. Vice Mayor Lowenthal. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And Mr. Burdick, I certainly don't mind if you don't ever associate my name with the adult beverages. That would be okay to take a pass on. So. But I am proud that we worked on this. Not all kidding aside, I think one of the things that the mayor and I have said for many years and certainly now, Councilmember Gonzalez is Long Beach celebrates its own sort of craft industries and no pun intended, but the craft beer industry is something that we are getting to be known for. And I'm very thankful that Beechwood Barbecue is here in our city and has invested in our city at a time that I think it was difficult to get those sorts of nationally recognized entrepreneurs and businesses to find homes in Long Beach. And so I'm glad that we have come this far. I know we are still working on the other item that the mayor mentioned, but really I do think this is an installment toward that and it provides great opportunities. People are looking to the Los Angeles County region for this sort of business, this sort of craft beers. But I think Long Beach has something very unique to offer, certainly by way of its placement, where we are and what kind of infrastructure we have and how people actually come to this city. And so it's it's nice that we have our bike lanes nearby. And I think it's all part and parcel of creating this sort of a culture that, if exercised responsibly, adds to really the luster of our city. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. I appreciate the work that you guys have done on this matter and look for other creative ways to bring more businesses to Long Beach. So thank you. KATZENBERG Ringo. I do want to thank both of you for bringing this voice, a visionary, bringing it last year as opposed to the first hearing. This is a youth where we could sell alcohol and have a wine tasting and have craft beers that everybody can enjoy. And it's and it's in a in a setting that would be more conducive towards bringing people to Long Beach and be able to recognize that we have some high end level of libations that everyone can enjoy. So I want to thank Amy and her staff for all the research they did in terms of looking at other cities and what they're doing there and looking forward to opening up our first establishment. And I have a feeling that I'm going to be the last. I'm going to hear about this. Thank you. With that, please take a vote on the first part of the motion. Motion. Motion carries eight zero.