Monterey wants to extend outdoor dining on Fisherman’s Wharf, but may not get permission.

On Oct. 18, Monterey City Council voted unanimously to send a letter to the California Coastal Commission to request a yearlong extension for outdoor dining on Fisherman’s Wharf, regardless of whether or not a restaurant has a coastal development permit.

This comes after the Coastal Commission, in April, sent a letter to Monterey city officials, informing the city that the outdoor dining on the wharf that expanded during the pandemic was unpermitted, and should be removed by May 16. Subsequently, the city received an extension to that deadline until Dec. 31, 2022. Now the City Council is asking: Can we make that Dec. 31, 2023 instead?

This comes after a follow-up letter the Coastal Commission sent in July to the city, and every restaurant business owner on the wharf, outlining the process to apply for a permit. Since then, only one business attempted to apply – Kokomo’s, which is owned by local restaurateur Chris Shake – but the application quickly foundered because a PG&E utilities vault was located underneath some of the unpermitted outdoor seating.

An extension would allow the businesses that have expanded their outdoor dining in the wake of Covid to go through the time-consuming, and potentially expensive process of making their operations permitted – i.e. legal.

Wendy Brickman, president of the Fisherman’s Wharf Association, sent a letter to the Coastal Commission Oct. 6 in support of the extension. She highlighted the challenges that restaurants on the wharf, and everywhere, have faced in the wake of the pandemic, and posited that eliminating outdoor dining on the wharf would result in a 30 – to 40-percent reduction in business, as well as layoffs of 30 percent of restaurant staff.

“We would like to see a compromise so that our restaurants can survive and retain their outdoor seating beyond 2022 and for years to come,” Brickman wrote.

Dominic Mercurio, owner of Cafe Fina, sent a similar letter to the commission on Oct. 13, asking that the permitting process be less burdensome – with respect to both time and cost.

“Restaurants have… in recent years, dramatically experienced the impact of increased costs for their food, supplies and employees,” Mercurio wrote. “We need those extra outdoor seating to make ends meet.”

The primary concerns of the Coastal Commission are access, parking and water, and in the letter the agency sent July, it stated the latter two “both appear to be rather significant hurdles to overcome.” As far access, it’s not so much a hurdle, as a wall. The letter states seating should include projects like the creation of a public walkway along the exterior of the wharf. Such improvements, arguably, would be cost prohibitive.

The whole dispute originated out of an April 22 email Kevin Phillips, a managing partner at Abalonetti’s – the only wharf restaurant with a coastal development permit for outdoor dining – sent to the Coastal Commission. “These businesses have been allowed to expand beyond their leasehold spaces into the public right of way,” he wrote.

In an interview, Phillips says, “Is there a rule of law, or not? I think it’s particularly troubling if you’ve had to go through the [permitting] process like we have.”