The Santa Monica City Council took additional strides Tuesday night to make life easier for businesses Downtown. Changes approved at the meeting focus on improving the flexibility for businesses and alcohol exceptions around the Third Street Promenade area to allow more creative uses to exist in response to recent business proposals. 

The council approved expanding the areas where businesses are allowed to serve alcohol through an exemption that pardons them from the public meeting process to cover both sides of 2nd Street and 4th Street between Wilshire Boulevard and Broadway. Restaurants up to 7,500 square feet will be allowed approvals without a public hearing under certain conditions, and game arcades are now allowed without meeting restrictions and classifications that they would normally incur.

Changes to Downtown zoning were initially proposed as part of the area’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, but this round was prompted by recent requests for business concepts and creative signs that the city hopes to accommodate.

New businesses have been coming to the Downtown area in droves, with 22 new businesses opening in 2024 and 26 more on the way. These businesses range from some of the world’s most established chains like Barnes and Noble and Google to smaller ventures like Odd One Out Craft Milk Tea and Arte Museum, a media art exhibition concept popular in Korea.

This change means that the entire Bayside Conservation District — which comprises 2nd Street and 4th Street between Wilshire Boulevard and Broadway — allows alcohol services through an exemption without needing to go through the public hearing process.

It also updates the sign code for signs facing the Promenade, removing limits on size for static signs and allowing more 3-D projected signs. Signs in the area not facing the Promenade will still be subject to regular sign codes.

Businesses also clamored for extensions on temporary signs according to Planning Manager Jing Yeo, so an extension of the time temporary signs are allowed to be displayed was also up for consideration Tuesday night. Staff proposed allowing temporary signs for a full year with a possibility for a six-month extension.

Animated and digital signs — which have not been allowed in Santa Monica in the past — would also be allowed to face the Promenade subject to illumination and height standards. These signs would only be allowed to remain on site, and could not be used for off-site advertising.

Council sentiment for the motion was supportive, but Councilmember Caroline Torosis expressed interest in the signs, wondering how a specialized signage program could be expanded. She suggested exploring an expansion to off-site digital signs facing away from the Promenade.

“We know there are other jurisdictions — particularly West Hollywood — that have been able to very successfully implement a sign program,” Torosis said. “I just want to make sure that we are thinking as broadly and strategically as possible.”

Yeo said that there are both concerns with the city’s compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act as well as more practical design concerns when considering digital signs facing away from the Promenade.

“We are very mindful of potential impacts to the neighborhood and distractions to motorists,” Yeo said. “When it’s facing the Promenade, there are pedestrians only so there is not that concern.”

Citing the abundance of noise on the Sunset Strip, Councilmember Jessie Zwick argued that the city is being overly cautious with implementing digital signs, and seconded Torosis’ point about the significant economic benefit that expanding signage could bring.

“They are able to do that throughout the entirety of Sunset Boulevard in their city,” Zwick said of West Hollywood. “It generates a lot of money.”

Councilmember Gleam Davis and Vice Mayor Lana Negrete turned their attention towards the approval process for signage, with Davis wondering what could be done to expedite the process with a potential influx of digital signage applications coming.

“I have had so many people complain to me over the years,” Davis said of the approval process. 

The signage approval process was transitioned from the Architecture Review Board to a simple staff approval about three years ago according to Yeo, which should allow the city to process the approval of signs promptly.

Negrete focused on the technical side, asking if members of the public could track their sign’s progress towards approval with an online tool. Yeo explained that the city recently began work to implement a new permitting system online, which she predicted would go live in January 2026.

The motion, which also approved the start of a Pilot Program to allow outdoor-only uses in office campus districts, was approved unanimously. The changes to the sign code will go into effect immediately, while the zoning ordinance will go back to the council for final adoptions on Nov. 11 and go into effect in 30 days.

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