Coastal Commission Considers Lifting Beach Curfew

By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter

The city of Los Angeles’ 30-year-old beach curfew may become a bit more relaxed, despite swelling concerns from residents of beachside communities spanning from Pacific Palisades to San Pedro.

As part of a Sept. 28 court settlement, the city will go before the California Coastal Commission to defend its nightly closure of 11 miles of shoreline after a group of Venice activists filed a suit to lift the curfew in 2015.

The citywide ordinance stems back to 1988 when local lawmakers adopted Municipal Code Sec. 63.44, which prohibits the public from accessing city parks and beaches between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m. as a way to thwart late night crime and violence associated with the decade’s burgeoning concretion of gang activity.

At the time, the city did not seek commission approval before implementing the curfew.

In 2014, while some Venice residents began to push for heavier curfew enforcement in response to the area’s massive influx of transient individuals, the California Coastal Commission requested that the city show current and “credible evidence” of a safety threat to continue banning the public from accessing beaches and ocean parks during overnight hours.

Per terms of the settlement, the city has submitted its request for a local development permit to the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering and has agreed to have police first issue warnings before citing beach curfew violators—a move that shelters those caught using the beach for late night sleeping.

On Sept. 28, the Pacific Palisades Community Council unanimously passed a motion to support the Coastal Development Permit in the interest of “public safety and quality of life” and “environmental considerations that impact residential neighborhoods along the shoreline in Pacific Palisades.”

On Thursday, Oct. 5, the bureau held a public forum at the Westchester Senior Center near Venice where roughly 70 percent of those who attended were in favor of continuing to implement the overnight curfew.

The office of the city engineer is expected to make its decision by the end of October.

If approved, the city will then submit a curfew permit request to the Coastal Commission.