Huntington Beach City Council to consider reopening Main Street to vehicular traffic

The Huntington Beach City Council on Tuesday night will consider a timetable for reopening the second and third blocks of Main Street to vehicular traffic.

The City Council will meet for the first time since Aug. 3. One of the agenda items is to consider the duration of the street closures, which were approved to aid outdoor commerce and dining during the coronavirus pandemic.

On July 1, California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the closure of indoor operations for restaurants and hair salons, among other businesses, as a response to COVID-19 increases statewide.

Five days later, the City Council directed City Manager Oliver Chi to temporarily close the second block downtown to allow businesses to operate outdoors. The city created an expedited Temporary Emergency Use Permit program.

After a successful pilot program, the City Council voted to expand the closure on Aug. 3 and shut down the third block of Main Street as well.

For Tuesday’s meeting, the City Council is being asked to either authorize Chi to expand the temporary closure of the second block through Dec. 31 or direct that the block be reopened to vehicular traffic once indoor restaurant dining is allowed.

Additionally, the council is asked to consider maintaining the third block closure or reopening it to vehicular traffic, while still allowing restaurants and commercial operations to continue utilizing parking spaces and walkways for business expansion.

Orange County remains in the purple category due to state guidelines, which means “widespread” COVID-19 risk. Once the county drops to the red category for “substantial” risk, restaurants would be allowed to open indoors with modifications. Capacity must be limited to 25% or 100 people, whichever is less.

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. and can be watched on channel HBTV-3 or online at huntingtonbeach.legistar.com. Residents may send comments on agenda items to supplementalcomm@surfcity-hb.org.

Communications received by 2 p.m. Tuesday will be distributed to the council prior to consideration of agenda-related items.

The council chambers will not be open for in-person attendance to provide public comment. Residents can call (669) 900-6833 to listen to the meeting and comment during designated periods. The webinar ID is 970 3003 2548.

Once a caller has entered the meeting, the caller will be put in a holding queue to speak in order. Time for remarks is limited to three minutes.

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