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We get some version of this question a lot from food and beverage tenants looking at Los Angeles locations: can I get a patio here? The instinct is to think about it as a zoning question — is this block zoned for it, is this neighborhood allowed to have it. That's not really how it works. The City of Los Angeles made its Al Fresco outdoor dining ordinance permanent in December 2023. Outdoor dining is allowed by-right in any zone where a restaurant is already a permitted use —

We had a retail food tenant under contract for a space that looked, on paper, like a great fit. Good location, good landlord, good rent. The landlord told us there wouldn't be any issues getting food-use approval. We took that at face value and moved forward. Around the same time, we were looking at a separate property for the same type of tenant. That landlord was upfront about something we hadn't considered: the city was actively trying to limit the number of food tenants i