Bass Orders Faster Permits and a Grant Study to Help L.A. Restaurants Open and Grow

Executive Directive No. 24 lets restaurants self-certify outdoor dining setups and gives city departments 15 to 45 days to report on grants, fee relief, liquor rules and entertainment zones.

By Herald Staff · Oct. 29, 2026, 5:30 PM ET

A restaurant dining room with long wooden tables set with upturned glasses and black chairs, under industrial pendant lamps, with a bar and open kitchen at the back and tall factory-style windows framing greenery. — The dining room at Majordomo, a restaurant in the Mission Junction neighborhood of Los Angeles. Bass' directive orders city departments to simplify outdoor dining permits and study grants for restaurants. Photo: Eric Polk / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (license).

Opening a restaurant in Los Angeles can mean dealing with several city departments before the first plate goes out. Mayor Karen Bass has signed Executive Directive No. 24, which orders city agencies to let restaurants self-certify parts of their outdoor dining permits, set up in-person permit help for owners and look for money for a restaurant grant program, according to her office. The directive is dated Oct. 28, and her office announced it Thursday.

"When our restaurants succeed, our neighborhoods succeed. They create jobs, support families, and bring people together," Bass said. "Small businesses are the backbone of our local economy. That's why I will continue to cut red tape, lower costs, and make City Hall work better for the business owners that keep Los Angeles moving."

"Rising costs of food, labor, insurance, rent, utilities, and construction have placed increasing pressure on restaurant operators," the directive says, noting that opening a restaurant "can require navigating multiple City departments, applications, fees, inspections, and burdensome regulatory processes."

Outdoor Dining Without the Wait

The biggest change involves L.A. Al Fresco, the outdoor dining program the city made permanent after the COVID-19 pandemic. Within 30 days, the Department of Building and Safety, the Department of Transportation, the Bureau of Engineering and the Bureau of Street Services must launch a self-certification program. Eligible operators would certify on their own that features such as tables, chairs, umbrellas, planters, trash cans, shade sails, pergolas and trellises meet city rules. It will cover dining on private property, on sidewalks and in the street, though some installations could still require additional review or inspections, Patch reported.

Under the city's Al Fresco guidelines, restaurants still operating on temporary authorizations were moved into a transition pathway that closes April 1, 2027, and are expected to finish any remaining permits, reviews, inspections or approvals by then. New on-street dining applicants also pay a $1,500 application review fee, plus per-seat sewer charges.

The directive also asks departments to share previously approved outdoor dining plans as templates, with the owners' consent, and to coordinate street repaving with restaurants that have dining areas in the street. Restaurants that had to remove those setups for repaving would generally be allowed to reinstall them "as close to like-for-like as is practicable," unless critical safety standards rule it out.

Grants, Fees and Office Hours

The Community Investment Department has 15 days to identify funding sources for a restaurant grant program that could help cover operating expenses, permit fees, rent, utilities, insurance and payroll. The directive does not establish funding for the grants or specify how much businesses could receive, Patch noted. LA Sanitation and the Office of Finance must also report on letting restaurants pay sewer facility fees in installments, defer them or get relief, MyNewsLA reported.

Staff from Building and Safety, City Planning, Transportation, the Fire Department and the Bureau of Engineering are to hold recurring office hours at the city's 10 BusinessSource Centers, with help for owners whose primary language is not English. The order also steers community college culinary graduates toward restaurant jobs, Spectrum News 1 reported.

Liquor Rules and Entertainment Zones

City Planning must review overlay zones that limit alcohol sales and study a faster alcohol approval process for businesses such as coffee shops, bookstores and movie theaters that don't qualify for the city's Restaurant Beverage Program. Within 45 days, planners are to deliver a citywide policy for entertainment zones, which could allow outdoor drinking during designated events.

That lines up with a City Council vote Wednesday. The council voted 12-0 to have city departments study entertainment zones in downtown L.A. under Senate Bill 969, a 2024 state law that lets local governments allow adults to buy drinks from licensed bars and restaurants and drink them outdoors in designated zones, the New York Post reported. Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez added a study of one or more zones on or near the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Departments have 60 days to report.

A Familiar Struggle Downtown

The mayor's office paired the announcement with photos from Bass' recent visit to Cole's French Dip, the downtown landmark that claims to have invented the French dip sandwich. Cole's closed in March after 118 years, with its previous owner citing higher operating costs and rising rents among the reasons, Los Angeles magazine reported. New owners Jeremy Fall and Sean Maloney hope to reopen it in mid- to late November, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The directive's deadlines run from mid-November to mid-December. The self-certification program, plan templates and BusinessSource office hours are due within 30 days. The grants, fee relief and alcohol changes are framed as reports back to the mayor, and some of those reports must spell out which changes would need new legislation.

Original reporting by The Los Angeles Herald, drawing on the Office of Mayor Karen Bass, the City of Los Angeles and the news outlets linked above.