Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Long Beach City Council has voted unanimously in favor of amending a pair of existing city ordinances — creating an opportunity for new bars and restaurants to open throughout the city and, more impactfully, allowing boardwalk-facing establishments to sell alcohol.
At the April 7 city council meeting, City Manager Dan Creighton began the session by clarifying what the ordinances do and do not allow, saying plainly, "To be clear, if adopted, these changes would not, I repeat, not, allow the sale or consumption of alcohol on the boardwalk or beach."
The ordinance amendments will allow businesses "that have an opening to the boardwalk" to serve food, nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages. The understanding is that beverages are intended to be consumed on business grounds, not removed from the property. The amendments would also permit new bars to open if those new establishments have functional bars or "service areas" more than 10-feet in length — a limitation previously set by the current ordinance.
A similar proposal to widen alcohol sales was considered in February 2017. The council at the time — with no members who currently serve — defeated the agenda item, upholding the ordinances and business restrictions with a vote of 4-1.
The ordinances limiting the creation of bars and restaurants and preventing alcohol sales at the boardwalk was first implemented in 1986. Sporadic variances, or exemptions, have been allowed in the intervening years. The city's Corporation Counsel, Greg Kalnitsky, noted recent legal precedent. "In the last 13 years, the zoning board has heard 18 applications for new establishments or establishments looking to extend the size of their bar," Kalnitsky explained, "and have approved all of them."
Last night's council meeting was attended by more than 200 people — business owners, advocates, and concerned residents — voicing impassioned opinions from both sides of the argument. This single agenda item took more than three hours to resolve, followed by the city council meeting's prescheduled agenda items. Anyone present who wished to directly address the council was allowed to do so and dozens of residents seized the opportunity — per city council rules, members of the public are allowed to speak for up to three minutes at a time.
Nicolas Geeraerts, the owner of Tulum Tacos & Tequila which is planning to open on the boardwalk this summer, took to the podium. "Our lease prevents us from being open past 11 p.m. at night," Geeraerts said. "We are not opening a nightclub. We are opening up a first-class establishment. A Mexican eatery and speakeasy."
Former City Council nominee Peggy Butts expressed concern with water safety. "There still is an issue during those summer months," Butts said. "Especially when people are going onto the beach after they've had a drink, even if they are not drinking and then running out with their beverage on the beach, but they do have that access to now go onto the beach, because at 6 o'clock and beyond, we don't have lifeguards anymore."
Judi Vining, director of Long Beach Aware — a nonprofit organization focused on reducing underage drinking — shared her direct thoughts ahead of the meeting. "The research is very clear," she explained. "There is a direct correlation between the number of alcohol-serving businesses in an area and the amount of underage drinking. The data backs this up."
To help address rumors, misunderstandings and misinformation circulated across social media, City Council President Brendan Finn took an opportunity to further re-emphasize the facts of the ordinances. "Alcohol is still not, not, permitted on the boardwalk or on the beach," Finn stated. "Open containers are not permitted on the boardwalk or on the beach."
The ordinance amendments will go into effect immediately.
