The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a motion authored by Los Angeles County Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger that extends all conditional use permits issued to restaurants in unincorporated communities by 18 months.

“Our county’s restaurant industry, and small business owners in particular, are still recovering from the big setbacks they experienced during the pandemic,” said Barger. “Starting in 2020, public health orders required the county to institute significant restrictions on restaurants’ ability to operate. Many still feel negative financial ripple effects. I strongly believe we must do everything within our power to support the recovery of the restaurant industry. Extending conditional use permits is one way we can eliminate administrative and financial burdens so businesses can focus on their bottom lines. I’m hopeful restaurateurs, especially small business owners, find this support helpful so they can continue to work on their long-term revitalization.”

Conditional Use Permits (CUPs) are issued by the County’s Department of Regional Planning and are granted to allow restaurants to operate according to zoning requirements and in ways that are compatible with their neighborhoods.

For a restaurant, a typical CUP renewal costs $11,000 and can take up to 12 months to execute, a timeframe that includes the coordination and execution of a public hearing process.

All restaurants in unincorporated communities within Los Angeles County that currently possess a CUP will have their permits automatically extended and rendered as valid through February 2024. An interactive mapping tool provided by the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning can help restaurant owners identify if their restaurant is located in an unincorporated area.

In other action the Board of Supervisors approved a motion authored by Barger that directs the county to identify resources that can help food trucks and other mobile-food operators and permittees who were negatively impacted by the Department of Public Health’s erroneous posting of their personal information.

“The threat of identity theft and its consequences are real,” Barger said. “I wrote this motion because the County has a duty to help any mobile food operators and permittees who are now at a heightened risk since their personal information was mistakenly shared. I want business owners to feel supported. The best way to do that right now is to identify tailored and responsive resources that can help.”

The information, which includes names, driver’s license numbers and possibly dates of birth, has already been removed from Public Health’s Environmental Health Division website. County officials are working to contact people who were affected and have retrained its workforce on the relevant policies and procedures to prevent future incidents.

Anyone who believes their information may have been posted can call the county at 1-888-700-9995 to determine if they were impacted.