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Coronado City Council Votes To Review Parking Ordinance After Burger Lounge Article

In a swift move prompted by an article published by eCoronado.com, the Coronado City Council voted 4-1 to review Coronado's parking ordinance limiting a restaurant's ability to expand into retail spaces. Presently, restaurants have to provide one parking space for each 100 feet of dining area.

After eCoronado.com published a story on April 26th about the vacant retail space at 918 Orange Ave., your enterprising intern received an email from Burger Lounge Restaurants President and CEO, Dean Loring.

In his note, Mr. Loring related that his company had applied for a permit to expand the popular restaurant into part of the adjoining property formerly occupied by Coronado Pharmacy. Burger Lounge's request was denied by the City based on what could possibly be an outdated parking ordinance.

This information generated a flood of comments offering ideas and possible solutions to this parking fiasco which has plagued our beach city in recent years; from valet parking to increasing meter costs to deter people from lingering too long were some suggestions concerned citizens, business owners and city leaders proposed.

Some responses to the online dialogue came directly from Mayor Tanaka and Councilwoman Carrie Downey who acted very quickly to include this matter on the City Council's meeting agenda for May 2nd. At this meeting, the City Council voted and agreed to examine the parking ordinance.

Mr. Dean Loring was pleased when I informed him of this turn of events at the recent Coronado City Council meeting.

He had this to add, "We were encouraged by the action taken by the City Council and remain interested in expanding Burger Lounge on Orange Avenue. As many of our guests know, it is a rather tight space. We hope to work with the City to explore any such opportunities."

eCoronado was able to verify that the former Coronado Pharmacy has been divided into two retail spaces, and there are no prospective tenants for this property so far.

We will be updating this story as it unfolds, so check back often!

Bianca Valle

Online Editorial Intern

eCoronado.com

Do you have a Coronado story or news item to share? Contact me to help share it on eCoronado.com: biancavalle1@gmail.com

Tags: business, city of coronado

2 members like this

Comment by Carrie Anne Inada Downey on May 7, 2012 at 10:00am: I wish we could be that speedy. Although the input from the community on ECoronado was helpful in discussing the need to review the parking requirements in the Orange Avenu Specific Plan, I had requested a review of the Plan's parking weeks before the article. I and possibly others on the council did appreciate the community feedback on the effect of the restrictions on Burger Lounge. As I mentioned on the post previously the best way for the community to provide their feedback to the council though is through emails or letters directly to the council members. Our emails are on the city web page. Thank you for raising the issue on your blog. The timing was coincidental but fortuitous.