FULLERTON : Restrictions Eased in Downtown District

The City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, has decided to allow outdoor displays in front of downtown businesses for a one-year trial period, and waived the $50 application fee.

The council this week also agreed that bars, pawnshops, secondhand dealers and fortunetellers may now apply for permits to operate in the nine-block central business district.

Those actions are intended to spark downtown business, which has lagged in recent years.

By a 4-1 vote, the council also created two left-turn lanes off of Harbor Boulevard at Wilshire and Amerige avenues to decrease congestion. Mayor Molly McClanahan opposed the lanes because they will require the removal of nine of 11 trees planted in the Harbor Boulevard median.

McClanahan also said it’s not going to benefit downtown merchants to have traffic speed by more quickly. “I really am in favor of the congested nature of downtown,” she said. “People really do see some wonderful displays.”

The special nine-block business district centers on the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Wilshire Avenue.

New bars, pawnshops and other businesses have been barred from the nine-block downtown district since 1987. The council voted 3-2 to let bars, pawnshops, secondhand dealers and fortunetellers apply for permits.

But the council continued the ban on new churches, adult businesses, junk dealers and rubbish collectors.

Councilman Chris Norby wanted to lift the ban on churches, and protested their placement in a group with adult businesses.

“We’re making churches a kind of pariah downtown, instead of the spiritual nourishment they provide,” Norby said.

But council members A.B. (Buck) Catlin and Don Bankhead said churches squelch other business because the church-goers dominate parking spaces.