State Regulators To Review LA's 30-Year-Old Beach Curfew

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California regulators will consider relaxing a 30-year-old curfew at Los Angeles beaches after the city agreed to seek a permit to close its segments of the coastline after dark.

The Los Angeles Times reports the city agreed to go before the California Coastal Commission to defend its midnight-to-5 a.m. closure of 11 miles of shoreline as part of a court settlement with
Venice activists who sought to suspend curfew enforcement.

The city adopted its curfew in 1988 to deter nighttime crimes without seeking commission approval.

Under the settlement filed in court Thursday, the city also agreed to have police issue warnings before citing curfew violators, many of whom are homeless people trying to sleep on the beach.

Commission staff members have indicated they were open to relaxing the curfew without threatening public safety.

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