The Beverly Hills City Council on Sept. 21 approved the continuation of two measures that aimed to mitigate business impacts caused by the Metro Purple Line Extension project and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The council voted to extend the closure of North Cañon Drive at Wilshire Boulevard for an additional year and asked city staff to begin analyzing long-term options for OpenBH, a program that enables businesses to expand their operations outdoors.

The council originally approved the North Cañon closure in July 2018 to mitigate subway construction impacts. City officials turned North Cañon into a cul-de-sac and constructed a 20-foot sound wall that features a mural by Tomokazu Matsuyama.

“It seems to me, very clear that, by having this wall up, it really does help mitigate the traffic impacts, the circulation impacts, the construction impacts,” Vice Mayor Lili Bosse said. “It seemed like it was a slam dunk and made … sense to keep it up.”

Board member Julian Gold said the one-year extension made a lot of sense as well.

“Just as there was an efficiency in doing it to this point, I think that same thinking applies going forward for a year,” he said. “People have adjusted to this COVID hell, but I do think it’s worthwhile going forward.”

The main concern voiced by board members was that North Cañon and Beverly Drive would be closed simultaneously at times. Engineering manager Rob Welch said the city is looking to ensure that they would not be closed at the same time.

“As we go through the design process, we will be looking at possibilities to maintaining a lane or two on Beverly if possible, and we’ll report that back to you at a later date,” he said.

In 2018, council members agreed to close North Cañon Drive for a minimum of two years, with the possibility of being extended to six years. The council’s decision this week was not the result of Purple Line Extension delays that Metro announced recently.

As part of the closure, two restaurants – Spago and Nusr-Et Steak House – have erected tents on North Cañon near the sound wall through OpenBH. On Sept. 21, the council approved a six-month extension of the outdoor dining tents.

Additionally, the council directed staff to investigate the possibility of making OpenBH a fee-based program in the future. Currently, there is no fee to participate in the program.

If the fee-based program is approved, Spago and Nusr-Et would need to pay into it for the outdoor dining tents to remain.

Further, the council asked staff to return with more information about the Open BH parklets, long-term outdoor dining options and options for non-dining uses. Council members want to have a large, policy-level discussion in which they break into subcommittees and fine-tune details of what OpenBH could look like long-term.

Nusr-Et representative Steve Magnus praised the program and said it has created a “wonderful environment” for patrons.

“It’s really helped out greatly,” he said. “As you know, we were actually building [the restaurant] during the end of the pandemic, and we continued building because we have faith in the city and we really wanted to be a part of the city.”

According to a staff report, 134 businesses have participated in OpenBH since its creation in June 2020, and the number continues to grow. Currently, 30 businesses have created parklets in metered parking spaces for outdoor dining.