Some L.A. restaurants are finding themselves a little confused about restrooms. California’s recent move toward gender-neutrality in public restrooms may be in conflict with Los Angeles municipal codes for restaurants.
Even if a restaurant fully endorses the concept of gender-neutrality in restrooms, local law currently requires that, if they have single-occupant restrooms, there must be a minimum of two and they must be designated for male and female users. Complying with that code is a requirement to even get a liquor license in the city, L.A. Weekly reports.
Which is where it gets tricky, because those exact single-occupant restrooms are the ones described by AB 1732, a California state law signed by Governor Brown in September, which requires single-occupant restrooms be designated as gender neutral.
So what is a small restaurant to do? It isn’t entirely clear in the short term. If they have the square feet to spare, AB 1732 doesn’t make any rules regarding multi-occupant restrooms, so that is one option. As long as the sink is located outside the toilet enclosure, the restroom is considered to be multi-occupant and falls under different regulations.
In the long-term, however, since state law supersedes municipal rules, it will ultimately be L.A.’s responsibility to update their codes to catch up with the state’s more progressive gender-neutral restroom regulations. Ultimately, the switch might be an economic boon to small restaurants, too, who might be able to build just one restroom and get that space back to add in extra tables and seats.
“The whole separate-sex restrooms rule has been a killer for small mom-and-pop restaurants,” Eddie Navarette, a restaurant license consultant, told L.A. Weekly. “That requirement just needs to go away.”
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