At a news conference today, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced a new executive order that will expand outdoor options for hundreds of businesses, including gyms, churches, barbershops and nail salons. The order will allow the businesses to expand their operations into private parking lots.
"Today I am signing an executive order that will allow personal care services, places of worship, and gyms to have the same opportunities outside," announced Mayor Faulconer. "Effective immediately, gyms and places of worship can operate in private parking lots. Barbershops and salons are also covered under this order, but we still need the state to amend its regulations to allow them to expand outside. We expect that that decision could come as early as today. Similar to what we did with restaurants and retail, this order will serve as a stopgap to get these businesses to open faster. And it will follow with a city council vote to cement to allow a list of businesses to also operate on sidewalks and street parking lots."
Faulconer held his news briefing where he announced the executive order today at 11am at the Three Treasures Cultural Arts Society. Later in the day, California Governor Gavin Newsom released guidance for hair services and other personal care services to allow for those businesses to move services outdoors. It was also clarified that other services which require a hygienic environment (tattooing, electrolysis, piercing) cannot be performed outdoors.
Last week following an executive order issued by the mayor, the San Diego City Council unanimously approved a new ordinance to waive fees and make it easier for local restaurants to serve food outdoors and for retail businesses to expand curbside. Due to a continued surge in COVID-19 numbers in San Diego County, the county was added to California’s COVID-19 monitoring list early this month, which resulted in an order requiring many indoor business operations to cease starting on July 7. The following week, a second shutdown order was issued requiring the end of operations at indoor gyms, salons, barbershops, and houses of worship.
