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Council removes cyber-cafe licensing rules, updates thrift-store rules to comply with state law
Summary
Lake Forest's council voted unanimously to eliminate the city's cyber cafe annual-licensing requirement and to revise zoning and donation rules for thrift stores to conform to recent state legislation.
The Lake Forest City Council unanimously approved municipal code amendments on June 3 that eliminate the city's two-decade-old cyber cafe licensing rules and revise local thrift-store regulations to comply with state law.
Senior Planner Jennifer Mansour told the council the original cyber cafe ordinance (chapter 5.34), adopted in 2003, required an annual license and a set of operational standards after regional law enforcement saw crime tied to some facilities. Mansour said the local retail landscape and technology have changed: high-speed internet at homes and mobile devices have reduced the original public-safety concerns and the licensing requirement imposes capital and operating costs on legitimate e-sports and digital-entertainment businesses.
Staff recommended eliminating chapter 5.34 and replacing the term "cyber cafe" in the zoning code with a new "digital entertainment" definition; the planning commission had recommended the change. The council adopted the ordinance to remove the licensing requirement and to update zoning matrices so digital-entertainment uses remain allowable in the same districts previously permitted.
On thrift stores, Mansour said Assembly Bill 2632 (2024) restricts how cities may treat thrift stores differently from retail businesses, but allows narrowly prescribed design standards. The city's ordinance updates definitions for "donation center attended" and "thrift store" and adds a code section requiring donations be taken inside buildings and prohibiting outdoor storage of donations to aid code enforcement.
No members of the public spoke on the item. The council voted to introduce and adopt the ordinance in a unanimous vote.
