TORRANCE, CA — Torrance could loosen restrictions on home-based food businesses during the holiday season, allowing operators to sell outside their homes and serve multiple customers at once throughout December.
The proposed changes to the city's cottage-food ordinance go before the Torrance City Council Tuesday night and grew out of discussions surrounding the popular Seaside Ranchos Holiday Lights Display, which draws large crowds into the residential neighborhood each December.
Under the proposed ordinance, cottage-food operators could conduct direct sales, fundraising, collect donations, distribute food and carry out other related activities outside their primary residence from Dec. 1 through Dec. 31, provided everything remains within the property lines.
The city has also published an online explanation of the proposed cottage-food changes.
Current Torrance regulations generally require cottage-food activities to take place inside the primary residence and allow only one customer at the property at a time. The December exception would permit multiple customers, although on-site dining and loitering would remain prohibited. Customers could not block streets, sidewalks, parkways or alleys or interfere with access to neighboring properties.
Operators would also have to provide a trash receptacle and, at the end of each operating day, remove trash generated by the business or its customers from the property and areas within 15 feet of the parcel boundaries.
One thing would not change: operating hours. Cottage-food businesses generally may operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with an existing exception allowing operations until 8 p.m. during December. That extension was established under Ordinance No. 3952 in 2025.
The rules are intertwined with Torrance's efforts to manage the Seaside Ranchos Holiday Lights Display, sometimes known as Sleepy Hollow.
The city describes it as a long-running, resident-organized tradition that attracts significant pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Torrance emphasizes that the display is neither city-sponsored nor city-sanctioned, but says the crowds require municipal resources for traffic management, public safety, sanitation, parking and code enforcement. The city maintains a Seaside Holiday Lights information page for residents and visitors.
Cottage-food enforcement became a significant issue during the 2025 holiday season. City records show 52 administrative citations were issued at seven residential locations, carrying fines totaling $13,300. Twenty-two were first violations, 13 were second violations and 17 were third or subsequent violations. Thirty of the 52 citations involved repeat violations. The city also documented 13 sidewalk vendors, including one repeat vendor.
The proposed ordinance would add another consequence for repeat offenders: a cottage-food operator receiving three citations within a calendar year would lose their business license and be barred from obtaining another one for the following calendar year.
The proposal has drawn opposition from some Seaside Ranchos residents. In a Sept. 10 letter included in the council packet, attorney Craig S. Robson said his office represents several neighborhood residents concerned that outdoor sales and multiple customers could worsen congestion, impede emergency access and increase sanitation problems and municipal costs. The letter also questioned whether the proposed ordinance should be exempt from environmental review.
City staff reached a different conclusion, determining that the limited changes would not result in a direct or reasonably foreseeable physical change to the environment and recommending that the council find the ordinance exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act.
The ordinance also stops short of granting everything some residents had sought. An August city report identified requests to allow outdoor sales, multiple customers, longer operating hours and non-residents to conduct food sales from residential properties.
The proposal would allow the first two during December, but would not extend the existing 8 p.m. cutoff or allow non-residents to operate cottage-food businesses from someone else's property. Operators would still have to be primary residents of the homes where the businesses operate.
The cottage-food debate is part of a broader discussion Tuesday over the city resources devoted to an event Torrance does not organize.
For the 2025 holiday season, Torrance reported approximately $13,400 in non-labor resources, including trash bins and collection, traffic-message boards, informational door hangers and contract code-enforcement support. The city also anticipated $176,906 in labor resources, although staff said not all scheduled shifts could be filled.
Police account for the largest continuing deployment. On a typical fully staffed night, the city's plan calls for seven police personnel — two motorcycle officers, one service officer or police officer, one sergeant and three bicycle officers. Public Works handles traffic-control infrastructure while Code Enforcement provides evening enforcement.
The proposed changes are not Torrance's first experiment with allowing holiday food sales outdoors. A cottage-food pilot program established in 2019 specifically for Seaside Ranchos residents allowed approved foods to be sold from driveways. The program later expired.
The City Council is scheduled to consider the new ordinance during its 6:30 p.m. Tuesday meeting at the LeRoy J. Jackson Council Chamber, 3031 Torrance Blvd. If introduced Tuesday and subsequently adopted, the ordinance would take effect 30 days after final adoption.
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