Redondo Beach, CA Special Events & Permits: Commercial Filming on Public Right-of-Way (2026)

Redondo Beach treats commercial filming and special events as overlapping but distinct permit tracks rather than folding filming into the special-events chapter. Section 6-5.03 requires anyone conducting filming, defined broadly in Section 6-5.02 to include still photography, motion pictures, television, commercials, music videos, digital media and student films, to obtain a Film Permit before shooting, with narrow exemptions for on-the-spot news coverage, purely noncommercial personal filming that does not tie up equipment, vehicles or public property, filming done entirely inside a licensed production studio, and filming by the City itself.

The Fire Department, not the Community Development Department, administers the permit: applications go to the Chief of the Fire Department or designee at least five business days before filming under Section 6-5.05, and must disclose the exact location and schedule, personnel and vehicle counts, any pyrotechnics, gunfire, animals or low-flying helicopters, and a parking plan. Separately, the definitions chapter for the City's sidewalk-vending and public-right-of-way rules, Section 3-7.2002, defines a temporary special event or temporary special permit as any City-issued permit for temporary use of or encroachment on a sidewalk or public area for purposes including, but not limited to, filming, parades, sporting events, festivals, carnivals, or outdoor concerts, and Section 3-7.1901 separately requires a temporary street closure permit before closing any street or alley for a commercial promotional activity or special event.

A film production that needs to close a street, not just occupy a sidewalk, therefore needs both the Film Permit under Section 6-5.03 and the temporary street closure permit under Section 3-7.1901, each reviewed by a different City department and each carrying its own insurance, indemnity and deposit conditions.