Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type: REGULAR AGENDA (ACTION)
To: City Council
Subject: Covid-19 Temporary Economic Development Response Phase 3 Date: August 23, 2022
Written by: Damien O'Bid, City Manager
Recommendation
It is recommended that the Council of the City of Cotati rescind Resolution 2020-59 and adopt a resolution to transition City support of businesses.
Background
The Covid-19 viral pandemic has caused unprecedented economic impacts to business and industry across the globe. In response, on May 26, 2020, the City Council adopted a resolution granting broad flexibility to existing and future business operators, allowing the use of public and private outdoor areas for business operations. In addition, the City Council authorized staff to expend up to $20,000 to aid in the response efforts to support the local business community. The goal of these actions was to provide flexibility for businesses to operate under the uncertain and rapidly changing requirements of the County and State Health Orders and provide some funding to support changed operations for these businesses to operate outdoors.
Between May and September of 2020, the need to limit activities to reduce the spread of the virus into the medium-term future become clearer, while the long-term outlook for such limitations remained uncertain. The uncertainty of the magnitude and timeline of these impacts to daily life had stifled the ability of many individual property and business owners to move forward with any plans for investment and expansion. Many local business owners were trying to adjust their business models to remain profitable under the limitations and constraints of the COVID-19 restrictions at the time.
In September 2020, the City adopted Resolution 2020-59 once the needs of our local businesses became clearer. Resolution 2020-59, which remains in effect today, implemented the following measures:
1. Extended the city-wide parking reduction and flexible use of outdoor spaces for sixmonths beyond the expiration of the Covid-19 emergency declaration; and
2. Expanded the allowances governing the use of outdoor spaces, including potentially creating a covered outdoor market and/or a “Food Truck Rodeo” where local businesses could operate separate from their brick-and-mortar establishments; and
3. “Tolled” or suspended the expiration dates for approved entitlements, plan checks and other permits through a time period of six-months beyond the expiration of the COVID19 emergency declaration; and
4. Continued and expanded the previous funding dedicated to these efforts, for a new total not to exceed amount of $90,000 for waivers of permit costs for outdoor events and uses, as well as establishing outdoor dining areas for businesses, primarily in the downtown area.
Analysis/Discussion
While many of the timelines were tied to the expiration of the City Council’s COVID-19 emergency declaration, in the past 2.5 years, many activities have settled into a new normal. At the same time, it is unlikely that the emergency declaration will be rescinded until the pandemic settles fully into an endemic virus.
Given the length of time since many of these measures were enacted, it is recommended that they be discussed and adjusted as necessary. Specifically, the need for waivers of minor fees and the tolling of agreements and entitlements has minimal benefit at this point, with the exception of the waiver of encroachment and other related fees for the remaining outdoor tents provided by the City.
The City still has tents at Cotati Coffee, Down to Earth Café/Tradewinds, Jam’s Joy Bungalow, Flagship Taproom, and Grav South Brewery.
Staff reached out to each of the businesses currently using City provided tents to ask if they are still using the tent, and if they were interested in moving from the tent to a more permanent outdoor space. All of the businesses that responded expressed gratitude to the City for providing the tents.
Spanky’s indicated that they no longer needed it, so it was recently removed. However, the remaining businesses wanted to continue to use the tent for now, with some expressing that customers concerned about COVID 19 still prefer to dine outside. It is unclear how many businesses would transition from the City tents to a permanent outdoor space, but this would likely become clear once the tent removal clock was started. Currently, no businesses indicated that they wanted to replace the tent with an outdoor space. At least one downtown retail business without a tent has approached the city to inquire about the timing of tent removals due to parking concerns.
When the tents were placed by the City, it was originally communicated to the businesses that the tents would be removed 6 months after rescinding the emergency declaration, unless removal was requested sooner by the business. However, since the emergency declaration is not likely to be rescinded soon and given the extended time the ‘temporary” tents have been in place, it is recommended that the City Council start the 6-month clock on September 1. If approved by the City Council, this will extend the tents until March 2023, which will assist restaurants through the coming winter while allowing for businesses to transition to a more permanent and attractive parklet or similar long-term outdoor dining option.
Currently, the City does not have design guidelines for outdoor spaces and developing design guidelines will take some time. Therefore, the recommendation includes a 2-track process once the 6-month clock starts. This would also be initiated by contacting the businesses to describe the tracks available:
Track 1 – Removal of City Tents
For any business that does not express an interest in moving to a permanent outdoor space, the tents would be removed when requested by the business, but no later than 6 months after September 1, 2022.
Track 2 – Transition to Permanent Outdoor Space
If a business expresses interest in moving to an outdoor space, staff will develop outdoor space design guidelines and review options for fee reductions to encourage the transition, including a fixed deadline to pull the permit/License Agreement. The City Manager would also have the ability to extend the 6-month tent removal deadline, if warranted, to facilitate the transition. If any business goes down this track, staff will return to the City Council to fully outline this program for approval.
Financial Considerations
Fees and charges will resume in most cases, except for the existing tents. While the tents are owned, some of the traffic barricades are rented and will continue to accrue rental charges until the tents are removed.
Environmental Issues
The action of re-authorizing the temporary closure of parking areas and certain park lands to support local business activities is consistent with past environmental analysis of Citywide planning documents such as the Cotati General Plan and Downtown Specific Plan. Further, these actions as well as the allowance to allow these areas to be temporarily covered and the concept of tolling the expiration of these permits are found to be exempt from the requirements of CEQA in that these actions are consistent with several policies in the City’s General Plan and Downtown Specific Plan and are consistent with Class 1, Class 5, Class 11 and Class 23 Categorical Exemptions under Section(s) 15301, 15305 and 15311, and 15323 of CEQA.