Cotati City Council
Agenda Staff Report
Item type:
To: City Council
Subject: Parklets and Outdoor Dining Program Presentation and Adoption of Resolution Establishing Public Parklet Space Rental Fee
Date: April 11, 2023
Written by: Autumn Buss, Associate Planner
Recommendation
It is recommended by the Community Development Department that the City Council hear a presentation about the Parklets and Outdoor Dining Program and adopt a resolution establishing the Public Parklet Space Rental Fee in the City’s Fee Schedule.
Background
During the Covid pandemic, the City approved temporary “parklets” to allow restaurants to provide outdoor dining on parking spaces, since indoor dining was not allowed. The City also purchased and installed tents to provide shelter for the parklets. Several parklets were installed, both on on-street parking spaces, and in private parking lots. In Fall 2022, the City Council determined that the parklets had served their purpose, and that in light of the re-opening of indoor dining and reduced concerns of Covid risk, the parklets and tents should be removed by April 1, 2023. Council also directed staff to develop a program to allow parklets on a more permanent basis in the future. The parklets were removed on April 3, 2023.
Analysis/Discussion
Staff have developed a Parklets and Outdoor Dining program that creates a simple process for the City to review and approve parklets and outdoor dining on both public and private property. Since sidewalk dining is a more common and less challenging solution for outdoor dining than parklets, staff determined that streamlining the pre-existing outdoor dining process should be included in this program as well. The program addresses the following:
1. Parklets on public property (street parking)
2. Parklets on private property (private lots)
3. Outdoor dining on public property (sidewalk)
4. Outdoor dining on private property (locations may vary) In developing the program, staff reviewed parklet programs in a number of other cities. Staff also sought input from businesses and the general community to get feedback about the existing tent parklets and suggestions for permanent parklets and outdoor dining.
Two business input meetings were held, on December 8 and December 12, 2022, and businesses who could not attend were invited to contact staff directly with their thoughts. Restaurants with the temporary parklets have expressed gratitude to the City for the parklets opportunity, generally feel that the parklets provided critical support to their business during Covid, and most would like to install a more permanent parklet. Some non-restaurant owners have expressed dissatisfaction with the tents, finding them unsightly and an impediment to the public’s visual access to their business, and have been concerned about reduced on-street parking due to parklets.
A community survey about parklets and outdoor dining was administered via Survey Monkey between November 30 and December 21, 2022, and received nearly 200 responses. The key takeaways from the survey are that community members are generally supportive of the idea of the parklets, and often prefer outdoor dining. The primary concerns were appearance of the tents and reduced availability of on-street parking spaces.
New Parklets Program
The new parklets program focuses on simplicity of application process; strong design, safety, and maintenance standards; a limitation on the number of parking spaces that may be occupied by a parklet; and a public space rental fee that encourages greater public use of the street areas and encourages economic development.
1. Proposed Process: Businesses wishing to install a parklet or outdoor dining under the new program will contact the Community Development Department to review requirements and discuss feasibility, following which they may submit an application. (See Attachment 1: Parklets and Outdoor Dining Standards, and Attachment 2: Parklets and Outdoor Dining Application).
Community Development and Public Works staff will review applications for design, safety, and other standards, if necessary working with applicants to make adjustments, and issue approvals for complete applications proposing feasible projects.
For parklets and outdoor dining on public property, the applicant will be required to enter into a License Agreement with the City, and an annual space rental fee for public space parklets (see below) will be paid before work can commence. For private property installations, property owner permission will be required for application approval. All parklets and outdoor dining installations will also require a building permit, unless deemed unnecessary by the Community Development Director. Monitoring of parklets will be conducted by Community Development.
For proposed parklets and outdoor dining on properties that abut a residential use, a Minor Use Permit may be required.
2. Standards. The standards relating to design and appearance, safety, maintenance, and other key aspects of parklets and outdoor dining are set forth in Attachment 1: Parklets and Outdoor Dining Standards. The standards are intended to ensure visually attractive installations that do not impede traffic, bicycle, or pedestrian safety; do not use an unreasonable number of parking spaces; do not block visual or physical access to public amenities and neighboring businesses; are accessible; are removable without damage to public infrastructure; and are easy to maintain.
3. Location and Space Requirements. Parklets and outdoor dining on public property must be located directly in front of the subject business, and the linear space allocated shall generally not exceed the length of the subject business’ street frontage. In addition, a maximum of two public parking spaces, or three private lot parking spaces, may be occupied by a parklet. Outdoor dining on private property will be allowed more flexible location and spacing parameters.
4. Public Parklet Space Rental Fee. An annual space rental fee of $1/square foot of public parking space occupied by a parklet is proposed to be collected (approximately $324/year for a typical parklet on public property). This rental fee is intended to encourage greater public use of the public right of way and encourage economic development.
No space rental fee is proposed for public sidewalk dining, and such a fee would not be applicable to parklets or outdoor dining on private property. Parklets that require a Building Permit will be subject to associated fees, however.
The establishment of the annual rental fee for public parklets requires an amendment to the City’s Fee Schedule, which is accomplished by the accompanying resolution that is before the City Council for consideration with this agenda item.
Financial Considerations
The fiscal impact from the proposed public parklet annual space rental fee is difficult to determine and will be driven by the number of parklets approved. The fiscal impact from parklets and outdoor dining in general is difficult to determine but is expected to be positive.
Environmental Issues
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it is not a project which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, pursuant to CEQA Guideline section 15378.
Attachments:
1. Parklet and Outdoor Dining Standards
2. Parklet and Outdoor Dining Application
3. Staff powerpoint presentation
Attachments:
Attachment 2: Parklet and Outdoor Dining Application (PDF) Attachment 1 Parklets and Outdoor Dining Standards (PDF) Staff presentation (PDF)