Cities in Santa Cruz County, California are making outdoor dining laws permanent, and some businesses are getting sticker shock at the extra cost of maintaining the pandemic-era expansion of al fresco dining.
Jurisdictions in Santa Cruz County are in the process of overhauling the temporary, emergency outdoor dining rules put in place during the pandemic, according to an article by Thomas Sawano for Lookout Santa Cruz, with the purpose of making parklets permanently safe and economically feasible.
According to a Lookout estimate, 81 Santa Cruz County businesses are operating parklets for outdoor dining spaces in former street parking spaces—not even counting the “large number of businesses with dining spaces in their private parking lots.”
Some cities in the county, however, are busy crafting new regulations for the parklets, adding costs and uncertainty about the ability of businesses to continue operating the spaces. Sawano provides more detail:
Capitola’s city council passed a permanent outdoor dining ordinance in December 2021 that limited the number of parking spaces businesses could use for dining space to 25 and introduced new design requirements and guidelines for semi-permanent street dining setups. In Santa Cruz, an ordinance establishing a permanent parklet program passed its first reading before its city council on Oct. 25. It is slated for final review Tuesday.
The changes will cost “big bucks” in some cases, according to sources cited by Sawano in the article below.
FULL STORY: Santa Cruz County’s parklets are here to stay. What will they look like now?
The Slow Retreat of Pandemic-Era Outdoor Dining Programs Continues
It’s been almost three years since the political dynamics of outdoor dining in the United States shifted, suddenly and overwhelmingly. Increasingly, the status quo is being restored.
Open Streets and Outdoor Dining Are Best for Business, Report Says
Most business owners believe that they'd be out of business without on-street parking near their front door. The experience of New York City during the pandemic proves otherwise.
Opinion: Keep Outdoor Dining Without Thwarting Creativity
While New York City's effort to make its outdoor dining program permanent is a welcome reimagining of public space, some worry that regulations will reduce design diversity and increase costs for small restauranteurs.
Montreal Mall to Become 6,000 Housing Units
Place Versailles will be transformed into a mixed-use complex over the next 25 years.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California High-Speed Rail's Plan to Right Itself
The railroad's new CEO thinks he can get the project back on track. The stars will need to align this summer.
Nevada Legislature Unanimously Passes Regional Rail Bill
If signed by the governor, the bill will create a task force aimed at developing a regional passenger rail system.
How Infrastructure Shapes Public Trust
A city engineer argues that planners must go beyond code compliance to ensure public infrastructure is truly accessible to all users.
Photos: In Over a Dozen Cities, Housing Activists Connect HUD Cuts and Local Issues
We share images from six of the cities around the country where members of three national organizing networks took action on May 20 to protest cuts to federal housing funding and lift up local solutions.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada