Recommendation to request City Manager to expand the open streets initiative by extending parklet and parking lot permits at least until the end of 2020 and work with interested small businesses and business improvement districts to make some of them permanent, including a permanent closure of Pine Avenue from Broadway to 3rd Street.
We're going to really do an item 20 out this. Communication for Mayor Garcia Recommendation to request city manager to expand the Open Streets Initiative by extending parklet and parking lot permits, at least until the end of 2020. Thank you. Thank you, madam. So I want to first just thank. The the full council have been incredibly active and involved in this program. Ireland has supported our Open Streets program. It's been a complete lifeline for so many restaurants. Our small businesses are hurting, as we all know. And the Open Streets program has really provided a lift to so many workers, so many small business owners that are able to serve their customers and serve their food all across the city. We have over 200 parklet and parking lot spaces that have been converted across the community. All over the city. It has been amazing to see. I have personally talked to dozens of these owners and they are they are so excited about about the program. We know that the Open Streets program has been a success, as we've seen it modeled across the city, where there's also been a lot that we have learned from the program. There's a lot to learn when you're changing and moving around infrastructure. But we know that it's critical for for small business owners. The the recommendation in front of us does a couple of things. The first thing it does is it formally is asking the city manager to extend the open streets permitting program that we have currently in place at least the end of this year. So that those that have these these parklets have the certainty that they're going to continue to be able to operate outdoors and they can plan as they go into these next few months. So that's the first thing, is to allow that extension through city management. The second piece of this item is to have staff begin to work with the business improvement districts. Obviously, the neighborhoods and certainly I would be with everyone on all the councilmembers within the districts to see which of these parklets or spaces could also become permanent. One thing I've heard from a lot of restaurants is they would love to have a permanent parklet that their customers love them. I personally think they're fantastic. They may not work, of course, in every space that they are in currently. And certainly there are going to be neighborhood considerations in some of these locations. But we should at least begin a process so that there isn't a permanent process that has to go through. Also, not just a staff process, but also one to ensure that there's going to be safety, that we're meeting all of the kind of drainage infrastructure requirements so that if parklets become more complex and possibly permanent, we're also following all of the rules and laws as it relates to traffic mitigation and safety. So but we want to get that started now. So that's the other part of this motion as well. And finally, there has been a, I think, rather successful closure on Pine Avenue currently. We'd like to explore to see if that's possible to make that closure permanent. We want to first ask staff to work with the Dolby and the businesses to see if there's interest. To gauge that interest and to move forward on a possible permanent closure or an expanded closure of what's currently in place. And so that's another piece of the motion as well. So that's really an exploration of that. And what I'll just add is I think the council has heard and I have I have heard from, you know , everyone from our of course, our Bixby Knolls folks, folks all across Second Street. I've heard, of course, from our downtown people, folks and and across the city on how how important these spaces have been for for so many restaurants and small business owners. A lot of them have submitted letters and comments. And so I wanted to go ahead and and put this in front of us today. And so with that, I want to bring it to the council. We do have a motion and a second on this item. So let me begin with the motion is from Vice Mayor Andrews and then the second is by councilman in Doha. So let me turn it over to Vice Mayor Andrews. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor, for bringing side forward. You know, in a community like mine where, you know, there's already a struggling, these partners are adding a nice touch, you know, doing the corporate and business owners get excited, you know, when we reach out and offer them help to get it set up with them. And most of all, I just want to thank public works. We're really, really doing this and put this process down to a science. Now, so I think this is a great, great you know, Artemis brought forward to us and thank you again. Thank you, Vice Mayor Councilman's in Dallas. Thank you, Mayor. And I echo Vice Mayor Andrew's comments in regards to what a success it has been. And it's a little positiveness in in all of the the chaos that we've been living in in the past couple of months. I, I would also like to say thank you to all the organizations that have been working together with the businesses in my district in particular. Lee is the LPA, which we have been seeing such great success of these open streets on on Pine Street, which is a little bit south of my district. And I would like to make a frankly amendment. Vice Mayor, if I could, to also extend the foreclosure to up more on pine through fourth and fifth. There has been a great deal of thought being put into it. And I think that right now we also need to focus on giving everybody an opportunity to be able to take advantage of this. So it is. Would you be open to that? Yes. Yes, yes. Very much so. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. And will we support I support that as well. So look forward exploring that. Councilmember Pierce. Thank you, Mayor. I definitely support this item. I know that I've talked to lots of businesses that are looking to keep the parklets that they have. I also know that there are areas that have denser business zones like Pine, and I just want to make sure that staff is working really closely with all the businesses, ensuring that this really is an expansion of of dining and that we have a good process in place to ensure the safety of all of the patrons to these locations, as well as people that might be passing through. So definitely support that item. Love the idea of a permanent closure on Pine, but want to make sure that we do that thoughtfully and that we are including all the stakeholders. So thank you so much. Thank you. And Councilman Austin. Thank you so much. And I think this is a it's an excellent item. We need to definitely do more to support our businesses, our small businesses, and particularly those who can benefit from this these type of street closures. We all know that every business district isn't made the same. But I will just just ask why we have staffs here that that they consider, you know, traffic mitigation efforts to slow down traffic, particularly. I can speak to the Bixby Knolls area. You know, many of our small businesses would love to be able to benefit from the the open streets closures and parklets. But as it stands, the traffic is is is too too fast. And so we've also been working with staff to look at areas and efforts and ideas to to slow traffic in and to provide those parklets along that business district. And I know that it's very important for our businesses to survive, particularly considering everything that they have endured during this year and this pandemic. And so I certainly support this, but obviously we need we have work to do in some of our business districts to give these businesses the support that this important that they need. Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Marie Ringa. Thank you, Mayor, and I really am supportive of this motion, but I think it's a natural evolution. I think of the way that we conduct business and support our local businesses. So I'm very appreciative of you bringing this forward and making the pioneering avenue section of our city much more appealing. I think it'll be a great, great opportunity for people to visit downtown. Thank you. Thank you, Katherine Richardson. Thank you. So I obviously support this. I just want to elevate that. I think, you know, we're going to a place where we've got to sort of hunker down for the next potentially year as as we don't know the way we know what's going to happen with the pandemic. So these are innovative ways to provide, you know, assets and additional tools and a tool toolbox for restaurants and and businesses to be able to, you know, adjust through this transition and be able to survive. So I wholeheartedly support it. I think we need to be thinking about what we can do for. I know that certain businesses can move indoors, but some may prefer to stay outdoors, or so we should really just always stay open minded in terms of, you know, barbershops, hair salons, bars, you know, alternative ways for them to be able to conduct business over the course of the next year or so. I support this and look forward to seeing this continued, continued implementation. Thank you. That concludes council comment. Is there any is there any public comment on this item? Yes. First, we have Dave Clark. Hello? Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hello. Was a written concern. For the record, the conversion of lower pay in a matter of months is an objective reason to love our fair town. The Open Streets Initiative kind of great. It's really. I'm really heartened to see the mayor's initiative here. And I agree with many of the points laid out, and especially for remembering what's happened with, as we all know, being better isn't in relation to one's fellow man. In relation to one form of health. I only thing I'd add is that we continue to think about how to localize, localize, localize and kind of, you know, help . A lot of folks. In towns kind of get through the next year and we start thinking holistically about the different types of police types and potentially uses for gathering spaces in a in a more walkable. Format. One of the great. Things for the assets was that we have or those parking garages on third and fourth off time that we can use not only for solar but for storage, for the insurance value, for a lot of different co-benefits beneficial uses. So please keep that in mind. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker is in control. Hello. I please begin. Thank you. This is Sam Cantrell. And by giving these extensions into Public Street's name of Parklets, it kind of disguises what is happening. I wonder if the. Public knows that what is going on here is that we are losing all of the parking spaces that were once along the curb. We are losing, in some cases, a lane of traffic. In Belmont. Sure. These Parklets extending out into the street. Makes driving very hazardous. If you're driving on a cross street, you cannot see the oncoming traffic because the restaurants are extending out into the streets. And I am in favor of helping the restaurants and the businesses, but I don't think this is the way to do it. I think you should close the streets to traffic and provide. An open space on the street and provide parking on the backs of the restaurants. I am definitely opposed to making this permanent after the pandemic is over. There should be no reason for the public having to give up their public streets. And especially in Belmont. Sure, the Street Olympic Plaza Drive has been closed off for a private business, a gym, parking spaces have been lost. And this is in the coastal zone. It is against coastal law to block access to the beach. So I think there's a lot of things that need to be. Tweet on this. Also, I'm wondering about the loss of revenue from parking meters. This was not addressed that I could find. It did say in the staff report that this is going to cost $300,000 through the rest of this year. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you. Actually, I'm going to go back to the council. Councilman Price. Mr. Mayor. So I appreciate this item coming forth, and I also appreciate the mayor's words of prudence in terms of which ones we look at for permanency and all the different factors that we're going to be looking at, including neighborhood impacts. And as it relates to some of our parking impacted areas, parking impacts. So what I have committed to Third District residents is that we're it's very premature for us at this juncture to determine which Parklets might want to become permanent and whether that's feasible based on parking impacts and other impacts that may or may not have been realized by the residents up until this point. So I look forward to this process. I do. I we have received a lot of great positive feedback on the parklets in the Shaw. There are additional parklets that we have deployed, but really those have never been envisioned to be permanent. And the public speaker who just spoke a moment ago referenced one of those those are not ones we envision permanency for, but for those that might be transitioned to more permanent sites, those are ones we'll take a very hard look at parking and other types of impacts to make sure that we mitigate those. I just want to take a moment just to thank our public works and traffic engineering team. They've been incredible through this whole process and I'm really so grateful for all of them. April, Paul, Karl. Everybody has just been really wonderful in helping us get the parklet up and running. Help us feel questions from business owners and residents and really help us transition in this very unprecedented time and to an offering that we had not envisioned prior to March. So thank you, Mr. Mayor, for bringing this item forward. And I look forward to what I've committed to my residents to be a robust process before anything becomes permanent. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, I also want to as we conclude just to everyone from our city manager on down through our entire public works team and also our city attorney team who have all actually been working on this issue with our staff and also with all the staffs I know of all your offices. Just thank you all. You've been phenomenal partners and I know we have a lot of work to do as we move forward to support more businesses. So let's go out and do a roll call vote and thank you. District one. Right. District two, i. District three. I. District four. All right. District five. I. District six. All right. District seven. I. District eight. District eight. District nine. All right. Motion carries. Thank you. And now we will do open public comment, please.