AN ORDINANCE relating to street and sidewalk use; amending Ordinance 125706 and the Street Use Permit Fee Schedule authorized by Section 15.04.074 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
Agenda item three Council Bill 120068 An ordinance relating to street and sidewalk. Use amending ordinance 125706 and the street use permit fee schedule. Authorized. By section 15.0 4.074 of the Seattle Municipal Code. The committee recommends a bill passed as amended. Thank you so much. Strauss again, as chair of committee, you are recognized in order to provide the committee report on the bill. Thank you. Council President Pro Tem. We are here discussing the council. My council bill with council president gonzalez is co-sponsored to extend the free sidewalk, curb, space vending and cafe permits for another year to help businesses recover from the economic recession brought on by the COVID 19 pandemic. We started this program as a pilot, and we want to get it to a permanent feature, and that requires the bill before us, which is that interim step that takes what worked well, releases what didn't work well in the pilot, and then makes all of that permanent so that we can have pergolas permanently here in the city . This legislation creates that pathway to permanency, as that could have spent their time this last year doing the needed outreach and reevaluation of what's working and what's not. But instead, they spent their time approving permits, which I applaud, because because of their great work, we now have more businesses with these street permits than before. When the pandemic hit, our businesses were thrown into turmoil, first forced to shut down and struggled to survive. We've lost so many businesses in this last year that I'm relieved to be able to extend to our businesses a lifeline that they can use their outdoor spaces to remain open and capitalize on the good weather to attract customers as we look forward to a full reopening at the end of June. Last year, the Seattle Department of Transportation started new programs to allow temporary uses of our right away. And I want to see us use these rites of ways in creative ways, pedestrian street, pedestrianized streets for people of all ages and abilities to use in the Street and Sidewalk Cafe program gives our businesses the space to use their entrepreneurial spirit to be creative in these outdoor spaces. It's not just for restaurants. Retail and other businesses can also benefit from utilizing these outdoor spaces. Recovery will be a long road ahead, and we need to continue to support our small businesses in their recovery. As we look towards the permanent program, we will need to address how much these permits cost. And we also need to hear feedback from all business types to lessen any negative impacts and ensure that sidewalks continue to be accessible and easy to navigate for all ages and abilities. Businesses need certainty, and this bill provides that. We need them to know whatever they build today will be able to last through the next winter, through the bad weather, the rain and the cold. This summer before us is actually our first summer with this sidewalk cafe, curb curb permits and cafe streets. And I'm very excited to see how how businesses use their entrepreneurial drive to make our streets more vibrant. In Ballard, we had a great partnership with the farmers market to utilize curb space permits for for when the farmers market came in. So there's so and this is some of that outreach that it needs to do to to make these regulations permanent is understand how can we share this space. It is public space, after all. And we should be helping support our businesses through the pandemic, and we should make sure that it's shareable for everyone. I'm proud of that. How our city has responded to this pandemic and we have more work to do. We here at City Council passed the Small Business Stabilization Grants that helped many small businesses in dire moments. And by allowing businesses to operate in our streets, we provide them a pathway to economic recovery. And we should make this pathway a permanent feature of our city. In Ballard, we're going to have a design charrette for Ballard Avenue. Ballard Avenue is unique in and of itself because it cuts off at the Ballard Bridge and at market. It's not a through street. And what we want to do is create a replicable program so that every neighborhood hood in the city can have a a street dedicated to their small businesses. Through this last year of uncertainty, we've continued to plot a path toward equitable recovery with the certainty businesses need to be successful. I just want to take a moment to thank all of the people that have helped me, because, again, in this situation, the city of Seattle provided the permits and got out of the way. Small businesses did. They're the ones that came up with the designs for the Pergolas. They're the ones that activated the public space. The small businesses using their entrepreneurial drive created more vibrant communities all across the city. So before I go on and any longer, if Councilmember Juarez was here, she would be telling me to say my thank you, finally, please, and let's keep going. So I need to thank Elliott Hambrick and Sabrina Beaulieu from the mayor's office, Elise Nelson and her entire team from Public Use, Shauna Larson and Director Zimbabwe. Amanda Pleasant Brown in my office, Calvin Chao from central staff Mike Stewart and Devin Reynolds from the Ballard Alliance for. Amazing. Doug far of the Seattle Farmers Market Association for demonstrating how we can share the space on a zero hour. For keeping our focus on all ages and abilities and every single business owner who has used this permit to put forward entrepreneurial spirits, to put their premier spirits to work, making our city more vibrant. Just to clarify for the four colleagues, these permits are permanent and available as before the pandemic and after the pandemic. What this bill before us does is two things. One, it extends the free aspect of these permits for another year so that businesses can recover. The second thing it does is it requests a report from Scott by December 15th, 2021, explaining what aspects of the current program should remain, which need to change, and plots a pathway forward for us to be able to take up final legislation before this current legislation ends on Memorial Day 2022. So takes again two things ensures that these permits are free for another year, and then secondly, plots the pathway forward to permanency with a deadline of December 15th, 2021, to be implemented by May of 2022. Council President Pro Tem. That is the committee report. Thank you, Councilmember Strauss. Are there any questions or comments ever, Peterson? Thank you, President Pro Tem Herbold, and thank you, Councilmember Strauss, for advancing this legislation. Just to I think you clarified it pretty well, but we would be voting on whether to continue the free permits. Right now, it's just through May 20, 22. So it's will be we'll be doing another vote next year on this, correct? Good question there. We do have to charge for these permits eventually. So I just need to be clear here, because the public space program in the state is a fee recovery based program. So they have been operating in the red so as to give a lifeline to the small businesses. We need to make sure that small businesses have an additional year of free permits so that they can recover correctly. I am interested in following your budget chair, Ms.. Skater, to follow up to see if we have money from the American Rescue Plan available to backfill because they have been operating at a loss to ensure our small businesses get the support they need. So what we will be voting on next year will be the parameters of a permanent permit. And it's not. May very well call me tomorrow and say then you're not going to be voting on that because these permits already exist. And so stop may just be tweaking their their current programs. Thank you both, Councilmember Mosqueda. I thank you, President Pro Tem Herbold, and thank you, Chair Strauss. I'm always excited to join your meetings and to be a champion of good legislation like this. I just wanted to provide a little bit of context as well because I am perhaps equally excited or not maybe as excited as the chair, but I want to show my enthusiasm for this approach. During this pandemic, I know that it's been really important for us to all recognize that COVID has really turned upside down daily life and our patterns, and that current rules have made it really difficult in many situations, especially for small businesses, to be able to respond quickly to this upheaval and are not able to continue with business as usual. Coronavirus has laid bare our inequities in many ways, and by creating these temporary suspensions to our roles, we recognize that our local shops are doing everything they can to make it through this really difficult time. Businesses have anecdotally spoken in favor of these changes, saying that they believe that without this option they would not have been able to get through the pandemic. And indeed, research shows that this is true. In Brooklyn, for example, an underutilized parking area was turned into public space for public events, increasing visibility to small businesses there, which has been a 172% increase in retail sales. It's good for patrons, it's good for the business owners, and it's good for the health of our local communities as well. Further, a Boston study showed that creating a seating area outside of a curb lane can potentially increase sales at a friend's at a front, facing business by 14%. I recognize that there's concern from small businesses in certain areas around the loss of parking. And I believe that through the intent of this legislation, which will allow more time to study permit changes, we can help mitigate those concerns while creating lasting positive impacts for businesses and do what the data has shown actually increase sales for small businesses as we decrease the need for cars and parking spaces around our city as well. I look forward to being able to vote yes for this and I really appreciate the sponsors work on this and have duly heard you on the desire to make sure that we are also looking at the cost needs for stock related to potential issues that are coming up with this ordinance. And we'll look forward to discussing those ARPA related conversations over the next six weeks here. Appreciate it. Councilmembers and looking forward to voting yes. Great. Any other comments or questions? Send us a final word. Thank you. Council President Pro tem. I have to say for the general public who is in my conversations with Councilmember Mosqueda, she brought me the idea because of her desire to make this a permanent program. So we want to uplift her. And I want to say to our colleagues, I could not have thought of this legislation without Council President Lorena Gonzalez. Her husband's perspective is well valued in my life, so wanting to take this moment to highlight that I couldn't have done it without council president. That. Those are my reports. Thank you so much sitting in closing. Well, the clerk, he's called the roll on the passage of the bill. Patterson. Yes, sir. Lawrence. Yes. Strauss. Yes. LEWIS Yes. Morales Yes. Musgrave I council president pro tem Herbold. Yes. Seven in favor and unopposed. Thank you. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Moving on to item number four, will the clerk please read item four into the record?