City Committee Punts on Parklet Fee

Real world questions about liability in the case of defective roofing, a sufficiency of bathrooms, and the benefits conferred by parklets large or small were so tangled that they derailed the city Finance Committee on Tuesday afternoon. As chairman Eric Friedman reported to the City Council, he and his two colleagues “got stuck” and could not choose from among the suite of options to charge restaurants on State Street for their parklet.

In anticipation of a State Street Promenade master plan in about a year and a half, the city has been setting interim rules for the promenade. Earlier this year, the city decided that new parklets must be portable. At the Finance Committee, city staff presented two fee options, both calculated to give Santa Barbara about $600,000-$670,000, the estimate to maintain and administer the State Street Promenade during each of the next two years. While the details are best captured in the charts below, in general, one option looked at a monthly charge by square foot and the other at a charge based on the complexity of the parklet. About 45 businesses on the 400-1300 blocks of State Street use about 14,000 square feet of the roadway for their dining parklets, with designs ranging from on-the-street movable chairs and tables to solid parklet structures with platforms and roofs.

Clearly, far more than 45 businesses exist even now along downtown’s State Street. During public comment, Richard Yates of Opal Restaurant and Bar noted that the proposed fee was much higher than their indoor rent per square foot while at the same time acknowledging the city’s parklet program had enabled his restaurant to survive. Robin Elander of the Downtown Santa Barbara organization thought a proportional fee was more fair, viewing 14,000 square feet through the lens of the entire streetscape. And Bob Stout of the Wildcat Lounge pointed out that Ventura charged about $200 per business rather than by the square foot.