By Christian Kallen
Those streetside dining areas and tasting rooms that everyone has an opinion about will be given another look by the Healdsburg City Council at the April 7 meeting. The council will evaluate the plan last formalized in January 2023, with an eye toward potential modifications before the end of 2025.
There are currently 16 such “parklets” in the downtown area; a 17th location was removed just after the new year. The parklets program allows businesses to use the parking spaces in front of their retail shops for added customer-service space. The opportunity to extend operations outside for tasting rooms, restaurants and other downtown businesses grew out of the Covid pandemic, when health concerns limited face-to-face contact in closed areas.
The parklets presently take up 40 parking spaces downtown, making those spaces unavailable for public use. They range in size from 262 square feet, in front of Angela’s Ice Cream/Iggy’s Burgers at 109 Plaza St., to 1,051 square feet, on North Street next to Valette restaurant at 344 Center St.
The city charges a fee for annual use of the public parking areas, which started at $1.50 per square foot but is now $1.62, plus a monthly administration fee of $216. The least expensive is the smallest, of course—$7,416 for the 109 Plaza St. burger and ice cream walk-in. The most is the largest, more than $22,200 for Valette.
However, according to Public Works Director Larry Zimmer, “There is no study valuing a parking space in this context.” So even if annual fees collected by the city exceed an estimated $150,000, that can’t be compared to “lost” sales tax revenue the city would receive from any business which might accrue by having more parking spaces available. Nor revenue from parking enforcement violations.
Not all of the parklets are food- or wine-related. One of the most visible is that on Center Street at North, next to Healdsburg Running Company. It serves as an open shopping area for shoes and other sportswear, allowing shoppers to spill out onto the street from the confined quarters of HRC itself at 333 Center St.
Pandemic Dining
The parklet program under review is not the first that the City of Healdsburg implemented. The idea of using parking areas for business operations took hold during the first year of the Covid pandemic, in 2020, when the city and others developed and implemented several downtown business support programs in response.
For almost two years Healdsburg, like many other cities in the area and country, attempted to help local businesses affected by the pandemic with outdoor dining, pedestrian-only streets and other measures. Healdsburg’s original parklet program operated until Jan. 17, 2023, when the city implemented the current program.
The city’s first steps in creating business-friendly parklets came in September 2020, to extend temporary outdoor activities permits. Two months later, Temporary Parklet Program Design Guidelines and Standards were released, containing construction requirements on parklet design, safety, ADA access, alcohol service, heating, lighting and more, according to Zimmer.
They were expanded and further codified in April 2021 to include sidewalks, parking stalls, park space and other right-of-way areas for outdoor commercial use until Jan. 17, 2023. That evolved to include establishing a permit fee and parklet activation criteria—the “first” parklet program, which is being reviewed for possible additions or termination this year.
One recurrent concern about the parklet programs is federal ADA (Americans for Disabilities Act) compliance. “We did our best to make the parklets ADA compliant from the very beginning,” Zimmer said. “A few parklets were simply tables and chairs placed on the pavement, but … we had the owner construct or purchase ramps to provide access from the curb down to the parking area.”
Withdrawn Parklet
Aside from several temporary areas staged in private parking lots that have been removed, only one licensed parklet walked away from the opportunity: the three-car parklet in front of KINSmoke, at 304 Center St.
“I was very much on board when they proposed the parklet program,” said Brad Barmore, co-owner of the barbecue restaurant. However the configuration of the parklet KINSmoke ended up with, after the Flying Goat moved in next door, only allowed for about 15 seats. Because of wind, direct sun or rain, it was only usable for “a few hours a day for five or six months that people wanted to stay out there.”
He questioned whether there ever really was added business, or if some of his customers just moved outside. “I think over the course of a whole year, it probably pays for itself just in terms of the sales that it generates,” Barmore said. “But it’s tough to be able to run that parklet and then also, you know, have a server in the restaurant. It’s a big footprint to have to cover.”
District Transition
The City Council meeting that includes the parklet discussion is also the last of five “public hearings” in the Transition to District Elections. Last month, on March 17, the council narrowed down more than 80 maps—most of them 5-district maps that would require the mayor to be a rotating position—to a single recommended map, now known as Draft Map A.
In the intervening three weeks public comment on that map or continued suggested alternatives have been expected by the city, but the clock is ticking: A decision is expected from the council on Monday, April 7, on the shape of the five districts.
Since it is a public hearing mandated by law, a “time certain” of 6:30pm is anticipated for this agenda item. The City Council meeting begins at 6pm, at 401 Grove St. The city’s website and Facebook will carry it live, but public comments are still only allowed by in-person attendees. The council is considering that policy at the April 18 goal-setting session at Tayman Park.
