Sonoma City Council considers taking parklets off the menu

Parklets may be losing their standing reservations on the Plaza.

That was the mood coming out of the Sonoma City Council meeting Aug. 17, after a majority of members expressed doubts about the benefits the makeshift outdoor dining patios bring to the Sonoma Plaza.

“I’m done,” said Councilmember Madolyn Agrimonti, who said her initial support of the COVID-era program has waned now that indoor dining has returned.

“I was in favor of this in the beginning and I think it was important. But I live here. I’m the one jumping up and down on these curbs,” she said in reference to the sidewalk alterations necessitated by parklets.

The parklets were established at the onset of the pandemic when, in May 2020, the council approved the Al Fresco Sonoma program, which allowed food and drink establishments to temporarily encroach their service areas into frontage sidewalk and parking spaces at a time when indoor service was prohibited due to the health crisis. Additionally, the block of First Street East that runs south of Napa Street was closed to vehicular traffic to allow Maya Restaurant and Pangloss Cellars to utilize the street to serve customers.

The City Council met Aug. 17 to consider options on how best to move forward with the program – from hiring consultants to create an upgraded program, to keeping the status quo but requiring Americans with Disability Act (ADA) upgrades, to folding the program into a longer-range scope of creating a Master Plan for the Sonoma Plaza.

City staff said consulting fees to develop an improved program would cost $26,125 for the creation of the program, and another $10,000 to evaluate its impacts on the Plaza.

But the discussion turned from ways to enhance the parklets to whether to end them entirely, as council members said the obstacles toward aesthetics, safety and finances were becoming more than the program was worth.

“It’s hard to describe just how complicated this process has been,” said Vice Mayor Kelso Barnett, who in past meetings had been optimistic about the long-range prospects of the program. “Every minute we spend on parklets at this point we’re not spending time on parks or affordable housing or really anything.”

Barnett noted that the number of parklets served by the program could dwindle once city fees were established for parklet operators. Citing a comparable program in Healdsburg, staff said annual fees to operate a parklet could be between $4,000 and $15,000 annually, based on the square footage of the parklet.

The parklet program has been extended multiple times, as city staff – and an ad hoc council subcommittee of Barnett and Councilmember Bob Felder - have sought to establish guidelines that address safety, ADA requirements, design standards and the type of furniture allowed, among other elements.

Currently there are 11 businesses operating 12 parklets on the Plaza, according to city staff. The structures take up 40 public parking spaces.

Felder was among those ready to “push the pause button” on parklets.

“We had a real reason to institute the program back at the start of COVID,” said Felder. “But we’ve moved on to a totally different direction now and I think we are sacrificing our historic Plaza as a result of it.”

Felder went on to cite the litany of extensions and guidelines proposed for the program the past two years and said it’s “time to quit this exercise” and work on permanent improvements to the Plaza. “This is something that’s outlived its useful purpose.”

Felder motioned to end the program on Oct. 31 and require the structures down by Nov. 30.

Mayor Jack Ding and Councilmember Sandra Lowe were more willing to take a wait-and-see approach to the parklets, with Lowe hesitant to surprise parklet operators by reverting from the program’s current expiration date of April 1, 2023.

What the five council members could all agree upon was staff’s suggestion that the city embark upon creating a Master Plan for the Plaza, which would examine al fresco dining within the context of a long-range vision for Plaza enhancements.

“I think there could be merit toward looking toward a master plan and having something to aspire to,” said Barnett.

While Barnett, Felder and Agrimonti were poised to place an expiration on the program by year’s end, staff urged the council to continue the item to the next meeting in order to ensure community members were aware an end to the program was under consideration.

The council voted 4-1, with Felder against, to continue the item and add another option to the list of parklet considerations - the possible discontinuation of the program- to the agenda.

Email Jason Walsh at Jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.