City approves ‘creative’ outdoor dining for Sonoma restaurants

Sonoma's downtown came to life over the holiday weekend thanks to both the county easing of restrictions on outdoor dining and a new City of Sonoma program approved last week that enables restaurants with little or no outdoor seating to seat more customers.

At its May 18 meeting, the Sonoma City Council voted unanimously to immediately adopt three re-opening strategies to help local businesses expand their operations into nearby public and private spaces including sidewalks, parking lots, street parking spaces and the Plaza.

Assisting City staff was an 'economic reopening' city council subcommittee led by Mayor Logan Harvey and Councilmember Rachel Hundley, as well as the Sonoma Valley Chamber of Commerce, Visitors Bureau and Vintners & Growers Alliance — a trio City Manager Cathy Capriola described as comprising the city's economic engine.

'Our goal was to develop a variety of tools to allow our businesses, particularly tasting rooms and restaurants, to have additional space and be creative so they can deal with the social distancing requirements that we're facing,' said Capriola.

She added that the options were intentionally open-ended to allow businesses to creatively suggest the spaces that would be most useful for them.

The Council voted 5-0 and fast-tracked the program to take effect when new county health guidelines loosened outdoor dining restrictions.

'The small independent businesses that we take so much pride in our community are very much at risk,' Bodenhamer said on May 18. 'And it's not going to be a little family-run operations that replace them if they close.'

Hundley said that in the subgroup's conversations with the community, 'everyone had the same focus, to save our small businesses and get Sonoma back on its feet, as safely as possible.'

City staff created a 'Service Area Expansion Pre-Application,' in which businesses were asked to provide a description of the space modifications sought, a site map and written permission from the property owner. Applications were accepted starting on May 21, and city staff began issuing the temporary use permits over the weekend. Capriola said that five applications to the city were received last week and four approved, including extra outdoors tables at OSO, Cafe La Haye and the Basque Boulangerie.

The 3-Part Plan

The City's three part plan includes allowing businesses to creatively expand their spaces; use of parts of the Plaza for outdoor picnic space; and use of the Grinstead Amphitheatre.

'We have this amazing resource right in the heart of our town,' said Bodenhamer, about the Plaza. 'And we can smartly use it to provide some additional seating, while keeping public space open to all.'

Bodenhamer conceded that there is no 'silver bullet' to the slow re-opening process. 'This is creating a patchwork of different solutions that can help different businesses in different ways,' he said. 'It gives them a bunch of different options.'

Valley Safe

Concurrently, a new program called 'Valley Safe' will allow businesses to show changes made and health and safety guidelines being followed or exceeded. The Chamber, the Visitor's Bureau and the Vintners & Growers Alliance are working with their memberships, particularly smaller businesses, to help figure out exactly what they need to reopen.

'The program allows people to know that they're coming into a safe area and protects the workers in the business,' said Bodenhamer.

On Friday, the Chamber and the City also launched a 'mini-grant' program aimed at helping small businesses secure the supplies they need to safely reopen. The first 80 businesses that qualify get a free kit ($230 value) of sanitation supplies.

Parking

City officials will keep a close eye on the parking situation around the Plaza, said Mayor Harvey. The resolution was written to allow the business to use the parking spaces in front at their discretion, either for parking of table space. If parking becomes a program, the decision would be revisited, said Capriola.

Any other roadblocks?

Prior to its May 18 meeting, Cottingham had reached out to the state bureau of Alcohol Beverage Control and reported that it had agreed to be flexible with expansion of a license footprint for restaurants and tasting rooms on a temporary basis. 'It's a really important piece because without that some of our ideas wouldn't work as well,' said Cottingham.

During public comment on May 18, Jennifer Palladini expressed concern about the use of the Plaza 'It's a public park and already pretty crowded,' she said. 'It is designed to be enjoyed by everybody in Sonoma, not just those who are customers of businesses.'

While Amy Harrington spoke out in favor of the plan, she reminded the Council that 'when we set a precedent for using a public space for commercial purpose, it's hard to take it away later.'

Harvey agreed that the Council needed to develop 'a good exit strategy on how to roll everything back when the time comes.'

What might Plaza dining look like?

Bodenhamer clarified that the plan was not to take over the entire Plaza but just a few strategic 'pockets, maybe four of the corners' and leaving large chunks open and accessible.

'We definitely want to find that balance,' he said.

He noted that the parking lot behind City Hall is not used in the evening and could serve as extra table space for restaurants that don't have outdoor seating.

Is this an option outside City limits?

While the new City program only applies within City limits, 1st District Supervisor Susan Gorin's aide Karina Garcia told the Index-Tribune that she paid visits to businesses in the Springs last week and expanding seating was of interest to restaurant owners. The Springs Municipal Advisory Council asked her to add the topic to its June agenda.

Bolder plans on hold

Café La Haye owner Saul Gropman publicly floated the idea earlier this month of closing the streets around the Plaza in the evening to create 'wine country's biggest outdoor restaurant.' The Council briefly discussed the idea — similar plans are currently in the works in Berkeley, San Jose and San Mateo — but stopped short of endorsing it.

'It's something we might explore,' said Harvey. 'But there's a lot of consensus building that we would need to do to make that work.'

Council members noted that small-scale test runs or a pilot program might be possible if certain segments of the Plaza are interested.

'We are open to it,' said Hundley, who cautioned that, 'this is Sonoma, when you have anything outside and fun, you end up having lots of people show up.'

Capriola also noted that 'the chief of police and the fire chief have already weighed in and said closing down the roads around the Plaza was for them a major problem,' she said.

Sign of the Bear owner Laura Havlek urged the Council not to do anything that would make parking harder for customers. 'Our customers won't shop if they can't park,' she said, noting how many heavy products her store sells. 'If there are lane and parking closures around the actual Plaza itself, it could really could kill us.'

In general, she urged the Council to get broad input.

'The devil is in the details,' Havlek said about their plans. 'The goal should be for as many independent businesses as possible to be thriving here in 2021. Some well-intentioned regulations could put someone out of business or conversely simple tweaks could make a huge positive difference. Everyone needs to be at the table.'

Email lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.