Outdoor dining program will stick around until end of year
Despite an uptick in vaccinations and indoor dining resuming, San Jose’s Al Fresco gets an extension
For those loving San Jose’s chic new outdoor dining spots, some good news.
They’re here to stay — at least for the rest of the year.
The San Jose City Council on Tuesday night voted unanimously to extend the city’s Al Fresco program, an initiative crafted by Mayor Sam Liccardo and Councilwoman Dev Davis in May 2020 to let businesses shuttered by COVID-19 public health orders — particularly restaurants at that time — take over parking lots, closed sections of streets and marked-off areas of public parks for openair services.
The program, which initially was to last for only a few months, is now set to expire Dec. 31.
Although thousands of Californians are getting vaccinated daily and the pandemic seemingly is subsiding across the Bay Area, San Jose officials acknowledge that the financial damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic and people’s concerns about the risks associated with indoor activities are sure to linger for a while. Indoor dining is now allowed up to 50% of a restaurant’s capacity in Santa Clara County, which is currently subject to the state’s orange tier reopening restrictions.
“This virus will be with us in a pretty substantial way for quite a while, so I think pushing commerce outside is a good thing in many ways and we ought to accommodate it in any way that we can,” Liccardo said during Tuesday night’s meeting.
During the past year, the city has expanded the type of businesses permitted to take part in the program to include casinos, hair salons and personal
services such as art studios and dry cleaners. More than 150 restaurants and businesses across the city since have participated in the program, moving their services into private parking lots and underutilized public spaces such as parks, plazas, city-owned streets and parking lots.
Davis said the program has not only helped businesses expand their capacity to serve customers and reach “critical revenue needs” but also has “added a new vibrancy to the streets and sidewalks in our city.”
The Al Fresco program waives city permits and fees to allow restaurants and other businesses that comply with public health orders to operate outside seating and service for customers. Since April 2020, the city has received only 13 complaints about the program, mostly from residents complaining about noise and the types of tent structures that businesses are using.
Following the death of a woman who was killed when an SUV crashed into an East San Jose outdoor dining area in October, the city required businesses applying for a permit to operate on private outdoor properties or a sidewalk to install safety barriers to separate patrons from passing cars.
Nathan Ulsh of the San Jose Downtown Association called the program a “fundamental tool” that has proven fruitful for San Jose businesses trying to weather the pandemic.
“To consider Al Fresco a boon would be an understatement,” Ulsh said. “It’s a lifeline for our community.”
Eddie Truong of the Silicon Valley Organization urged the city to begin thinking about making the program a permanent staple in San Jose.
“We’re going to need many more years of this program to expand (businesses’) revenue opportunities so that they can survive during this time and for years after,” he said.