Mayor wants to make S.F. parklets permanent
The elaborate parklets and outdoor restaurant spaces that have popped up around San Francisco during the pandemic could become a permanent fixture under new legislation announced by Mayor London Breed and several supervisors Friday.
The current Shared Spaces program, which enables parklets throughout the city, is tied to an emergency measure. Now Breed is proposing a permanent version of Shared Spaces that would come with additional regulations — intended to balance restaurant needs with accessibility to sidewalks and parking.
There will be permitting fees, which did not previously exist, though costs have yet to be determined and they would not be due until June 2022. And while the current program
approves applications for parklets within 72 hours, the permanent program would return approvals within 30 days.
Restaurants, bars and other business interests hailed the development despite the added regulation.
Shirley Tan, who added a sidewalk parklet to her Bottoms Up Bar & Lounge in August, said the additional outdoor space has been a positive development.
“I really want to keep the parklet,” she said.
The legislation will be introduced at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. If it passes, businesses that already have parklets would have until Dec. 31 to submit a permit application and to prove that their sites comply with safety and federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. Applications for new parklets could begin in June.
As the pandemic forced much of restaurant and bar business outside, more than 2,000 establishments — from coffee shops in the Sunset to breweries in Dogpatch — have been allowed to move chairs, tables and heat lamps into parking spots and sidewalks. Before the pandemic, San Francisco had just 75 parklets.
There’s been wide support for the outdoor spaces. State Senator Scott Wiener, DSan Francisco, introduced a bill in February that would loosen certain alcohol regulations throughout California, making it easier for cities and counties to allow sales and consumption in areas like sidewalks, alleys and parking lots. It still would be up to cities and counties to implement the rules through programs like Shared Spaces.
In a recent Shared Spaces survey, 84% of respondents said the program allowed them to reopen this year, and 80% said the program allowed them to avoid permanent closure. Nearly 100% of the operators surveyed said they would operate an outdoor space even if they’re allowed to operate indoors
But the program hasn’t pleased everyone. Disabilityrights advocates worry that the explosion of such spaces is impacting accessibility by making it more difficult for people with vision or mobility impairments to navigate the sidewalk and by eliminating parking spaces.
Breed’s legislation — which she is cosponsoring with Supervisors Ahsha Safaí, Catherine Stefani, Matt Haney and Rafael Mandelman — is attempting to fix some of these issues.
“We’re going to provide the opportunity for some of the spaces that were done hastily to get up to code,” Safaí said.
The addition of familiar bureaucracy and fees could frustrate businesses that have grown used to the relatively simple program over the past year. But Breed said she still wants the process to be as easy as possible. She said her legislation will be in line with Proposition H, a successful 2020 ballot measure, which sought to streamline the city’s arduous permitting processes.
Along with the 30day deadline, the legislation says the