BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto City Council has reined in outdoor dining setups around University Avenue, preventing them from expanding in front of a restaurant without their neighbor’s consent.
Six restaurants that have already expanded beyond their frontage will be allowed to stay until the city rebuilds University Avenue with wider sidewalks, tentatively planned in 2027 for $40 million.
Retailers and downtown landlords wanted council to limit outdoor dining setups, or parklets, to only directly in front of a restaurant.
“Convenient, distributed parking is a pillar to our successful retail,” said Brad Ehikian, partner at Premier Property Management.
But council members said they like that outdoor dining brings more people to the street, and they didn’t want to change the rules for restaurants that had already invested in parklets.
“My primary goal is to get people on the street,” Councilman George Lu said. “And I have no strong opinion on maximizing property values or maximizing values for restaurants or retailers.”
Any restaurant owners who want to expand their outdoor dining area in the future will need a letter of consent from the neighboring tenant. The expanded area can’t have a roof.
“For me philosophically, this is not a question for a landlord to decide what we do with public spaces,” Councilman Greer Stone said. “But I think the argument for an adjacent business owner to be concerned about what goes in front of their property, such as Bell’s Books, is reasonable.”
Monday’s meeting was a departure from a Retail Committee meeting on Dec. 17, when property owners and retailers pushed hard against parklets.
Former Councilwoman Lydia Kou sided with property owners at the Retail Committee meeting. She reached her term limits and left council on Jan. 6 but returned on Monday to defend her vote favoring parking over parklets.
“This is a taking from these property owners who are in charge of renting out their properties,” Kou said.
Councilman Pat Burt wanted to have landlords decide whether to allow parklets in front, not the tenants. But he was outnumbered 6-1.