The City of Paso Robles held a workshop Tuesday afternoon to discuss returning parklets to downtown.
The program to put outdoor dining areas in parking spaces in front of restaurants was implemented initially to address the needs of restaurant operators who were hard hit by COVID restrictions imposed by city, county and state officials. Although the parklets were popular among diners, particularly in good weather, they were removed late in 2021 so that downtown businesses could recover the parking places displaced by the parklets. The parklets eliminated 69 parking places in the downtown area. According to Paso Robles Chamber CEO Gina Fitzpatrick, there are 465 total parking spaces downtown.
Community Development Director Warren Frace spoke and set the stage for the workshop. He encouraged people to share what they liked and disliked about the parklets. The city’s David Athey wrote comments that the community members shared on posters hanging on the wall of the Library Conference Room.
About thirty people attended the meeting. Some of the stakeholders operate restaurants. Others had businesses downtown. Many who attended were simply interested members of the community. Some attendees were restaurant owners who valued the expanded floor space in the parklet. They indicated many visitors and locals enjoyed dining alfresco in downtown Paso Robles.
Business owners and shoppers talked about the shortage of downtown parking spaces. Several opposed removing nearly 70 parking spaces from the inventory of 465.
Some novel solutions were introduced. Rooftop dining and balconies suggested as a way to expand dining in downtown without reducing the inventory of parking spaces.
After all the suggestions were listed on the wall, attendees were encouraged to put stickers to demonstrate approval or disapproval. No decisions were made at the workshop, but the city will look at the response, and there may be another workshop before the issue may be put on a Planning Commission agenda.
