Pismo Beach to allow on-street dining and business operations
PISMO BEACH, Calif. - Pismo Beach will now allow for dining and other business operations to take place on public streets in certain designated areas of the city.
At Tuesday's City Council meeting, the city gave the green light, ending weeks of frustration for many business owners that had been pleading with leaders to allow for on-street use.
"We're thrilled that the City Council and (City Manager) Jim Lewis, took it upon themselves to redirect the policies for sidewalk and outdoor dining," said Shell Beach Brewhouse co-owner Frank Schrio. "It should allow us to get through this a lot better than what we were looking at before because to not have any outdoor dining, or very limited outdoor dining, was going to be a death sentence for quite a few businesses."
Schiro was one of many owners that had been seeking permission to use parking spaces adjacent to their business, which has been done in many other cities throughout San Luis Obispo County, as well as California.
He said his restaurant would be able to add 30 to 40 additional seats in the soon-to-be created outdoor dining area on Shell Beach Road.
"We think about the 45 employees here that are our family," said Schiro. "Each table we have allows us to keep one more employee and we don't have to furlough or let our family members go."
According to the city, on-street business will be available on Pomeroy Avenue, the 10 spaces closest to Dolliver Street, 10 spaces on Pomeroy closest to Cool Cats Cafe, on Cypress Street, five spaces adjacent to Brad's Restaurant.
The city also said restaurants will provide "K-rails," the barriers to block traffic from dining areas, as well as ADA access, plus insurance and indemnity for the city.
The businesses will be responsible for the setup, maintenance, and tear down of their areas in the street and sidewalk.
For any business that utilizes space not adjacent to their property, the must provide instructions to customers to use crosswalks.
The city will not charge businesses for an application for the spaces, which are now being processed as quickly as possible.
For businesses in Shell Beach, they may be delayed as the Shell Beach Streetscape construction finishes up.
The city expects that to be 2-3 weeks, but if it's earlier, the applications will be accepted earlier.
Unlike many other coastal cities in California, Pismo Beach was not allowing businesses to move some of their services outside to city sidewalks and parking spaces.
Local business owners and employees flooded the public comment section during Tuesday night's city council meeting.
Many speaking about their personal experience losing money as restaurants have been forced to close during the pandemic.
"The city did a great job in reconsidering some of their past policies and we're looking forward to the change and we're looking forward to getting back to a little bit more of normal seating capacity," said Schiro.
