Parklet crash comes as fees are being charged for outside dining structures in Santa Barbara
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - A weekend vehicle crash into a parklet in downtown Santa Barbara comes as the city is now charging fees for the first time for these outside structures since they went in at the start of the pandemic in 2020.
The destructive vehicle accident Saturday morning took place at 1:30 a.m.
It was on 15 E. Ortega Street where the Press Room bar parklet had been installed outside of the business entrance.
The impact shattered the wooden structure and moved it into the next driveway.  No one was in the parklet at the time and there were no injuries.
Witnesses say the driver kept going, crossed the intersection and stopped on Chapala Street.
Santa Barbara Police responded and made an arrest. On scene witnesses said they believed the driver was impaired.
A police statement and further information has been requested.
The Press Room said it was hoping to rebuild the parklet.
The parklet builder Josue Vasquez said the driver hit the reinforced area and plowed through it, "and then just shattered the whole thing. There was nothing saved. Nothing salvageable."
The Press Room Manager Jack Rafferty said, "nobody was injured there was just property damage and I believe the person was arrested. There was like a thousand pound guard rail, basically in the form of a planter."
If the Press room decides it will have to keep the project within the footprint of this very small building mainly because there is a driveway on each side of where the parklet will go.
The fee issue recently came before the Santa Barbara City Council and, after many weeks of back and forth discussions, a $2.00 per square foot fee was the amount the council agreed on.Â
That funding will go towards the upkeep of State Street with the increased outside dining areas. The work includes power washing, landscaping, janitorial and hourly staff.
At the hearing, Opal restaurant owner Richard Yates said that some business owners may keep their parklets up under the new city fee structure, but make a change later in the year, "maybe at the end of summer when the weather changes."
The owner of Night Lizard Brewing Company on State Street, John Nasser, said he recently redesigned his outside parklet into a more simple table and chair area with no seating platform. The border area is now made up of planters. He told the council, "I will not start to recoup the cost of my furniture or the outside facilities until the end of the summer and as we get to the later months obviously we get less people outside."
It will still takes months of business to pay for this work.
Robin Elander with the Santa Barbara Downtown Organization urged the city to have a fee that businesses can afford, "without putting undue financial strain on them." That was part of the wide ranging discussion that led to the $2.00 per square foot fee. One councilmember suggested no fee for now to help the area restore its economic vitality.
If the fee doesn't cover the maintenance costs, the city will pay out of its other funds, designated for various departments.
City councilmember Eric Friedman said, "that cost is going to be directly borne by the departments we say we support it's not just parks and libraries. It's police It's (the) fire department."
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