Parklets coming down in many areas of Santa Barbara, reducing outside dining and increasing parking

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Before and after an end of the year deadline, parklets are getting dismantled in some areas of Santa Barbara.

The locations are mainly on Haley Street, Milpas Street, Cabrillo Boulevard, and Coast Village Road.

City rules are being enforced, which bans parklets now on streets with two lanes of traffic going one direction and also all of Coast Village Road.

The owner of Chad's restaurant, Chad Stevens, said he lost 30 seats with this decision, and four workers had their hours cut because of the reduction in the waterfront restaurant's capacity. Chad's is on Cabrillo Boulevard in a prime spot to view the Santa Barbara Harbor.

On weekends and sunny summer days, the restaurant runs a line for the outside tables. Some customers said they will wait more than 30 minutes for the outside table than going with the option to sit inside.

Stevens said when the parklet was taken out, "we called off today three to four staff members due to the fact that we lost the seating that we had out front."

Businesses on Haley that have already taken action are Twenty-Four Blackbirds Chocolate Factory, and the Aperitivo wine bar.

All of Coast Village Road will be parklet free soon. Reneaud's and Coast and Olive took their parklets out prior to the deadline. Work is underway to remove the dining areas at Lucky's, Bree'osh, Tre Lune and Jeannine's.

"We were very grateful to have them in the beginning but it is definitely time to expose the beautiful building here," said Brenda Nichols a Montecito resident and Lucky's customer.
"This building is too beautiful architecturally to cover it.  I'm thrilled to have it gone."

A retail business owner who dines out on Coast Village Road, Jessica Ballonoff said, the parklets were not an issue for her. "I like eating outside. I'm ok if they stay. I don't need them to go."

The Santa Barbara City Council discussed the parklet rules, and also safety issues, multiple times in the last six months. Mayor Randy Rowse said over the weekend, the city staff would not be instructed to take down the existing parklets immediately if they remained up, but there would be action eventually to enforce the removal decision. If that happens, the business owner would pay the city the full costs of the removal and dumping fees.

Increased outside dining has had it's popularity and in some cases a test under this temporary plan and it still may be in future designs in line with some of the historical look of the city.

"A design that would work both to protect the customers and also the vision that  Pearl Chase had to keep the city looking beautiful," said Stevens.

(More details, photos and video will be added here later today.)