Some are empty more than they are used. Some have unsafe conditions.
Prompting those letters was an 86-page report by a P.G. Planning Commission subcommittee that recommended 14 rules for parklets. Those rules would have meant all existing parklets would have to be torn down; some could have and rebuilt much smaller, and at least five of the current 13 parklets would have been eliminated entirely.
Despite pleas from restaurant owners who said the new rules would hurt their businesses in a time of inflation and other challenges, the Planning Commission voted 4-1 on Dec. 8 to send the recommendations to the City Council.
Some of the commission’s recommendations went beyond what was required by existing codes, said John Kuehl, the city’s chief building official. While the planning commissioners were concerned about safety, Kuehl suggested that some people’s perception of what’s safe may not correlate with laws already in place.
