Ugly donkey corrals to be replaced by wider sidewalks for dining. Let’s see how many people want to eat in the fog with seagulls overhead.
The pandemic parklets that saved a number of Pacific Grove restaurants from closure as well as kept sales taxes flowing into city coffers, will come to an end by Oct. 31, the P.G. City Council voted on Wednesday, April 2.
City Manager Matt Mogensen was asking the council for direction on the parklet program as a deadline loomed for restaurants to renew parklet permits on June 30 for another year.
Since the city was moving toward sidewalk dining, Mogensen asked if they should sunset parklets. He suggested they give restaurant owners an incentive to remove their parklets early by waiving sidewalk dining fees costing $905 for the first year.
With the tourist season coming up, the council decided to extend sunsetting the program until Oct. 31. In the meantime, owners could choose to end by June 30, with fees waived and the city bearing the cost of removing their parklets.