Millbrae scopes outdoor dining

The COVID emergency ended Feb. 28, the same day the City Council unanimously approved an interim outdoor dining program until September. The council directed city staff to execute parking studies with the goal of figuring out how much parking the downtown businesses require.

Vern Bruce, owner of Millbrae Lock on El Camino Real downtown, said his business is wedged between two outdoor dining parklets creating parking issues for his service trucks and walk-in customers.

“When we were approached with this proposition, we went right along with it with the contention and the promise they would be removed by the end of COVID,” Bruce said. “It is now substantially longer than we ever dreamed it might and now we are being told it might stay.”

Pre-COVID parking was already terrible, he said, and the issue was only exacerbated with the arrival of a popular restaurant across El Camino Real he felt wasn’t properly mitigated.

Bruce said his service vehicles are supporting his shop employees and he is effectively working for his employees. His customers will look to other businesses if there is no parking nearby, he added.

At the peak of the program, the city had 12 outdoor dining parklets and seven dining permits downtown. Today, it has six parklets occupying 18 parking spaces. City Manager Tom Williams said the downtown has about 1,000 parking spaces but should explore ways to add parking before it decides to take more away.

Councilmember Gina Papan asked about alternatives so the downtown businesses like Bruce’s can operate like they did pre-COVID.

“I think we should cap whatever we are doing. … We don’t want the whole downtown to become parklets and no place to park,” Papan said.

The city could widen the sidewalks, allowing restaurants to use the added space for outdoor dining, Williams said. However, it would mean 20% less street parking because the city would go from angled parking to parallel. The city owns three empty lots around the downtown that could be turned into parking structures but Williams said that takes time and resources.

Councilmember Maurice Goodman said the city might look into metered parking in the future and the impact of the parking spaces used by outdoor dining structures should be weighed in that study. He also wanted to know how much revenue the city would be missing, and how it could be made up.

Councilmember Anders Fung suggested short-term parking spaces for designated areas surrounding the parklets. And Councilmember Angela Cahalan said the city could consider implementing seasonal parklet for a discounted fee.

The city’s outdoor dining guidelines state parklets need to be durable, attractive, ADA-accessible and must not obstruct the gutter from stormwater. They are only allowed on level streets with a 25 mph speed limit and away from corners. They can’t obstruct driveways, fire hydrants, stormwater inlets, manholes or utilities. The permit holder needs to maintain it and is responsible for keeping it clean. They also need to have a certificate of liability insurance coverage with the city, according to the staff report.

Once the study is completed, city officials will present the costs for the necessary permits, one of them for encroachment of a public space. City staff will return to the council sometime late summer before the interim program expires as a long-term solution is determined.