Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
The Santa Barbara City Council has approved outdoor dining structure fees for restaurants and vendors using parklets on State Street.
After nearly two hours of discussion and three rounds of voting on Thursday, the council voted 4-2 to enact a tiered fee system beginning May 1, 2023.
Businesses in the 400 through 1300 blocks of State Street will be charged based on portability at street grade, the amount of space used, and how far the structure extends into city-owned property.
Below is the following rate structure:
Standard Rate (not portable, with platform and roof)*
$5.00 per square foot up to 100% of building frontage
$7.50 per square foot 100-200%
$10.00 per square foot 200%+
*Only allowed for existing businesses with platforms and roofs.
Rate for No Roof (not portable, with platform)**
$4.50 per square foot up to 100% of building frontage
$6.75 per square foot 100-200%
$9.00 per square foot 200%+
**Only allowed for existing businesses with platforms.
Rate for Portable (with platform, no roof)***
$4.00 per square foot up to 100% of building frontage
$6.00 per square foot 100-200%
$8.00 per square foot 200%+
***Only allowed for existing businesses with platforms.
Rate for At-Grade (portable, no platform, no roof)****
$3.00 per square foot up to 100% of building frontage
$4.50 per square foot 100-200%
$6.00 per square foot 200%+
***This is the only version new businesses will be allowed to have.
An application is in development and will be released soon, but businesses with questions are encouraged to contact Brian Bosse bbosse@santabarbaraca.gov or Sarah Clark at sclark@santabarbaraca.gov.
Randy Rowse taxing businesses wow….. So hard to operate here anyway. Randy’s campaign promise was to make the parks safe again. Still addicted lawless homeless everywhere. Randy – we have daily broken window incidents with multiple businesses – WTF is going on …. you’ve done NOTHING to address it. Thanks Randy – keep thinking of the little people that voted for you at your next martini dinner or ribbon cutting. We’re still trying to survive while you are enjoying steak dinners and hobnobbing with the elite.
I wasn’t a fan of Cathy Murillo – but hell bring her back. There are multiple downtown window breakings and numerous store swarming robberies – and you literally can’t do anything to help WTF Randy?
This just ridiculous for the City of SB to implement this!! Now the restaurant owners on State St. are going to have to raise the prices on their menus to pay extra for the parklets. It is bad enough for them paying high lease to the property owners on the commercial space to operate their restaurants. If I was a restaurant owner on State St. and had a parklet, I would remove it ASPP and have complete indoor dining and do the very best I can to have my menu prices reasonable as well as beer, wine and well drinks. Politics = money and money = politics, that’s how it goes with local, state and national. It hurts the people in their pocket books to those who are not wealthy or super-wealthy.
Luvthisplace, i totally agree and feel it’s wrong that they are holding state street hostage, forcing decades old celebrations and parades to other areas. They have encroached onto public property for free. These guys did just fine prior to COVID and need to pull their stuff back inside and allow the road to reopen. this isn’t santa monica and will never be. we do not have the retail to justify 9 block closer of a major road.