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Much Ado About a Parklet

By Neil Farrell

Parklet BEST-01Former Morro Bay Mayor Rodger Anderson said it best more than a decade ago, paraphrasing — ‘Morro Bay doesn’t do change very well.’
And such was the case with the recent installation of a “parklet” in the 800 block of Main St., an outdoor patio-seating area in the street, that took up three parking spaces but made room for a motorcycle and some bicycles to park.
Parklets have been growing in popularity in such places as San Francisco, which probably does change better than most cities, and the concept was brought to Morro Bay as one way to try and revitalize the Downtown Area by making it more pedestrian and bicycle friendly.
The parklet is on a 6-month trial and the City is not as yet committed to whether it should be permanent and the program expanded with other parklets in the Downtown Area.
City Manager David Buckingham spear-headed the installation mainly with reused materials — plastic decking leftover from the Harborwalk project, planter boxes moved from other areas of Downtown and iron patio furniture from the Top Dog Coffee Bar, which the parklet fronts, along with a couple of other businesses. Top Dog owners agreed to keep the parklet tidy.
Though it’s been discussed as part of the City’s Local Economic Action Plan process now underway, area business owners reacted negatively, to say the least at the last council meeting. Several people, including former Councilwomen Betty Winholtz, and Melody DeMeritt, and Coalesce Bookstore owner Linna Thomas, each criticized the City for the way in which it went about the project. Normally, “stakeholders” or at the least adjacent business owners would have gotten plenty of chances to review and critique such a project, perhaps even help design it, but they said the city went ahead and installed it despite their objections to taking away parking spaces in the heart of Downtown.
Also, though anyone can use the parklet, some saw it as a City-paid-for extension of Top Dog’s business.
Buckingham told The Bay News that he started talking about the parklet idea to business owners back in December. “It is not true that we did not talk to business owners before the parklet was installed,” he said. “We talked to many, passed out flyers on Main Street, had info on the website and gave a presentation at the Dec. 9 Council meeting. I also offered to attend a meeting of Main Street business owners but no one organized the meeting so there was nothing for me to attend.”
Some also questioned how the City would judge its success? Buckingham admitted they haven’t figured that out yet. “Not completely,” he said, “but it will include input from both residents and business owners, usage and problems will be key, and, if possible, a metric-based measurement of effect on businesses and parking.”
As a City facility there will of course need to be rules for its use. Asked if the parklet would be “No Smoking” Buckingham said he assumed so (Morro Bay has an ban on smoking in outdoor public places). What about loitering, sleeping, or dogs that might leave a mess?
“It is a park, not a campground,” he said, “and we will work to keep it that way. Dogs are fine. People should have a mutt mitt in their pocket [What if their dog messes down the block?] but I could see a water bowl.”
One of the things the City will have to rectify is charging some $5,000 per parking space to private developers under the parking in-lieu ordinance, vs. taking away parking with things like parklets without compensation back to the In-lieu Parking Fund.
So while Morro Bay might not do change very well, the parklet idea has been planted and there could be others in the future. Buckingham said he’s looking at other parklets possibly installed in front of Sunshine Health Foods and possibly in front of Mike’s Barber Shop, both on MBB.
“Some business owners love the idea,” Buckingham said, “some don’t. In the past few days four other downtown businesses have asked for a parklet — now. We are waiting to assess the pilot parklet before taking any additional action.”

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