Alameda City Council considers parklet changes
Photo credit: City of Alameda/Maurice Ramirez
ALAMEDA, Calif. - The Alameda City Council on Wednesday will consider changing the setup of two streets in business districts that could require several parklets to be modified.
The City Council is considering changes to parts of Park Street and Webster Street, two popular commercial corridors in Alameda that were repurposed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to include outdoor parklet spaces that businesses could use.
The council in November 2021 approved the parklets and street redesign for a two-year period that ends Nov. 3 of this year, and city staff are asking the council members at Wednesday's meeting to provide direction on how, or if, the parklet program should move forward.
The recommendation by city staff in the agenda for Wednesday's meeting is to restripe portions of both Park and Webster streets to resume the parking setup from before the COVID-19 reconfiguration and include bicycle lanes.
The city staff's report says the current configuration with parking offset from the curb "has been confusing for visitors, difficult to enforce, and challenging to maintain due to the reliance on easily-damaged plastic bollards to define parking space locations."
The proposed change would require several existing parklets, such as ones at the restaurants Burma Superstar and Cafe Jolie and the Daisy's gift shop, to narrow in size, according to the staff report, which notes 19 businesses in all have parklets in the Park Street commercial district along with three in the Webster Street district.
The proposal on the City Council's agenda also recommends maintaining the closure of a block of Alameda Avenue off of Park Street as a pedestrian plaza with outdoor seating and bike parking.
The council meeting is set for 7 p.m. Wednesday in council chambers at City Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Ave., and can also be accessed remotely via Zoom. People can find out more about the Zoom participation at https://www.alamedaca.gov/zoom.