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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3B - Public Comment9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B 9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B t September 28, 2022 City of Palm Springs: City Council Subject: Commerce on public land Greetings With Parklets/Pedlets/Sidewalk seating up for review, its important to look at the State of California SB 946 and SB 972 as well as PSMC setting the regulations of food trucks. It’s my council’s interpretation that the City of Palm Springs has the ability to ban commerce on downtown streets and sidewalks, however that would require a ban on all commerce on public land in the CBD. SB 946 specifically states no preference may be given to brick-and-mortar businesses or the competition street vendors bring to brick-and-mortar businesses. In other words, if a restaurant may conduct commerce on a public sidewalk or street, a food truck must be permitted in the same area, if a restaurant is permitted to conduct commerce on public sidewalks, a street vendor may set up sales of mid-mod tee shirts in front of destination PSP. With a compliant street vendor ordinance, you can ban street food and merchandise by time and place, such as throughout downtown/uptown based on public safety and congestion, however that means banning all commerce on public land including by brick and mortar businesses. Likewise, your food truck ordinance states that the restaurant industry had extensive input on creating the food truck ordinance which regulates their SEVEN UNIQUE DISTRICTS CREATING ONE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE LIKE NO PLACE ELSE FROM NORTH TO SOUTH: ➢City Gateway District Palm Canyon Drive Tramway to Vista Chino ➢Uptown Dine and Design District Palm & Indian Canyons Vista Chino to Alejo Downtown Alejo to Camino Parasola THE MICRO DISTRCTS OF DOWNTOWN: North Palm Canyon Drive Tribal Cultural Center and Entertainment district Tahquitz Corridor South Palm Canyon Drive Indian Canyon Drive No & So District Arenas The Sunny Dunes Palm Canyon Drive, Camino Parasola to Mesquite, Sunnydunes Road Industrial Place The Curve @ South and East Palm Canyon Drive Mesquite to Camino Real Smoketrees and Saguaro District Palm Canyon Drive Camino Real to Araby Backstreet Arts District Cherokee Way at Palm Canyon Drive PALM SPRINGS Promotions Matt Robinson Loving the Districts of Palm Canyon Dirve 7610 Calle Mazamitla, Palm Springs CA 92264 GuyInPalmSprings@gmail.com 760/567 -0473 PSP 9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B competition. Additionally, the food truck ordinance gives the reason to ban food trucks in the downtown area because of the lack adequate public parking and the fact operating food trucks in street parking spaces would add to the parking problems in the CBD. If the fact remains that commerce by food trucks using street parking would use needed public parking, then you must also find parklets and sidewalk seating is using needed public land. The parklet for Las Casuelas Terraza has been closed with chairs stacked and chained all summer. The regulations set by the City Council require the tables and chairs be set in place every hour the restaurant is open and the parklet must be open for business a minimum number of hours per week based upon season. They even store a pile of metal table bases at the north end of the parklet, I’m sure they would never leave a pile of table bases on their private patio. Walking the public sidewalk between a restaurant and the sidewalk seating feels like you made a wrong turn and are walking thru the restaurant and not down a public sidewalk. If the industry was allowed to write the regu lations, they should be able to abide by them. If the industry can unite at leverage power at city hall to keep public land, they should be able to unite to self-police their own industry. Under your current municipal code on street vending, you are non-compliant with the State of California and have been for nearly four years. I hereby request assistance acquiring a merchandise sidewalk vendor permit for the one or two hundred north blocks of Palm Canyon Drive. Thank You Matt Robinson 9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B From:Mindy Reed To:City Clerk; Flinn Fagg Subject:Parklets Date:Tuesday, September 27, 2022 8:11:55 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. City Council, Mayor and Staff Thank you for allowing the business owners with parklets to offer our opinions and for keeping us informed of when you are voting on this. I hope that you will choose to continue to allow both the sidewalk and street parklets to continue. My employees and myself are constantly told by guests how much they like dining outside. Especially when we had a break in the heat and got into the low 100s. Even when it's hot (mostly in the evening when it cools of during the summer) some people still feel safer dining outside or they just like to be outside and watch the nightlife on the street and feel like they are in Europe instead of downtown any city USA. Knowing they can stay will allow more of us to invest in misters to make it even a more year round comfortable space. Your new guidelines I think are very comprehensive and those of us who have built streetside parklets conforming to them have invested a lot but we are proud and happy with how they look and glad you set guidelines in place. Flinn, I know you spent a great deal of time doing this and want to thank you personlly for your attention to details and making the guidelines clear for us. I hope that Council will see the value in continuing to allow them. We are able to provide more jobs all year round for our employees giving them a better life with consistant income. COVID is still very active and it is still safer to dine outside for those of our community who need to be able to get out of their houses and sheltered lives and be able to share dinner or drinks with friends and so important for the most vunerable of our residents and tourists. 9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B Most tourists in general like very much to be outside and having this additional outdoor, European feeling makes Palm Springs continue to feel like a 'village' even while large hotels are very slowly being built right on Palm Canyon we are keeping that feeling of copenly welcoming and distracting them from the eyesore sometimes directly across the street making it feel sad and closed up. North Palm Canyon is a great example of keeping the Palm Springs Charm in the midst of chaos I think largely due to the parklets up there. This also attracts people to walk and shop instead of feeling like it's just a construction zone. I think it's important to all the businesses to keep them open even if just for this. Were all of them done right in the beginning? No but this doesn't mean that all the effort and planning and building that it took to make them what they are now shouldn't be valued and continue to bring a vibrant shopping, dining area and that 'village feeling' especially to the downtown corridor we all love so much because of exactly this. This all combines to truely make Palm Springs like no where else and I hope you will vote to allow parklets with the current rents, guidelines and standards to continue. Respectfully Mindy Reed, Owner Zin American Bistro 198 S Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs pszin.com 760 322 6300 Revel Public House // Palm Springs Brewing Co 140 S Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs REVELps.com 760 325 9464 9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B From:Irene Johnson To:City Clerk Subject:Parkletts have to go. It’s time. Date:Tuesday, September 27, 2022 11:31:49 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Please have them removed. They were ok and understandable during the pandemic. They look awful. Once iconic Palm Canyon just is not the same. Grace Garner said it best when she compared the street appearance to summer camp. It’s already a narrow street. Please open it back up to the way it was. The restaurants thrived before and they will thrive now the same as before. Thank you Irene and Jeff Johnson Palm Springs Ca 92264 9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B From:Bob Eicholz To:City Clerk Subject:Parklets / Sidewalk Seating Date:Wednesday, September 28, 2022 7:02:21 AM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. As a resident of Old Las Palmas behind Palm Canyon, I strongly endorse Sidewalk Seating and Parklets. These both enhance the walk ability and public enjoyment of our outdoor spaces and also provide benefits to our struggling restaurants. In fact, if it were up to me, I’d take a lane away from Palm Canyon and add more pedestrian / sidewalk space. Thank you, Bob Eicholz Sent from my iPad 9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B From:Remus A. Haste To:City Clerk Subject:Parklets Date:Wednesday, September 28, 2022 5:30:03 PM Attachments:image001.png image002.png image003.png image004.png image005.png image006.png image007.png image008.png NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Dear City: The Patios are a wonderful addition to the City and really adds the culture and vibe. Please keep them, and keep our Restaurants in business. If you should have any questions, please feel free to call or email our office. Sincerely, Remus A. Haste, CPA REMUS HASTE & ASSOCIATES CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS 41990 Cook Street Ste C301, Palm Desert, CA 92211-6101 PO Box 13590, Palm Desert, CA 92255-3590 760-360-2069 760-360-0455 remus@rah-cpa.com Disclosure: We inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachment) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed therein. Confidentiality Note: This e-mail, and any attachment to it, contains privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity named on the e-mail. If the reader of this e-mail is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that reading it is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately return it to the sender and delete it from your system. Thank you. 9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B From:sdstorm (null) To:City Clerk Subject:Parklets Date:Tuesday, September 27, 2022 3:01:39 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. I am in favor of all parklets being removed after 2022. The rent paid is not enough, we need the parking for other businesses, many are not complying with the rules established, the cost of enforcement not where the funds should be spent, many reasons to eliminate parklets altogether not to mention that legally allows other vendors to sell on city streets. Sent from my iPad 09/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B From:joseph.trunk@icloud.com To:City Clerk Subject:Parklets Topic Date:Tuesday, September 27, 2022 3:33:09 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. I understand that the Palm Springs city council will be discussing the topic of parklets and sidewalk seating at their meeting on September 29, 2022. I want to express my opposition to the existence of parklets and any similar type of extension of a business to public space. The existing ones are all unsightly and create clutter in the areas adjacent to the restaurants that use them. Such restaurants must limit their business operations to their own footprint and not expand into any public space. I urge the council to end this practice. Sincerely yours, Joseph Trunk 721 East Arenas Road 09/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B From:Jarrod Sipe To:City Clerk; Flinn Fagg Subject:Support for Parklets Date:Tuesday, September 27, 2022 4:36:17 AM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. City Council, Mayor and City Staff, I would like to voice my support for the sidewalk and street parklets in Palm Springs. If anything, positive came from COVID it would be this – people have always loved dining outside in the desert and even more in Palm Springs with our beautiful views and village vibe and now they can do it while watching the world go by in front of them enjoying a margarita or an ice cold beer. The sidewalk and street parklets, done with the new thoughtfully considered guidelines the city has mandated, give our downtown that European village feel everyone loves. The parklets provide additional jobs for many entry level positions and provides families opportunities to improve their lifestyle learning and having careers in the restaurant industry. Being a palm springs full-time resident for over 12 years I support our local businesses and outside dining is one of the great things about palm springs. I support the current rent fees, the design standards and appreciate the investment these businesses made during COVID building safe places for locals and visitors to dine. With a pending recession Palm Springs needs to continue what we have done thru the last economic downturns – be that oasis in the desert that you can come to and forget about the stress of work while enjoying our shopping, dining, world class hotels and have once in a lifetime experiences. I hope you will vote to allow the sidewalk and street parklets to continue to bring life and business to our streets for a very long time. Jarrod Sipe Mastering the Art of Personal Beauty and Wellness www.studiomsalonandspa.com 760-327-9000 09/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B From:chris jakespalmsprings.com To:City Clerk Subject:Parklets Date:Monday, September 26, 2022 8:36:58 PM NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. As a Palm Springs resident and former restaurant owner here in town, I know firsthand how valuable the addition of parklets has been to the PS Dining scene. The industry was decimated and still has not fully recovered and restaurateurs still face many daily challenges. However the parklets are popular with customers as it affords more outside dining options to a weary and Covid phobic public. The parklets are prevelant and a welcome addition to many California cities, and should be allowed to remain in Palm Springs. Thank you for your time Chris Malm 09/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B 9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B September 22, 22 Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council City of Palm Springs 3200 East Tahquitz Way Palm Springs, CA 92262 This letter is to urge your continuation of Parklets for 2023. I am proud to say that Blackbook has embraced your faith that we can execute parklets in a way that is additive to the overall Palm Springs experience. Design: Working with Flinn and his team we added a concrete platform, a proper umbrella shade system, and a full misting system, all in accordance to code. Costs: The costs for this alone, exceeded $50,000. This does not include the initial set-up costs that we incurred in 2020, nor the rent we pay the city. While we have yet to recoup these added costs, we felt it important to fully embrace this project. Neighbors: We worked with our retail neighbors and the city to add four 20-minute parking spaces around the parklet so as to ensure our friends achieved better access for their businesses than what existed before the pandemic. Opportunites: We are able to utilize the parklet in ways that we haven’t been able to do at Blackbook. Pride (for example): we will be using the parklet to provide dining on the street as we need a few dining outlets to accomodate the crowds. We are also, now able to host group brunches, and meals for various Palm Springs organizations. As we continue to dig out from the past three years, restaurants are now faced with a looming recession. Historically, restaurants are hurt the most in a recession. Again, these parklets could help save our businesses and jobs. Thank you, Dean Lavine 9/29/2022 Public Comment Item 3B