LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- More than a month after the Lakewood Planning Commission first started approving conditional use permits for temporary expansion of outdoor dining, restaurant owners are now applying for parklets.
While both initiatives allow businesses hurt by COVID-19 to expand outdoor dining options, the parklets -- which involve businesses transforming metered parking spaces into dining spaces or closing down certain sections of streets -- required additional planning before the city was ready to move forward.
“I started drafting the temporary outdoor dining resolution in early May in anticipation of restaurants reopening,” said Ward 2 Councilman Jason Shachner, who introduced the temporary permit concept to city council. “I wanted to provide our local businesses as many tools as possible to provide enough space to allow for social distancing.
“I also wanted to encourage outdoor dining because there was a general consensus among health officials that being outdoors decreased the risk of spreading the novel coronavirus.”
While the original resolution included a reference to parklets, the city required further guidelines before approval. That’s when Shachner created protocols, which allow for up to three parking spaces creating a single parklet.
“My only frustration was that I feel we lost two months while other cities -- like Cleveland and Cincinnati -- found ways to implement parklets more quickly,” Shachner said. “It took a significant amount of advocacy and work to get this to the finish line.”
Each parklet must maintain an 18-inch buffer from adjacent driveways, parked vehicles and vehicular traffic. Also, each location requires safety barricades -- including concrete or water filled-jersey barriers with reflectors.
“My goal was to create guidelines that were not overly restrictive or would be too expensive for businesses to follow,” Shachner said. “I believe that the final version meets these goals. I hope we see multiple businesses take advantage of this new option.”
This includes LBM owner Eric Ho, who said his Madison Avenue establishment opened for carryout and delivery in June before offering social distance-friendly sit-down service last month.
“So far business has been pretty steady, but we’re obviously not busy because of the reduced capacity,” Ho said.
That’s why he’s interested in transforming the three parking meter spots contiguous to LBM’s adjacent three-table Lark Street patio seating area into a parklet that will accommodate a half dozen four-top tables.
“We’re still going through the planning process for approval, but we hope to have it up in the next few weeks,” Ho said. “We might have to buy jersey barriers. Lakewood might not have enough to spare.”
Thinking ahead to a post-pandemic world, Ho said he hopes Lakewood opens its eyes to the parklets concept, which has caught on across the country.
“The goal is Lakewood will do away with some of our very archaic laws,” Ho said. “Parklets are definitely a thing.”
Read more news from the Sun Post Herald here.
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