A Chula Vista City Council subcommittee will start brainstorming ideas with local businesses for a proposed, citywide outdoor dining policy as early as next month.
Mayor John McCann, who suggested considering such an ordinance, will spearhead the group with Councilmember Jose Preciado.
“The mission will be to bring outdoor dining recommendations to formalize the policies back to this council,” said McCann, adding that rules would apply “for the entire city. It will be from the bayfront to Broadway to Third Avenue (and) to the eastern side.”
If approved by the end of the year, outdoor dining rules would come in time for the May opening of the billion-dollar resort hotel and convention center on the city’s bayfront.
“We want to make sure we’re attracting many of those visitors into our city to be able to have them enjoy our restaurants and our businesses to be able to bring in revenue for them and to help create jobs,” said McCann.
Tuesday’s move comes ahead of a Labor Day week deadline the city issued for parklets along Third Avenue to come down.
Since the pandemic, Chula Vista has extended its temporary program that allowed bars and breweries to serve food with al fresco dining. The city began tightening restrictions in 2021 when it ordered establishments to remove their structures or replace them with appropriately designed and constructed setups within the public right-of-way that are permitted and ADA-compliant. With federal stimulus dollars, the city allocated $300,000 to reimburse businesses for their outdoor areas.
Some business owners urged officials on Tuesday to let them keep their outdoor decks while officials deliberate permanent rules. Others said it was time for a citywide ordinance that could give all interested businesses an equal opportunity to set up permitted outdoor spaces. Most of all, they asked officials to allow them to be part of the subcommittee’s deliberations.
Dominic Li Mandri, director of the Downtown Chula Vista Association, said businesses have the experience to shape such a policy. One idea he offered: the city create an improvement fund to support businesses that will have to remove their parklets but later be allowed to add them should Chula Vista adopt new rules.
McCann said the subcommittee should have recommendations ready within the next four months.
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