Poll: Should North Laurel Street Be Permanently Closed to Traffic?
April 14, 2021
Parklets vs. Parking.
The temporary closure of the north stretch of Laurel Street has proved to be a lifeline for San Carlos restaurants during the pandemic, especially now as the weather is gradually warming and it's actually somewhat tolerable to sit outside and eat. It's probably safe to assume that without the added revenue of outdoor dining and takeout, a number of these establishments would not be here today.
The success of the program, however, has not been viewed quite as equally by all. Some non-restaurant business owners have complained about their business suffering due to the lack of parking, while other residents have objected to the increasing number of people drawn to the 700 block of Laurel, where the restaurant density is at its greatest. Consequently, a staff proposal was floated to the San Carlos City Council this past week recommending the termination of the Laurel Street closure effective June 15, which would have coincided with the State of California's published intent to lift most COVID-19 restrictions.
But in a rather surprising move, the City Council opted to not act on the staff proposal in their most recent Council meeting. Instead, it was decided that the program would continue until at least September 1, which was the originally agreed upon date, and possibly longer. The Council not only directed the City Staff to investigate the complaints raised by residents and business owners, but in its most surprising move, to look into the permanent closure of the north stretch of Laurel Street to vehicular traffic where most of the parklets currently exist.
This would transform Laurel Street into a more European-like pedestrian plaza, not too unlike parts of Santana Row. There are a number of critical items to consider with closing Laurel Street permanently along those blocks, the most obvious being the lack of storefront parking, and how it would impact delivery services for those businesses. But if this style of downtown works well in other parts of the country and around world, why couldn't it work in San Carlos?
What are your thoughts about closing parts of Laurel Street permanently? Register your vote in the poll in the sidebar, and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below. This discussion will likely be as lively and possibly contentious as the decision to outsource our police and fire departments nearly a decade ago!
Poll closed.
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100% in favor
I feel like there is a nice parking lot across the street on El Camino. A nice walking bridge would solve half the concern. Much like European cities, walking a little would probably serve us well.
It the long run, all the businesses will benefit.
100% in favor. Disclaimer: I am a new yorker, so parking a bit far is something I’m used to. The banks and some other businesses close at 6pm, which tends to be when there’s a higher demand for parking. Are we officially allowed to park in their spots? I know people always do.
Just about every single Council member, at some point in their career (usually just after joining the Council), comes up with this idea. Or so Jeff Maltbie, the city manager, told me when I approached him with it back in 2012.
There are a lot of benefits to the change. But there are also a lot of costs, primarily in terms of reduced parking. There are 56 parking spaces on the block of Laurel between Cherry and San Carlos Avenue, and a similar number on each of the other blocks. When you consider that the entire Wheeler Parking Garage only contains about 250 spaces you can see that each block converted to a pedestrian mall costs a non-trivial portion of San Carlos’ downtown parking capacity. That’s always been the primary reason the idea died on the vine.
But times — and the make-up of a community — change, and what was a requirement a decade ago isn’t necessarily one anymore. Many of the people who have moved to San Carlos in the last 20 years are more open to walking a bit further, getting to and from downtown without using a car, etc. At the same time the older San Carlans whose lives revolved more centrally around cars have been moving on, or passing away. So we may be at a tipping point regarding the impact of losing that downtown parking.
Another cost of the conversion has to do with the “ecology” of the downtown businesses. As can be seen with the pandemic-triggered experiment of closing off parts of Laurel the businesses that primarily took advantage of it were the restaurants. This was the one thing which, personally, I did not expect when we launched the experiment. I expected the retail shops would take advantage of the increased foot traffic caused by people coming down to enjoy outdoor dining to move some portion of their business outside. That just didn’t happen, except to a very limited extent.
If the closures were made “permanent” (keeping in mind there is absolutely nothing government does which is truly permanent — everything can be reversed if you’re willing to pay the price) we’d probably see this dichotomy in usage continue, with the restaurants dominating the outdoor scene. That’s not necessarily bad…but it does change the tone of the downtown (e.g., making it deadsville, mostly, outside of meal times).
One of the bigger challenges the Council will have to face is how is the community going to get compensated for giving up the use of the public right of way? To be blunt, I won’t be surprised to see the restauranteurs — particularly since they, like all businesses, have been hard-hit by the pandemic — take the position that they should simply be allowed to use the public space since the public enjoys outdoor dining (and maybe shopping, ultimately) so much.
That would, to be frank, cause me to have a stroke. No one in their right mind, communities included, should give away something of significant value, for free. And don’t tell me we’ll get paid through increased sales taxes — cities get relatively little of each dollar of sales tax, and nothing comparable to the increased costs we’d bear in terms of having a great outdoor dining/shopping arena (e.g., required increased law enforcement activity).
No, any deal to use the public right of way needs to be cash on the barrel head. Even the Federal government doesn’t let mining and forestry companies use Federal land for free! We should lease out the space and use the money to cover the increased costs of having such a venue, plus use it to enhance other aspects of public life in San Carlos (e.g., more or better parks, anyone?).
With that caveat I hope we do try creating a pedestrian mall environment. As others said, the climate is ideal, and having to walk a couple of blocks isn’t that big a deal to me (and for those whom it is, why not use some of the fees we get from leasing the space to pay for small shuttles services that loop to, say, the SamTrans lots?).
– Mark Olbert
Happily Retired Former Councilmember, Mayor and Chair 🙂
Mark, thanks as always for your well thought out response. I too agree that the downtown should not be converted to all eateries by implementing this closure, as it will create dead times between the normal meal hours. I have to believe that retail shops will benefit from the added foot traffic. I’ve actually found that the act of walking a few blocks to a restaurant has made me far more aware of some of the small retail shops we have on Laurel which I had driven by a hundred times before without ever realizing they were there.
I think for some restaurants it makes more sense than others. If they are using up the street, there should be a benefit to the community (like a soccer field, $ to schools). It would be great if the banks and other businesses that have large parking lots with large “tow away” signs would let others use the parking lots when their bank/business is not open.
The lack of parking in San Carlos has become a very common misnomer. First, there’s a lot of parking, but there are almost no signs to help anyone find it, no indication of how many open spots exist in various areas, and safety concerns about those across El Camino. These challenges are very easily fixed, if the city should choose to do so. In closing about the parking topic, this video is very important to the vibrance of any city like San Carlos.
https://www.keeplaurelclosed.org/what-is-happening/g1kfkwxf2p2y5vknzj79um1pmqo02c