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Solvang Danish Days comes to a close
Parklets to parking Coast Village Road parklets to be limited in size by end of October, providing more parking
Lego Building Competition, Children’s Parade highlight celebrations final day
DAVE MASON / NEWS-PRESS FILE PHOTO
A parklet is shown on Coast Village Road in Montecito. Starting on Oct. 28, parklets on the road will be limited in size in an effort to increase parking availability.
By NEIL HARTSTEIN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
This year’s LEGO building competition winner Chris Wight, right, shows off his winning entry to Randel McGee, dressed as Hans Christian Andersen, during Solvang Danish Days on Sunday.
By NEIL HARTSTEIN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
The winner of the Solvang Danish Days Lego Building Competition created a scene depicting Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy
tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” which included showing the writer himself at his desk busy crafting his tale as seen through the window of a second-floor enclosed porch, officials said Sunday. The Lego scene, built by Chris Wight of
Southern California, was that of a whole village with all kinds of characters set against a background of buildings, and on some of the roofs were storks similar to the ones several Solvang residents put on their own roofs, said Please see SOLVANG on A4
The three Danish Maids - from left, 2021 Danish Maid Kayla Bandel, 2020 Danish Maid Isabella Lopez, and 2022 Danish Maid Aleena Madrid - lead the Children’s Parade.
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Some parking spaces claimed by Montecito restaurants for their outdoor dining parklets will be removed from their domain and returned to the public for its use by the end of October, including retail store owners who have railed against the loss of parking available to their customers since the parklets appeared along Coast Village Road. In a letter addressed to the “Coast Village Road Community,” Santa Barbara City Administrator Rebecca Bjork said that parklets located in the diagonal public parking spaces of Coast Village Road will have to comply with the city’s requirements no later than Oct. 28. A key requirement is that those diagonal parklets will be limited to a maximum of two, adjacent public parking spaces in front of a business. “Parking along Coast Village Road has long been at a premium,” Ms. Bjork said in her Sept. 6 letter. “The addition of parklets and the resultant loss of public parking spaces due to the allowance of parklets has created inequities amongst various businesses on Coast Village Road.” She said she made her decision “in an effort to create more business equity and support all business segments on Coast Village Road, consistent with the requirements of the Economic Recovery Extension and Transition Ordinance.” Currently, eight businesses use parklets and those parklets occupy approximately 28 (21 percent) of the 131 public parking spaces on Coast Village Road. “Limiting the maximum size of parklets will return much-needed parking spaces back to the public while allowing restaurants to continue to offer outdoor dining,” she said. As of Oct. 28, parklets also must adhere to all other requirements of the Parklet Guidelines as referenced in Section 3 of the ERETO, including American with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, she said. Parklets in other areas must adhere to the requirements of the Parklet Guidelines as well. “Businesses in violation of these requirements are subject to enforcement action, including removal of the parklet,” she said.
In April 2020, the City of Santa Barbara, which governs Coast Village Road, “responded quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant public health orders restricting business operations by allowing businesses to temporarily expand their operations outdoors and closing portions of city streets,” Ms. Bjork noted. Additionally, the city allowed for the temporary use of public parking spaces to accommodate outdoor business activity. On June 15, 2021, the federal Center for Disease Control lifted a number of health restrictions and allowed for the opportunity to once again dine indoors. The ERETO, which provides for the continued allowance of parklets until Dec. 31, 2023, also provides the city administrator with the sole authority to amend guidelines and regulations in regards to ERETO programs, including parklets. “In an effort to better understand parklets and their impact on public parking, resultant business inequities, as well as gauge overall community sentiment regarding parklets, the city conducted a public outreach process throughout the month of August,” Ms. Bjork said. The outreach included a meeting with members of the Coast Village Association and a public meeting on Aug.12 at the Montecito Inn, as well as a confidential online survey. Over the next few months, in an effort to make existing parking spaces more effective for local businesses through improving turnover of parking space occupants, the city will actively pursue additional code compliance resources to assist in addressing parking violations along Coast Village Road, Ms. Bjork said. Additionally, the city will revisit the issue of parklets on Coast Village Road in early 2023 to assess the impacts of this directive on public parking resources. “We appreciate the public and business community working jointly to ensure equal opportunities for all businesses on Coast Village Road.” Ms. Bjork reiterated to the News-Press that her decision to send the letter was made under her authority as the city administrator as delegated in the Economic Recovery ordinance. Please see PARKLETS on A4
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