By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
When COVID kept customers from spending time inside businesses last year, the city of Bowling Green looked for ways to take business outside.
Now the city is taking it a few feet further – considering the creation of “parklets” in the on-street parking spaces in front of downtown businesses. An ordinance will be introduced by council member Rachel Phipps to Bowling Green City Council on Monday evening.
“It’s so important to me that we do everything we can to encourage our community to support our local businesses as the weather warms and people are able to safely gather again,” Phipps said. “Parklets can greatly expand the availability of outdoor dining in Bowling Green and encourage residents and visitors to visit our downtown while still observing necessary social distancing requirements.”
Parklets, sometimes referred to as “dining decks,” will allow downtown merchants to use the city parking spaces in front of their businesses as dining and retail space. At the same time, the parklets are intended to be aesthetic improvements to the streetscape.
Located in the parking lane adjacent to the curb, they are designed as an extension of the sidewalk. According to the parklet proposal, they should be open, inviting spaces with multiple points of access along the curbside edge.
The parklet concept is not a new idea – with the cities across the nation already making space for businesses in on-street parking areas.
“You get goosebumps looking at the possibilities,” Phipps said.
And the idea isn’t new to Bowling Green either, she said. The city’s 2014 Future Land Use Plan called for downtown parklets, and the 2005 Downtown Plan highlighted the need for additional public gathering space.
The concept resurfaced last year after COVID cramped many businesses from operating in their normal manners.
“Last summer when there were lots of ideas floated on how to help local businesses,” this arose again, she said.
Downtown businesses were surveyed by Phipps and Downtown BG Director Tony Vetter. The parklet concept was well received – by business owners and city officials.
“The city was willing to draft design standards,” Phipps said.
A team is working to raise the necessary funds, build, and install Bowling Green’s first parklets. That team includes Phipps, Vetter, Chris Mowen, Ellen Fure Smith, and Jeff Dennis. The group has partnered with the Downtown BG Foundation to accept donations for the project.
The group hopes to hold some type of “community builds” model in early summer to build some downtown parklets.
“Many businesses have had a challenging year, to say the least,” Phipps said. “Our hope is that we can jumpstart this program by raising the funds needed to build our community’s first parklets and find local businesses willing to insure and maintain them moving forward.”
She pointed out that to help businesses beyond the downtown area, the city already placed a moratorium on parking minimums – so those businesses could set up outdoor dining. She would like the moratorium and parklets to not disappear with COVID, but become a regular way of doing business in Bowling Green.
Phipps hoped to head off criticisms about the loss of downtown street parking to the parklet concept. There will be a limit to the number of parklets, and there will still be street parking.
Following are some of the rules for parklets:
- Parklets will be permitted only in the downtown central business district.
- They may be installed each year starting on April 1, and must be removed by Nov. 1.
- No more than two parking spots can be used for each parklet.
- No more than four parklets will be permitted in each block. None will be near intersections.
- Plans and locations must be approved by the city.
- A minimum five-foot pedestrian through-zone must be maintained in the sidewalk corridor.
- Bumper block, provided by the city, must be installed to delineate buffer zone areas between traffic lanes and adjacent parking spaces.
- Portable fuel-fired heaters will be permitted, but must meet certain standards.
- Planters and green elements should be included to enhance the downtown.
- Merchants may consider shading solutions like umbrellas, panels or sunshades that potentially span the width of the sidewalk and parklet.
The parklets should result in increasing foot traffic and slowing vehicular traffic, Phipps said.
“It is our hope that this parklet program will expand the space available for outdoor dining, help to retain jobs during this time when social distancing remains so critical, increase the visibility of our downtown businesses, and encourage our community to head downtown to shop, dine and explore,” the proposal states.
Several businesses and community leaders have already offered their support, according to Phipps.
“We’re still getting our ducks in a row, but there has already been a lot of excitement and we hope to have more announcements very soon.”
For those who would like to support this initiative, contributions should be made to the Downtown Foundation, Inc., c/o Jeff Dennis, P.O. Box 406, Bowling Green, Ohio 43402. Anyone with questions can contact Phipps at 765-717-0038 or Vetter at tvetter@downtownbgohio.org.
