Burlingame to Start Charging Companies That Hold Parklets – CBS San Francisco

BURLINGAME (KPIX) – The City of Burlingame is moving forward with a plan to introduce a fee structure for businesses wishing to continue operating parklets.

Beginning April 1, businesses wishing to keep parklets must pay the city a $1,500 annual rental fee and a $250 monthly cleaning fee. Overall, a Parklet would cost a company about $4,500.

“We set up the parklets as an emergency measure to give businesses some relief during the pandemic,” Mayor Ricardo Ortiz said. “It was an emergency measure. Now we are aiming for a more permanent agreement.”

However, some business owners tell KPIX that they need to stop using their parklets as it would cost too much.

“After this decision was made by the city council, we checked our budget and our numbers – we really couldn’t afford it,” said Kemal Polat of Il Piccolo Caffe. “That’s about $4,500 a year. It was a lot for us. Still we fight. Our business is not like it was before COVID. We had to make the decision to give up the Parklet.”

John Kevranian, the president of the Broadway Burlingame Business Improvement District, tells KPIX that he and the business owners have no problem with the $1,500 rental fee but disagree with the $250 cleaning fee. He estimates that four out of seven companies using parklets on Broadway will eventually dismantle them.

In a letter to the city council, Kevranian wrote:

“Some of you may perceive and feel that our restaurants are doing very well. Well the bottom line is they are not doing the business they were in before COVID. Staff shortages, increased product costs and supply chain issues have impacted profits. Also, I would like to remind you all that the majority of commercial landlords have not discounted rent for the past 22 months during the pandemic.

“This year, increases in the minimum wage, hikes in sewage fees, additional costs for composting, new regulations for food-to-go containers in March 2022 and other cost increases in the food industry will take some of the profits away from our restaurants. Not to mention COVID issues and less indoor dining.

“The $250 cleaning fee has to come from somewhere, e.g. B. by reducing the working hours of workers or increasing prices for customers. The cost of chicken has tripled and the cost of beef and other products has skyrocketed. How much can you raise with a customer?”

The mayor says the city wants to make sure businesses are actually using the parklets, which are taking up valuable parking spaces. He also claims that maintaining parklets requires the use of city services and the city cannot continue to pay for those services.

“We’ve had complaints from many local merchants that the restaurants are taking up parking spaces that their customers would normally use,” Ortiz said. “The cleaning fee simply covers the city’s cost of cleaning these parklets. Same idea if you use city services we should be compensated. We should not offer people free city services so that they can benefit financially.”

Polat says he is in a difficult position. He felt it was too expensive to pay for a parklet with the new rates, but he fears demolition could also hurt his business.

“Losing this parklet – it’s going to affect my business more in the future because people come in and they see they don’t have parklet, they don’t see outdoor seating and they’re probably going to go somewhere else,” he said.