City Council Meeting Date: May 16, 2023
To: Mayor and City Council
City Administrator
From: David Bennett, Public Works Director/City Engineer
Title
Consider approval of a Parklet Installation at the Northwest Corner of Fifth Street and Division Street.
Body
Action Requested:
The Northfield City Council approves a motion to authorize a Parklet Installation at the Northwest Corner of Fifth Street and Division Street through 2024.
Summary Report:
Parklets are public seating platforms or on-street protected spaces that convert curbside parking spaces into vibrant community spaces. Most parklets have a distinctive design that incorporates seating, greenery, and/or bike racks and accommodate unmet demand for public space on thriving neighborhood retail streets or commercial areas.
Parklets are seasonal public spaces that make the city more livable and walkable. The relatively low-cost parks for people provide the opportunity to relax and enjoy the city. Public spaces where people can gather and interact, such as parklets, are intended to be an asset to our community. Our two existing parklets were originally installed during the coronavirus pandemic intended to provide more outdoor healthy spaces and to help strengthen our business community downtown. The parklets are accessible and open to all.
City staff was approached by Farmstead Bike Shop for consideration of a temporary parklet that would be installed at the Northwest corner of Fifth Street and Division Street. Marty Larson, Manager of Farmstead, previously managed Tandem Bagels and assisted in maintaining the parklet in front of Tandem Bagels. He had a good experience, along with Farmstead owners Briana Lane and Greg Nies, and this will be a good complement to their business with food and beverages as well as bike sales and outdoor rentals. Staff has been working to determine the feasibility and potential design of the parklet. The option presented was taking interest from Farmstead and evaluating a temporary parklet that could be activated yet this year considering costs and design for the area location.
The authorization request from Council is to try this temporary parklet for the two seasons 2023 and 2024. The parklet would be in place from May through mid-October dependent upon weather. The parklet is not exclusive to use for Farmstead customers. However, Farmstead has agreed to maintain the parklet by keeping the tables cleaned. This is a similar agreement with Hideaway and Blue Monday for the other parklets.
This location slightly differs from the other two parklets that are seasonally in place on the east side of Division Street, as those parklets were built to fit in the parallel parking stalls. The proposed location would take up two angled parking stalls. The accessible parking stall is proposed to be relocated to the other side of the street (see attached location attachment), to maintain that stall near its current location.
As indicated above, this would be a temporary two-year trial. The parklet would have barricades placed, similar to what is used to close Water Street at Bridge Square. The City is replacing some tables and chairs at the other parklets with other furnishings that will have arms and stronger supports based on some feedback. The existing chairs and tables are planned to be used for this temporary use. Farmstead also has agreed to assist in some beautification to the parklet in addition to keeping the tables cleared.
The image below is conceptual, the barriers that will be purchased (similar to plastic ones on Water Street) and may be painted to provide a better artistic look.
Illustration 1: Example temporary parklet design.
Note: example 4 barriers with “concept” of painted barriers that are planned.
The public art will be proposed by Farmstead and reviewed as an art on public property submission that will include an Arts and Council Commission authorization and Public Art Review Committee process.
There has not been an extensive effort to receive community feedback on the parklets more broadly. The City did initiate an informal effort to meet with neighboring businesses to bring awareness to the proposal and see if there was input. There were concerns raised about the loss of parking by some neighbors. We do provide an “Alternative Option A” if the Council would like to explore additional information or community feedback before deciding.
Alternative Options:
A. Council could pass a motion to “postpone to June 6th (or other date)” and request for additional project details or to seek more intentional feedback from the broader community. The motion could provide details if there was specific feedback or information interested to be gathered.
B. Council could not approve (no motion or vote down) or just approve for one season.
C. Council could deny the request and leave the existing parking as-is.
Financial Impacts:
City will purchase the barricades from its operation budget. Barricades would cost $2,500.
Tentative Timelines:
Install June of 2023 - October 2023
Install May 2024 - October 2024