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Page 2 of 6 <br />City of Redwood City 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA. 94063 Tel: 650-780-7000 www.redwoodcity.org <br />right-of-way) before the pandemic have requested exceptions to retain those improvements. There are <br />currently eight businesses seeking exceptions from Guideline requirements as applied to their fixed <br />improvements. If the changes to these Guidelines are adopted, those businesses will be able to apply for <br />exceptions and seek City Engineer approval to maintain their fixed improvements. <br />In April 2024, the City Council adopted the Two-Year Economic and Workforce Development Plan (Plan), <br />a guiding document for the Economic Development Division of the City Manager’s Office. Goal 2A of the <br />Plan was to refine the City’s Outdoor Business Program, aiming to complete existing applications by Q2 <br />2024-2025 (Goal 2A.1), and attempting to align tenets of various outdoor business programs into one <br />cohesive program by Q1 2025-2026 (Goal 2A.2). <br />On July 22, 2024, in response to feedback from applicants, the City Council adopted the following changes <br />to the Program: <br />Replace the owner consent requirement with a requirement to demonstrate the owner was notified <br />of the intent to participate in the program. <br />Allow applicants to extend their parklets into the frontage of the adjacent property with the consent <br />of both the adjacent business owner and the property owner. <br />The City Council also directed staff to return to the Council within six months to provide an update on <br />the Program. <br />The purpose of this staff report is to: <br />1. Provide the City Council with an update on the Program, and <br />2. Seek City Council approval of the updated Outdoor Business Activity Program Guidelines. <br />ANALYSIS <br />Program Update <br />Fifty-one businesses have applied to the Program since its adoption in 2022; their status is listed in Table <br />1. An additional 1 has not applied but has furniture in the right of way. Staff have emailed and visited all <br />businesses multiple times since April 2024 in order to gain compliance. Staff response time to applicant <br />resubmittals is a maximum of two weeks. This has led to significant improvements in numbers of approved <br />parklets. <br /> <br />Table 1: Current Status of Businesses Engaged <br />Status Number <br />Total Applications Received Since Program Start (2022)51 <br />Applications Approved/All Agreements Executed 17 <br />Applications Approved/Agreements Pending 10 <br />Applicants Actively Resubmitting Plans 19 <br />Applications Closed Out Due to Lack of Activity since Jan 20, 2023 5 <br /> <br />6.E. - Page 2 of 76 <br />97