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Planning and Building Agency <br />santa-ana.org/pb <br />Item # 32 <br />City of Santa Ana <br />20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br />Staff Report <br />May 3, 2022 <br />TOPIC: Outdoor Dining <br />AGENDA TITLE: <br />Request for Direction Related to Outdoor Dining <br />RECOMMENDED ACTION <br />Accept informational report and direct staff to prepare an ordinance allowing and <br />regulating outdoor dining citywide. <br />BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW <br />To assist Santa Ana businesses with maintaining economic viability and public health <br />safety measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, on May 28, 2020, the City of Santa Ana <br />approved Executive Order No. 5-2020, authorizing restaurants and retail businesses to <br />expand dining and retail operations onto public sidewalks and public and private parking <br />spaces. This included the installation of food islands/parklets on City streets within <br />Downtown Santa Ana. The City also identified certain roadways for full road closures to <br />establish Cafe & Retail Zones on a temporary basis and further made available for <br />expanded dining and retail activity. To that end, Santa Ana Municipal Code ("SAMC") <br />requirements for these type of activities were provisionally suspended. To assist Santa <br />Ana merchants, the City also developed the City of Santa Ana: A Guide for Outdoor <br />Business Operations "Take it Outside" to guide businesses through the process in how <br />to obtain a permit for outdoor dining. <br />Since the adoption of Executive Order No. 5-2020, the City facilitated over 29 permits, <br />including nine parklets, for expanded outdoor dining areas. With the desire to create an <br />attractive, high quality, and efficient combined dining experience, the City worked in <br />tandem with contractors Choura and VX Design to design, construct, and install nine <br />parklets in Downtown. The effort included the design and construction of wood -finished <br />decks, shade sails, solar -powered bistro lights, outdoor furniture, and hand sanitizing <br />stations. <br />To further compliment this effort, with a $500,000 grant from the County of Orange's First <br />Supervisorial District, the City of Santa Ana created the Safe Outdoor Dining Program. <br />Utilizing the same approved contractors, over 20 restaurants along 1st and 17th Streets <br />and outside of the downtown district were eligible to receive outdoor dining patios. As with <br />