05.05.20 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

City Council Meeting Minutes May 5, 2020 soon as possible. Transit: The City was granted $6.4MM in CARES Act funds for transit, roughly three times the current annual transit budget. What an opportunity! I look forward to hearing the CIty's plan to deploy these funds to make our buses more resilient to viruses and more usable for citizens after this one passes. We cannot miss this chance to invest those funds to build more transit shelters, to deploy technology to provide real-time and contactless information, and to add capacity and reduce headway for crowded routes such as those serving the University, especially as we look to combine systems. Thanks to you and staff for your service during this challenging moment in our history. I wish for all of you access to the best data and expertise available and for the community's patience and flexibility as we all navigate through this time together. Thank you. (Comments were limited to three minutes, time expired) Sara Simpson Mayor Hughson and San Marcos City Council Members: We write today as individual members of the Main Street Advisory Board to encourage you to support the temporary parklet program (Agenda Item 14) to allow downtown businesses to occupy outdoor public street space and increase their visibility and ability to conduct safe operations downtown during the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we encourage you to ensure that the requirements laid out in the proposed parklet program are appropriately flexible to allow for proper social distancing measures and also help businesses participate easily and without undue burden. Potential amendments to the temporary parklet requirements could include: • Allow for 2 parklets per BLOCK FACE, not "per block," to allow more businesses the opportunity to participate and not restrict those that may be geographically close to one another. • Allow multiple businesses to submit joint parklet applications should neighboring businesses want to apply and create a parklet to benefit both locations adjacent to their shared location. * Allow for more than two spaces to be occupied by businesses to allow for meaningful capacity increases while practicing proper social distancing. Two spaces may not provide enough space for this and allowing up to three or four seems more appropriate. • Remove the requirement for the parklets to be ADA -compliant if the business already has accessible outdoor space available to patrons OR if the spaces in front of the business already do not allow for accessible access (such as those that are located down stairs and are not on an existing ADA -compliant sidewalk). City of San Marcos Page 5