Goleta City Councilmembers voted to approve a resolution at their September 1 meeting amending the Emergency Expanded Restaurant Dining and Other Uses Program (Program) to allow family entertainment centers to operate outdoors and allow the use of shade structures for outdoor operations.
Under the recent State and County health orders, family entertainment centers must keep indoor services and attractions closed, except outdoor operations, while complying with state and local requirements to protect against COVID-19. Family entertainment centers, as well as many other businesses, have been impacted by state and local closure orders and are struggling to financially recover. This order is intended to allow these businesses to safely re-open by moving their operations outdoors, under the scope of the Program, and allows for those businesses to contribute to the City’s economic growth and recovery as well as their own. The approved Resolution also addresses allowing shade structures as part of the Program as long as they meet certain standards outlined in the staff report (available here: https://tinyurl.com/yxlbz4yp).
The City’s Emergency Expanded Restaurant Dining and Other Uses Program was approved by Council on June 2, 2020, and allows for the expansion of dining and use areas temporarily to open-air spaces and parking lots on private property where certain requirements are met. Expanded outdoor dining and use areas are intended to allow Goleta restaurants and specified uses to re-open safely, ensuring safe and adequate pedestrian and vehicle circulation while simultaneously meeting physical distancing and public health standards to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This Program temporarily suspends City zoning and/or land use permit provisions applicable to business premises or restaurant dining areas that are in conflict with the expanded dining or use areas allowed by this Program.
For more information, please contact the Planning and Environmental Review Zoning Counter at (805) 961-7543.
Pictured: Zodo’s parking lot