Camas eyes bringing back popular parklets

The city of Camas is exploring the possibility of bringing back parklets, three years after rescinding the operating permits for the open-air eating spaces introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic. The city plans to contact downtown business owners to gather ideas and concerns, and formulate some specific policy options for the Camas City Council to consider in early 2026, said Alan Peters, the city’s community development director. “We’ve seen that interest in parklets has continued after we ended our COVID-19 parklet program in 2022,” Peters said. “We’ve heard from the community through our outreach over the last couple of years that folks really enjoy outdoor dining in our downtown and are interested in making downtown even more walkable.” Known as parklets, street eateries or “streateries,” the outdoor dining areas popped up on streets across the United States in 2020 and 2021 as a way for restaurants impacted by public health mandates prohibiting indoor dining to serve customers in a safer, well-ventilated outdoor environment. “It’s temporary seating that could be on platforms, anything that’s out past the curb,” James Carothers, the city of Camas’ engineering manager, said during the city parking committee’s meeting Sept. 9. “It could be in parking areas. That’s what we’ve usually seen around here.” The city issued permits allowing businesses to operate parklets in 2020 and 2021 and rescinded them in the fall of 2022. “After that program ended, we were about to kick off our downtown subarea planning process, and the general consensus with the city and from the council was that we should wait out that process and see what the subarea plan might have to say about parklets,” Peters said. “Since then, we’ve issued special events permits for Nuestra Mesa to operate outdoor dining on a very limited basis.” Outdoor seating, whether in sidewalk cafes, parklets or street eateries, increases the use of a city’s public space, expands business activity and can add vitality to an area, according to a city staff report. “I think it’s a great idea,” Kristin Yoshimura, a parking committee member, said during the Sept. 9 meeting. “I think it was nice when they were out before. They added a really nice dynamic to the area.” The city’s proposed plan for downtown states that the city should endeavor to “create a parklet program that converts downtown curbside parking spaces into community seating spaces for businesses and residents” and “support and incentivize business and property owners to incorporate outdoor patios, seating areas, planters, and other landscape features that contribute to an inviting and dynamic streetscape.” Parking committee member Justin Lotting expressed enthusiasm for the proposal during the Sept. 9 meeting. “This is one of the reasons I joined this committee — the idea to eventually figure out how to get something like this going,” he said. “I’m thrilled.” Parking committee chair Joe Keller also said that he favors the proposal but added that he has some concerns, such as the impact of parklets on “nonentertainment” businesses, how decisions are made about what businesses receive a parklet permit, what happens to parklets during major events such as Camas Days, the duration of the permits and whether the permits would be restricted to businesses located in the downtown core. “These are not insurmountable problems,” he said. Nuestra Mesa’s general manager, Maddy Lochner, told the Camas-Washougal Post-Record in 2023 that the parklets provided benefits for Camas’ downtown. “It helped draw people to our historic downtown … and brought the community together,” Lochner said. The Nuestra Mesa parklet took up “about five to seven” parking spots, Lochner added, but seemed to also draw people to the restaurant’s section of Northeast Fourth Avenue. “It helped all the shops around us and was really great for the community on First Friday and during the Camas Car Show,” Lochner said.

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