Name: Cities in San Mateo County seek to help business through more outdoor use
Brand: smdailyjournal.com
SKU: smdailyjournal-com-78
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Cities in San Mateo County seek to help business through more outdoor use

preview

Please to continue reading.×Thank you for visiting the Daily Journal.We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.×To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!Please purchase an Enhanced Subscription to continue reading.Your current subscription does not provide access to this content.DIGITAL ACCESS to all our award winning content onlineCommenting capabilities on every storyAccess to our daily e-edition for the past 90 issuesThe good feeling of supporting real, local news in your community$99.00for 365 daysRatePriceDuration1 Year$99.00for 365 days6 Months$72.00for 180 days3 Months$45.00for 90 days1 Month$20.00for 30 days1 Week$8.25for 7 days$60.00for 365 daysRatePriceDuration1 Year$60.00for 365 days6 Months$42.00for 180 days3 Months$27.00for 90 days1 Month$12.00for 30 days1 Week$5.00for 7 daysThank you for visiting our booth at the Rediscover San Mateo Community Fest! Enjoy one free month of access to the San Mateo Daily Journal's website and e-edition. Offer expires September 15, 2022, so sign up today!You have permission to edit this article.Welcome,After San Mateo County was placed on the state’s coronavirus watchlist, forcing businesses including hair salons and gyms to close over the weekend, two Peninsula cities are looking to allow those and other services outdoors.The Foster City Council last week approved temporary outdoor use for hair salons and barbershops, personal care providers, gyms and fitness centers as well as offices. Restaurants were allowed to set up shop outside starting last month.The county is exploring a similar proposal for the unincorporated areas and San Mateo, which has allowed outdoor dining since June, said over the weekend additional services may soon be offered outdoors in the city.&nbsp;“We recognize our business community is hurting and are currently evaluating options to adjust local regulations to allow limited outdoor personal care services and haircuts,” according to an email the city sent its subscribers Aug. 2.City spokeswoman Samantha Weigel said Monday staff has also created a process for gyms and fitness businesses to apply for a permit to offer classes in some city parks. She added the new rules are aimed at avoiding impacts between businesses already established outdoors and incoming ones.&nbsp;The new rules will likely be rolled out later this week or next and then the council will consider retroactively approving them at a meeting Aug. 17, Weigel said.Typically in Foster City, a business seeking to expand outdoors must obtain a new or amended use permit, but a resolution adopted by the council Friday suspends that requirement.“This provides us an opportunity to be proactive in letting the businesses remain open,” said Councilwoman Richa Awasthi during Friday’s meeting.Councilman Sam Hindi added “we will not spare any effort to help our small businesses.”Businesses will still need to follow a set of guidelines and obtain permission from their landlord, among other requirements, to open outdoors.Senior Deputy City Attorney Kai Ruess said the city is trying to “get out of the way” as much as possible, but noted transitioning outdoors won’t be as simple as it may seem.“We’re getting the city out of the way to the extent that we can get the city out of the way, but this is not going to be as easy as picking up everything outdoors and taking it outside,” Ruess said. “This isn’t going to be easy and hopefully this step just makes it slightly easier for businesses that think they can take advantage of this.”Ruess said that there’ll be “significant investment” for most businesses transitioning outdoors, noting “you have to set up things in a safe way and you have to institute new protocols, not only COVID-related but operational protocols to make sure the space is safe.”Ruess said runoff, whether from dying someone’s hair or other actions, will be the “most onerous part of what staff will have to monitor.”“The city is obligated to ensure there are no stormwater violations going on the site and if there are the city has an obligation to act or it could be penalized,” Ruess said.Councilmembers also discussed the possibility of fitness classes operating in the city’s parks and ultimately agreed a variety of issues will need to be addressed for that to happen.The council at a future meeting will decide whether businesses pay a fee and how much, what happens when people walk by fitness classes and how many of the city’s 24 parks should be open to businesses.“My concern as well is the liability of the city for injuries or if anything should happen in our parks,” said Mayor Catherine Mahanpour. “That’s a concern as well.”(650) 344-5200 ext. 102×××Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,racist or sexually-oriented language.PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.Don't Threaten. Threats of harming anotherperson will not be tolerated.Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyoneor anything.Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ismthat is degrading to another person.Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link oneach comment to let us know of abusive posts.Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitnessaccounts, the history behind an article.Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.Error! There was an error processing your request.If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now!© Copyright 2022 , 1720 S. Amphlett Blvd., Suite 123 San Mateo, CA&nbsp;| &nbsp;|Powered by from .

Please to continue reading.×Thank you for visiting the Daily Journal.We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.×To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our...

Cities in San Mateo County seek to help business through more outdoor use

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS