The Orlando City Council voted early this week to update and make more permanent changes to the downtown parklet program. The program started in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing restaurants and other businesses to offer outdoor seating to combat the spread of the virus, and was updated in 2021.
Funded by the Community Redevelopment Agency, the program lets restaurants and other businesses use parking spaces and large sidewalk areas to host guests in an indoor-outdoor operational area.
The city council unanimously voted Monday, ahead of the July 18 expiration of the current version of the program, to approve updates to the program to help move away from temporary fixtures and toward more permanent, safer solutions. Changes to the program include new rules and a review process for establishing different types of parklets, rules for removal of parklets and updated safety requirements.
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