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4/6/11
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3 comments
Canton Street restaurants eye parking spaces
Filling in on-street parking spaces to create room to expand outdoor dining may become the new trend on Roswell’s Canton Street. One restaurant has already done so and two more are lined up for permission. The owners of Pastis and Zest have asked to fill in spaces in front of their businesses but city council members have to approve the requests. Pastis wants the equivalent of three and one half spaces, with the remaining half space to be used for bicycle or motorcycle parking. Zest is asking to fill in one space, which if granted, would leave just a single parallel parking space on either side. Just to the north of Zest, Ceviche was allowed to expand its sidewalk space for dining by eliminating parking spaces. The problem with granting the two restaurants’ applications, according to some council members, is what it would do to other merchants who share the on-street parking. “I just have concerns about tying up that much more parking,” said Councilman Jerry Orlans. “The question is do we want to keep eating up parking spaces?” Pastis has a parking lot next to it, and owner Carla Dent told council members at a committee meeting that she was willing to provide free valet parking for all Canton Street merchants if she could extend her patio dining area. She said with her lot and deals made with the adjacent garage and nearby bank, there would be as many as 140 spaces for the valet service. But one of her neighbors, Ed Shaffer of the Painted Monkey, said he had been promised by former City Councilwoman Lori Henry and others that no more on-street parking spaces would be filled in after Ceviche. “Taking four more parking spaces now, pretty soon there’ll be no parking spaces on Canton Street. You’re driving people away from Canton Street and away from the historic district,” he told the committee. Council members asked Dent to come up with a specific plan on the valet parking and come back with it to the next committee meeting. Saying it would be less awkward if all three spaces were filled instead of just one, council also asked the Zest owner to come back after he talked to the shops on either side of him about sharing those costs.
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The Mayor's idea of a parking garage is great for cars. Canton St. should be closed in the restaurant and business district and turned into a pedestrian mall, redirecting traffic around the mall and by the parking garage and back to Canton Street in the residential section. Tree-lined street mall, with outdoor dining and seating with emergency access/delivery access only and easy access to parking garage would be a boon to the area. Many small town down-town areas have turned into this type of mall with success. Traffic thru downtown at Alive at Five and on weekends that it is dangerous to pedestrians and should be eliminated. It will become a most desired area in Roswell.
Please develop more outdoor seating for the restaurants. The only reason we come over to Roswell by ourselves, or with friends, or with family and visitors is to sit outside and have a drink and /or meal in the open air in attractive surroundings. And because we come for that purpose, we also take the time to wander and shop either before or after refreshments. Keep drawing us over there and many of your businesses benefit.
More outside seating for Canton St cafes will only attract more business to the area. Many of my East Cobb friends love to come to the Canton St area. The main attraction is the sidewalk cafe area. And, yes, they do spend their East Cobb dollars in the shops as well. :-) The idea of a parking garage is a good one. I think turning the street through the cafe/shop area into a one-way, single lane would also benefit the businesses there. Traffic in one direction could flow through that area, while traffic in the opposite direction could go around. This would allow the restaurants to exand their outside seating, provide extra sidewalk room and create an even more appealing ambiance, thus attracting more folks/customers.