Downtown parklets to pack up for the season

The parklets lining Main Street from Second through Sixth avenues will soon be packed up for the season. Longmont’s parklets have seen use as outdoor seating for restaurants and shops like Crackpots, extended waiting areas for local barbers and one restaurant even turned its parklet into an impromptu tiki bar.

“We tried to find a solution to the need for more outdoor space, and balance that with being on a state highway,” said Longmont Downtown Development Authority, or LDDA, Executive Director Kimberlee McKee. “So this is really our first attempt at figuring out how to use the right-of-way for people.”

McKee felt some businesses capitalized on it well, while others may have been compounded by unforeseen issues — staffing and seating —  that left them unable to utilize the parklets to their best potential. For some businesses, the concept didn’t work at all. 

“In the future we’ll definitely try to do better and make sure that there is a full commitment to use them once they’re placed,” McKee said.

The mixed-use extensions, 30 in total, were installed in May in lieu of the lane closures that brought Main Street down to two lanes of traffic during the summer of 2020. The $300,000 project was funded partially by LDDA with a matching grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation. The 5-by-20 foot parklets will be stored for the winter, to be reused next year.

The LDDA has gathered information and photos to improve amenities and best practices from Longmont and other municipalities that have used parklets, to improve the experience next year.

“I think for (the parklets) to work long-term and in the future it's looking at some of these other best practices from around the country of how people have made them more desirable to sit in, so that’s an important piece to it,” McKee said.

McKee said Deluxe Barber was one of the biggest advocates for the parklets, turning it into a park-like setting on the north 400 block of Main Street. Teresa Shaheen, owner of Deluxe Barbers, put together what she called “Deluxe Park” for the barbershop’s parklet — adding seating and potted plants to create a warm and welcoming environment.

The parklet-park quickly became popular, according to Shaheen, particularly on sunny mornings. Families with kids hung out in the space — which was adjoined to the play area in Smokin’ Bowls parklet — because it was guarded from traffic along Main Street, Shaheen said. Lunch goers too enjoyed the space as they grabbed slices from Rosalee’s Pizzeria next door.

Shaheen wanted more flowers in the parklets next year, to help make it a greater destination for downtown strollers and shoppers. There was a noticeable increase in foot traffic according to Shaheen, seeing people parking on the opposite side of Main Street and coming over to check out what was going on with the parklet-park.

“We have a lot of elderly people who come to the barbershop, to the pizza place and spend time downtown, having a place for them to sit and visit in an outdoor area, it was good for people to feel safe outside,” Shaheen said. “With or without COVID, we’d like to see (the parklets) every year.”

For other business owners, the parklets were a mixed blessing. Rebecca Gafner, who co-owns Smokin’ Bowls, Jefe’s and The Roost with her husband Sean, said the extensions were a boon for expanding seating at Jefe’s but less ideal for Smokin’ Bowls. Since Smokin’ Bowls didn’t need the extra seating, Gafner turned the parklet into a play area, she said, hoping to attract young moms for midday lunch.

“I would rather honestly have the parking (at Bowls) since we have this fast-service concept, having that convenience is nice” Gafner said. “But we loved having the parklets in front of Jefe’s, it was perfect there.”

The LDDA is gathering feedback through a comprehensive survey for business owners to determine how best to use and improve the parklets. McKee is hopeful that businesses will have more opportunities to capitalize on the parklets next summer.

“We’ve been very open to learning from this process and growing and making it stronger each year, so we’ll continue to do that and use them where they make sense and open up things where they don’t,” McKee said.

The parklets will be removed between November 1-4, after which the LDDA will issue its survey to participating businesses.