NEW ORLEANS — The City of New Orleans is reminding local bar and restaurant owners to apply for the Parklet Pilot Program. One component of the City’s Outdoor Dining initiative, the program allows restaurants and bars to use on-street parking spaces in front of their restaurants and bars for additional seating. This can provide additional safe dining spaces for restaurants and bars while indoor occupancy limits are reduced due to COVID-19 restrictions. The permit application fee and meter rental fee have been waived until June 30, 2021. More information is available at www.nola.gov/parklets.
The Parklet Pilot Program has been available citywide since the end of October 2020 and is expected to continue for as long as there are COVID-related occupancy restrictions in restaurants and bars. After that, the City is expecting to launch a permanent program. Details regarding the transfer from pilot to permanent parklet program will be released as the permanent program is developed, but it will require re-permitting. The City will work to make that process as seamless as possible for pilot participants.
Pilot Parklets are required to provide a barrier along the active right-of-way. To aid in this expense, the City, in partnership with the New Orleans Business Alliance, has grants of up to $2,000 available to businesses on a first-come, first-served basis through April 15. Grant applications are available on outdoordiningnola.com.
