ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - In a move to help attract more restaurants, breweries and wineries, the Elk Grove City Council voted to approve an ordinance exempting outdoor dining areas from development impact fees at its recent City Council meeting. 

The ordinance amends sections of the municipal code which previously included outdoor dining areas as part of the overall total square footage. According to city documents, the fees are often paid by the business owner, and not the property owner, and were perceived as an economic burden to new developments and expansion plans for current businesses. 

The Council voted 4-0 to approve the amendment; Council member Darren Suen was absent from the meeting. 

“This is great news,” Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said. “I am glad that we are doing this.”

The council also authorized the city manager to execute refunds totaling approximately $156,000 to six businesses that paid development impact fees on outdoor dining areas after Jan. 1, 2020. 

City Finance Analyst Renee Daguman said staff recommended Jan. 1, 2020, as the date because it was when the city started to see more intertest for establishments with outdoor dining. 

“A number of businesses that opened in those five years have reluctantly paid development impact fees for those outdoor dining areas,” Daguman said. 

According to council documents, the city reached out to 12 local jurisdictions in the region to identify whether they charge development impact fees on outdoor dining areas. Seven of them do not charge those fees, while three of them charge a lower percentage of the maximum development impact fee amount. 

The remaining two jurisdictions charge 100% of the development impact fees on outdoor dining areas. 

Five parks in Elk Grove received their official names, thanks to a resolution approved by the Elk Grove City Council on Tuesday, March 12.

The five parks are currently under construction throughout Elk Grove and are a mix of trails, neighborhood and pocket parks. 

Sun Grove Park Site is a one-acre local park near Whitelock Parkway and Big Horn Boulevard and was dubbed Coyote Oaks. It will have a shaded picnic area, open space and a walking path in addition to play areas for younger and older children. 

Mendes Park, a nine-acre park, is the largest of the five parks and is located near Bilby Road and Big Horn Boulevard. It was called Mendes Ranch Park. It will have a tennis court, a basketball court, a nature garden and ample open space. It will be horse themed and also have children’s play areas. 

Pocket Park One, called Creekside Park, is located at 7526 Afonso Way near Montaria Way and will have adult fitness equipment, picnic tables and trail access. It will take up .23 acres. 

Pocket Park Two was named Trailside Park. It’s a .22 acre park located at 7566 Afonso Way near Mercado Court and features a covered picnic area and trail access.

The Trailhead was named Hitching Post Trailhead and is located at the corner of Horvath and Stillwagon streets in the Elliot Springs Development. It will also have adult fitness equipment, in addition to trail access. 

The city partners with Cosumnes Community Services District in a joint naming committee to determine the names. 

City policy bars any parks from being named after a living person or being named after dead people until two years after their deaths. 

“You do want to pay tribute to not only the area, the neighborhood, the lifestyle, some of those aspects and we did sometimes fuse certain ideas together, so it was an exhaustive process,” Singh-Allen said. “I thought it was a lot of fun to do, and we really recognized each other’s comments throughout this process.”