Downtown Hollister making some outdoor services permanent

HOLLISTER, Calif. (KION)

While San Benito County has not yet made it into the orange tier in the Metric Threshold System, like neighboring Santa Cruz County, a new vision for permanent outdoor setups aims to help make up for financial losses caused during the pandemic.

In the Downtown Hollister area, the first of about 19 expected parklets for some businesses is already in the making.

Hollister's Mayor says the city has been wanting to make these changes for some years now.

As the pandemic forced outdoor setups, Mayor Ignacio Velasquez says the city accelerated plans to make outdoor dining a staple for a brand new downtown experience.

“It’s finally happening because of all these weird circumstances, at first there was some hesitation, some people didn’t believe it would work, and once people got used to dining outside, most people in our community now wants to see more of it," says Velasquez.

Local business owners say these parklets could help bring back some much needed revenue.

“It really helps to allow the small business owners to have a mall-type atmosphere where people feel comfortable walking downtown, and that’s really what we need is more bars and restaurants, more of these businesses able to take advantage of foot traffic," says Peter Lago, Owner of Johnny's Bar & Grill.

Mayor Velasquez addressed concerns locals have over parking and accessibility to the streets.

“With this layout, we’re going to have more parking than we had before, we’re changing from parallel to diagonal parking, it’s going to work out really well for the flow of traffic and it’s going to be much much safer," says Velasquez.