Jackson council votes 3-2 to scrap the Parklet Program

Jackson's Town Council voted 3-2 on October 5 to direct staff to draft an ordinance dissolving the town's Parklet Program, rejecting its own staff's recommendation to leave the program alone for one more season. The scoping report in front of council laid out four options, from tweaking fees to scrapping the program outright; staff recommended waiting for the 2027 transportation plan update before changing anything, while noting that dissolving the program now would immediately return the parking spaces to general public use, but requires legal drafting, public notice and three ordinance readings before it takes effect Parklet Program Scoping Report. Nine downtown restaurants hosted parklets on 19 on-street spaces this year, including D.O.G., Gather and The Kitchen, which joined the program for the first time in 2026. The council's October 19 agenda packet carries the October 5 meeting minutes up for approval, the routine step that formalizes the vote Town Council agenda packet.

The program started free in 2020 as a pandemic measure. Council codified it in May 2023 with a flat $3,500-per-parklet annual fee Parklet Check-In staff report. This spring, council shifted that to $2,000 per parking space, billed annually instead of in multi-year lump sums Resolution 26-04 staff report. Three fee structures and six seasons in, restaurant operators who built outdoor seating into their business plans don't yet know if there's a 2027 season to plan for.