Projects:
Historic Streetcar
North Park Developments
Traffic & Parking

North Park Main Street is
partially funded by the City of
San Diego Redevelopment Agency and the City of San Diego Small Business Enhancement Program

Public Right of Way (PROW) Program

Click here to access the full text of the Public Right of Way Ordinance on the city website

For several years North Park Main Street has worked with three other business districts to make it possible for merchants to use the sidewalks in front of their businesses for outdoor displays of merchandise, placement of A-frame signs, and outdoor cafés without railings. Now the San Diego Planning Commission has approved a document that will allow certain sidewalk encroachments to be legal.

Our intent was to allow merchants more leeway and to enliven the pedestrian experience in our district. People love to dine and shop on the sidewalk. This is all part of a new system named the Public Right of Way Enhancement/Use Program (PROW.) North Park joins Adams Avenue, Little Italy, and Ocean Beach in this program.

Until this program, outdoor dining required a permit and the placement of a metal barricade to separate tables and chairs from the sidewalk. The permits and the railings were costly. Merchants were, thus, effectively prohibited from placing chairs and tables outside their businesses. Also prohibited were the placement of signs on the sidewalk and display of goods and products outside their businesses. Our businesses did not understand why the City would cite them if they used the sidewalks.

North Park Main Street negotiated for two years to have a temporary moratorium on citing businesses while we were working to devise a system that was acceptable to all departments of the City.

It is important to note that this does not give merchants a carte blanche to overtake their sidewalk. There are 30 pages of regulations which must be strictly enforced for the program to succeed. The good part about this is that the City will not be licensing merchants to use the sidewalk and charging costly fees. The pilot will be administered by North Park Main Street for a modest fee and will be enforced by the City's Code Compliance Department.

Some of the regulations in the PROW are as follows:

An application for permission to use the sidewalk must be submitted and approved.
Participating merchants shall attend a free training demonstration to learn how to comply with the regulations.
Businesses shall have evidence of one million dollars of liability insurance naming the City and others as additional insured.
A scale drawing of the proposed use must be submitted with the application.
The application will not be transferable.
Use of the sidewalk that does not comply with the provisions of the program will not be allowed.
No signs that are off site will be allowed.

Although the program does not contain everything we asked for, we feel it is a significant improvement over the existing prohibitions and related fines that ranged from $100-$300 for each citation.

One significant issue that all merchants need to be aware of is the disabled community's concern that encroachment onto the sidewalk is dangerous for them. In this case, the San Diego's Sub-Committee for Reducing Architectural Barriers (SCRAB), the watchdog for the disabled community, has unanimously approved the new pilot program because special attention is given to the needs of the disabled. In North Park there are many disabled residents.

Please contact us to learn how to enroll. Our phone number is (619) 294-2501 and our e-mail is npbid@northparkmainstreet.com. We are here to make it easier for you.