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Phoenix Parklet Program Will Take Away Parking Spots Downtown

Phoenix will soon allow business owners to convert parking spaces in front of their store into mini parks.

To build the "parklet," as it’s known, a business has to get approval from their next-door neighbors and 50 percent of the businesses on the block. Cindy Stotler is with the Phoenix Planning and Development Department. 

Stotler said there are no limits to the amount of parklets that can occupy one block.

“But I think again that is going to be self-fulfilling when you have to get permission or approval from adjacent business and the rest of the block," she said. "If we have too many parklets it would take up all the parking and I’m assuming that you would not get approval from the rest of the block.” 

Stotler said the business has to pay the whole cost of building the parklet and pay rent to the city. For now, parklets are only allowed in downtown Phoenix along Grand Avenue between Van Buren and Roosevelt.

The city doesn’t plan to raise rates to offset the cost of parking.

Alexandra Olgin was a Senior Field Correspondent at KJZZ from 2013 to 2016.