The City of Sacramento charges fees for it’s ‘Al Fresco’ dining program, where restaurants may apply for an encroachment permit, and an ongoing revocable permit in order to provide a dining area within re-purposed parking spots. The city used to have hundreds of these setups, and during the early days of the pandemic, several streets were closed completely so that restaurants could offer outside safe dining. The number of such setups has shrunk considerably. Many businesses did not find it worthwhile to go through the process, and the expense. The city established strict criteria, that some locations could not or did not want to meet. They ‘grandfathered in’ existing sidewalk dining, for a while, but those locations must transition to the new program, which was established in 2023.

Al Fresco dining often removes sidewalk buffers and street parking. As such, the city charges, for use of the space (though the city does not maintain sidewalk buffers, it does own them) and loss of parking revenue. Though the fees are not posted anywhere on the city website, a presentation to city council on October 14, 2025, provides the fee structure for fees adopted in January 2023. So far as is known, the fees have not changed. (Note that this does not include the encroachment permit fee, a one-time fee.) pdf of the entire SacCouncil presentation

So, the city is giving away space for a 30 foot wide driveway on R Street, including loss of about 1.7 parking spots and the income therefrom. Note that this parking area has access through Rice Alley; the R Street curb cut and driveway is not actually needed.

On the other hand, the city is charging the business on L Street for the Al Fresco area, about $455/month, for the same curb space and parking spots. Note that the two areas are not the same size, L St is about 90 feet long, so the Al Fresco cost is estimated for the same size area.

How does the city value curb space and parking spaces?