Orange Plaza Paseo is currently closed, Glassell Road is open to traffic – Orange County Registry

The pedestrian-friendly Orange Plaza Paseo shopping mall, which has helped some of the city’s Old Towne businesses stay afloat during the pandemic, has been packed so far.

Restaurants and shops that have used Glassell Street to the north and south as makeshift yards for more outdoor space have been asked to begin dismantling their setup as soon as New Year’s Day and the street has opened back on Thursday, January 6.

But paseo may be back in a new form. Over the next few months, a consultant for the city will be working on design concepts for something more long-term, but also the impacts to the area it could have.

Paseo was established in July 2020 to temporarily support businesses along popular corridors as government orders limit the number of people allowed inside restaurants and stores because of the potential for the spread of COVID. -19.

Many see the two-block promenade as the necessary help to help businesses survive the peak of pandemic shutdowns. But community members were mixed in their feelings toward the idea of ​​a more permanent plan.

During a City Council meeting last month, a handful of residents said with Glassell Road being closed to cars, traffic was pouring into surrounding neighborhood streets. Some have questioned the fairness of other businesses.

Wil Dee, who owns two Old Towne restaurants, Haven Craft Kitchen and Bar and Provision Deli & Bottle Shop, says outdoor space is a boon to his business while he navigates the creatives. action of the pandemic. In fact, his sales last summer were better than in pre-pandemic summers, he said.

“It was very important for us to continue in business,” Dee said. “We’re going to skip or do something that’s just a fraction of what we could have done in that time.”

Still, he questioned, “should it continue?”

When indoor catering reopened and his restaurants used both indoor and outdoor spaces, “that situation caused a lot of stress for the company,” he said.

“Having more square footage doesn’t give us more bathrooms. It doesn’t make our kitchen any bigger. It doesn’t make our bar any bigger,” he said.

Dee said he likes the idea of ​​paseo making a seasonal return to outdoor dining in the summer, when business is slower because Chapman University students return home and residents flock to the beaches.

“When (indoor dining) is closed, it works for us,” says Dee of the outdoor setup. “But that is in very specific circumstances. I can’t wait to see what happens.”

Despite the recent increase in COVID-19 cases, Orange Mayor Mark Murphy said now is the “right time” to pack up the paseo while officials consider options as there are currently none. limited to in-house businesses.

“I suspect if we were to be in that situation again, we would have to reconsider whether it is appropriate to reconsider paseo,” he said.

Plus, “the weather hasn’t been the most favorable in the past four weeks for dining out anyway,” he said.

During the first 14 months that the outdoor paseo opened, the city collected more sales tax revenue than it did before the pandemic, said Paul Sitkoff, a city spokesman. From July 2020 to September 2021, tax revenue was $508,000 compared to $457,000 brought in from July 2018 to September 2019.

“Beyond the ‘shopping and dining’ destination we envisioned, our residents and neighbors have turned the paseo into our city’s ‘family room’,” a city statement said. . “It became the place to come together at a time when the distance between us was really too great.”

The city council is expected to review the design concept and potential impacts at a meeting in late spring. Along with the seasonal paseo, the creation of parks that could last all year while Glassell Street remains open to vehicular traffic is being considered.