Restaurants in Santa Barbara now must go through a formal process to install outdoor dining parklets.

The Santa Barbara City Council voted 5-2 on Tuesday in favor of the parklet program.

“We have done as good of a job as possible to put forth a program that facilitates this outdoor dining use, while also recognizing the significant safety issues that have to be dealt with,” said councilwoman Meagan Harmon.

The new process has been in the works for months, but the vote comes less than 12 hours after a parklet at Milk & Honey on the zero block of East Canon Perdido was damaged overnight.

The city has about 40 outdoor dining parklets, and so far there have been four accidents.

The city will require that the parklets be protected by concrete K-rail. Outdoor dining parklets will not be allowed on streets that have two lanes going in the same direction, or on Coast Village Road.

Businesses that want outdoor dining must submit a plan and pay a $514 pre-application fee so that the city can review the parklet first. For projects in the coastal zone, after paying for the pre-application fee, businesses would need to pay $5,535 for a coastal development permit.

The parklet length will be limited to one parking space within the frontage of the business. If a parking space straddles the line between two businesses, both businesses will be able to use the parklet.

Businesses that want a parklet in the new year must submit a pre-application no later than Dec. 20. Any existing parklet located in the right of way that does not submit a pre-application by then will be subject to immediate enforcement, according to the city.

“This is a crucial step alongside many community initiatives underway to ensure that Santa Barbara remains a welcoming place for both residents and visitors,” said Robin Elander, executive director of the Santa Barbara Downtown Association. “We have seen that these establishments have revitalized our community and helped our local business community thrive.”

Trey Pinner, president of the Coast Village Association, said it is time to stop parklets on Coast Village Road. He said outdoor dining parklets don’t work well along the road because most of the parking is angled.

“The continuation of the parklets is really not the best approach for our area,” Pinner said.

Councilman Eric Friedman said he couldn’t support the parklet program because it would have an outsized impact on small businesses, and he wasn’t supportive of K-rail aesthetically around the parklets.

Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse was more blunt in his opposition to the outdoor dining parklets. He said it was a miracle that no one had died sitting out in a parklet in the four accidents that have occurred.

“For a community that has already committed itself to Vision Zero, I am kind of wondering what we are doing seating people out in the public right of way,” Rowse said. “We can try to barricade or do whatever, but when we do that we are going to be forcing people riding bikes on those side streets out into the driving lanes.”