Carlos Diaz is one of the owners of Mony’s Mexican Food in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone.

His parents started Mony’s from a food truck in the early 2000s and moved to the Funk Zone in 2013. His mother creates the recipes, his brother and father are behind the grill, and he and his sister manage the restaurant.

COVID-19 almost doomed the family restaurant, but it survived, largely because of the outdoor dining parklet they built in the public right of way.

“We’re the only restaurant left in the Funk Zone where you can get a meal for under $15,” Diaz said. “We can’t ask a parent company to fund the proposed parklet cost; we don’t have one. We’re not backed by millionaires. We’re a local, working-class, Latino family.”

He was one of a handful of restaurant owners who spoke at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, asking the council to modify or eliminate proposed parklet fees.

The council opted to move forward with the new fees, but they delayed the timing of the payment.

The council voted 6-1 to approve a $514 application fee for all parklets, $2,500 for a parklet license application fee and an annual parklet license fee for all parklets at $24 per square foot per year.

The license application fee would be only $150 up front, and the balance of the fee would need to be paid later, before the issuance of the license.

“I think we have come to the right balance that considers, first and foremost, safety. That is our fundamental obligation as a city and as City Council members,” Councilwoman Meagan Harmon said. “It also takes into consideration design, and your need for permanence and surety in this process.”

The fees would apply to parklets not on State Street. Additional Planning Division fees also would apply.

Councilman Oscar Gutierrez voted in opposition. He said he wanted to postpone the vote until the city could come up with official design guidelines for the new parklets.

Mayor Randy Rowse said he was in support of the fees.

“It is more than fair,” Rowse said. “Let’s face it, we have had years of no rent at all.”

Rowse said the new fees are at a price that “you couldn’t get empty warehouse space for.”