A deadlocked vote by the Fullerton City Council means the city’s popular downtown promenade, Walk on Wilshire, will close permanently at the end of the month.
Wilshire Avenue will reopen to vehicular traffic.
Councilmembers Ahmad Zahra and Shana Charles supported an expansion of the promenade, but Jamie Valencia and Mayor Fred Jung did not. Nicholas Dunlap recused himself due to his father’s business interests in the area.
When the motion to expand the promenade failed in a tie, the clock also started ticking toward the promenade’s closure on Feb. 1.
That’s because of an ultimatum the council created in October for the promenade to expand or end.
The 200-foot street closure on Wilshire Avenue west of Harbor Boulevard began in 2020 to spur outdoor dining during the peak of the pandemic. The road was closed to vehicles to create outdoor dining spaces intended to help local restaurants at a time when California imposed indoor dining restrictions and people were looking for more social distancing options.
Over five years, the City Council extended the temporary street closure multiple times while launching a pilot program to permit business owners to rent and build parklets on the street space.
A majority of Fullerton residents seemed to support the street closure, according to a city survey. Large crowds of residents urged the City Council to continue the program in October and again in January.
Still, a majority of the several restaurants along that stretch of Wilshire Avenue declined to participate in the parklet program due to its associated costs. Restaurants needed to lease street space from the city to build a parklet.
Jung and Valencia argued it would be too expensive for the city to continue the program permanently.
A staff report said the city invested $90,000 in the temporary partial street closure and would need to spend up to another $250,000 for a permanent closure.
Staff estimated the city would recoup $60,000 per year in annual lease revenue from participating businesses.
Jung and Valencia weren’t swayed.
Valencia, who was elected in November — one month after the council’s ultimatum — cast a deciding vote on Walk on Wilshire’s fate.
To do so, she returned more than $2,500 in campaign donations she had received from property owners in the area, she announced at the council meeting. Those donations, if kept, would have made her ineligible to vote on this issue according to California’s Levine Act, Fullerton’s city attorney said.
“Walk on Wilshire was a much-needed community gathering space,” said Anjali Tapadia, a Fullerton resident and volunteer with Save Walk on Wilshire, a grassroots movement that advocated to make the street closure permanent.
“There aren’t any other lively community spaces in downtown Fullerton that are open 24 hours a day, that are pedestrianized, that have pretty lighting and that feel safe to walk around,” Tapadia added. “I think when people visit downtown Fullerton now, they’ll be less likely to take a stroll, to come upon new businesses and to run into friends or family.”
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