On September 30, a Palo Alto Online photographer caught a single pedestrian crossing California Avenue with nothing much around them. All the parklets were gone. The city had cleared them for a repaving project set for October 1 and 2. In its Around Town column, the paper said the car-free strip "looked a little barren this week."
That empty week was planned, and it means City Hall's part of the work is mostly finished. The street is permanently closed to cars, the new parklet rules are approved, and the pavement is new. What Cal Ave looks like over the next six months now depends on separate timelines inside individual businesses: permit applications, fee payments and build-outs. Over the past two years those timelines have run longer than anyone forecast.
The city finished its part in about nineteen months
According to the City of Palo Alto's car-free streets page, the segment of California Avenue from El Camino Real to Birch Street was permanently closed to through-traffic on March 10, 2025. The same action created a "community street" classification for it.
The next step came on June 1, 2026. Palo Alto Online reported that the City Council voted 6-1 for new parklet and street-activation standards and directed staff to work on a bike-free alternative. The paper also said council members showed no interest in reopening the street to cars. The Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce backed the rules. In the paper's October column, Chamber CEO Charlie Weidanz is quoted from that June meeting explaining why the pre-approved designs matter:
"These guidelines, especially the pre-approved parklet designs, provide a clear framework, streamlined permitting and the certainty the restaurants need to confidently invest their own capital into long-term outdoor spaces."
The last piece was the October repaving. The city announced that the new outdoor dining standards would take effect "once repaving is complete." The street now has fresh asphalt, and the rules that govern what goes on top of it are in force.
Weidanz's wording points to the next stage. The city has built a framework, and restaurants have to put "their own capital" into it. Nothing in the October reporting gives a construction start date for a larger permanent-plaza buildout. Until something like that appears, what you see on the street this winter will mostly be what individual restaurants choose to build.
Three designs, one application queue
Under the new standards, a restaurant that wants a parklet can pick one of three pre-approved designs, as described in Palo Alto Online's October 4 column:
- Cabana: sloped roof with overhangs
- Pergola: flat roof, no overhangs
- Roofless: an open deck with no roof structure
Businesses can also propose their own designs, but those go through a longer review. The pre-approved options make the parklets themselves more predictable. They don't set the timing.
Timing runs through the city's Outdoor Dining Program. Applicants start with a pre-application in the Accela system. Staff then review the application for completeness and tell the applicant when fees are due. The page gives no estimate of how long processing takes. The program's FY 2026 fee table lists:
| Outdoor dining program fee, FY 2026 | Amount |
|---|---|
| Initial application | $5,004 |
| Renewal | $604 |
| Refundable deposit | $2,750 |
| Right-of-way license | $10.71 per square foot |
These are the general program fees. The city's page doesn't say whether every charge applies to parklets on Cal Ave's closed segment. Even so, the table shows the kind of cost a restaurant weighs before ordering a cabana. That cost comes on top of building the structure.
On top of that, as of September 28 the Palo Alto Ledger reported that the city had not yet announced when restaurants could start applying under the new rules. None of the reporting we reviewed names a specific restaurant that is rebuilding or reapplying. So the parklets will return one restaurant at a time, as each application, fee payment and build gets done. The bare stretch in the September 30 photo may thin out gradually instead of all at once.
Three storefronts behind schedule, one open
Cal Ave's next storefronts are on similar timelines, and Palo Alto Online's September 15 roundup of upcoming cafes and bakeries tracks most of them. Compared with earlier forecasts, the pattern is consistent:
| Business | Address | Earlier forecast | Latest status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Croissante | 321 California Ave. | Early to mid-2026, per a December 2024 report | Late November 2026 |
| Arsicault Bakery | 388 Cambridge Ave. | September or October 2026, per a January 2026 report | First quarter of 2027 |
| Backyard Brew | 444 California Ave. | Owner hoped to reopen over the summer | Waiting on permits; reopening about two months after issuance |
| The Rendezvous | 195 Page Mill Road | Not applicable | Opened in June 2026 |
Croissante is moving into the former Antonio's Nut House, the Cal Ave dive bar that closed in 2020. Owner Sean Kang told the paper the space likely won't stay vacant much longer. The bakery was founded in Santa Clara in 2023 and opened a Los Gatos location in 2024. It's known for cube-shaped croissants, mango-filled croissants and danishes filled with spinach artichoke dip. The first forecast for that storefront said early to mid-2026. The current one says late November, so it has slipped by most of a year.
Arsicault is the San Francisco bakery CEO Armando Lacayo founded in 2015, with a classic croissant menu of chocolate, almond, and ham and cheese. Its Palo Alto location will sit in a new mixed-use development just off California Avenue. In January, the expected opening was this fall. By September, the roundup had moved it to the first quarter of 2027.
Backyard Brew has had the longest wait. The coffee shop has been on California Avenue since 2016 and has been temporarily closed since February 2025. Owner Ryan Khalil told Palo Alto Online that permitting has taken longer than estimated, and he hopes to reopen about two months after permits are issued. The roundup describes its draw as a casual outdoor setting, plenty of seating and drinks like its Nutella mocha.
The Rendezvous is the one opening in this group that has actually happened. It's a French-Italian bistro and wine bar on Page Mill Road, near the Cal Ave district. Palo Alto Online's June coverage reported that restaurateur Giuseppe Carrubba wanted guests to feel comfortable staying a while. Chef Maxime Roucoule's menu draws on his cooking from his time at Pastis.
For the three that haven't opened, each newer report has put the opening later than the one before it.
What runs on a fixed date
Some things on the street don't depend on a permit decision. The California Avenue Farmers' Market, run by the Urban Village Farmers' Market Association, is open Sundays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., year-round, rain or shine. Santa Clara County's certified farmers' market listing gives the same hours at 400 California Avenue. The city's resurfacing notice lists the October 1 and 2 paving dates and doesn't mention any change to the market schedule.
The other fixed date is the last event of this year's Thursday Live on Cal Ave. series. The free concert series is presented by the Palo Alto Recreation Foundation with the City of Palo Alto. It held one Thursday evening event a month, 5 to 8 p.m., May through September. The October finale moves to a weekend morning. According to the city's event page, it's a Halloween and Oktoberfest event on Saturday, October 31, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., on the car-free stretch between El Camino Real and Birch Street. Stanford Research Park is sponsoring a photo booth, orange drawstring bag giveaways and mini pumpkin decorating.
That Halloween morning falls between the repaving and Croissante's late-November target. It's the series' first event on the new pavement, and it may also come before any new parklet structures go up.
The dates on the calendar so far
- Every Sunday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.: California Avenue Farmers' Market at 400 California Ave.
- Saturday, October 31, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: the Thursday Live Halloween and Oktoberfest special on the car-free segment.
- Late November: Croissante's forecast opening at 321 California Ave.
- First quarter of 2027: Arsicault's forecast opening at 388 Cambridge Ave.
- No date yet: the city's announcement of when parklet applications open, and the permits Backyard Brew needs before its roughly two-month path to reopening.
The last line has no date because those steps depend on applications, reviews and permits that haven't been scheduled yet.
Permit timelines are something Amir Delpazirian and the Moussavian Real Estate Team work with every day, from remodel approvals to the escrow deadlines they collide with. If you're weighing a project at your own Palo Alto home and want to know what the property is worth before and after the work, start with a current figure. Request an Instant Home Valuation.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
