Despite earlier arguments that it wasn’t necessary, Saratoga City Council on Jan. 15 unanimously approved a pilot outdoor dining program as part of an effort to revitalize its commercial economy.

The pilot program will facilitate the expansion of a sidewalk to bolster outdoor dining at Bella Saratoga, an Italian restaurant on Big Basin Way. Mayor Belal Aftab reasoned that the pilot program would give the city a chance to understand what a more formal outdoor dining program would entail. Businesses along Big Basin Way, which runs along what is technically Highway 9, make up the Saratoga Village, considered the city’s downtown.

“Many many people want to see change; they want to see some life come back to the Village,” Vice Mayor Chuck Page said of the pilot program.

The council’s unanimous vote means that the city will allocate $7,000 from the council contingency fund to develop conceptual designs for the pilot program, and the council will decide on the future of the program after reviewing the completed designs.

The city council initially failed to approve the pilot program in November. Councilmember Yan Zhao argued at the time that she didn’t think the program was necessary in the face of a forecasted budget deficit, and because she saw the Village as already being “pretty vibrant,” a remark that resulted in criticism from residents and led some to question her qualifications for her campaign for Santa Clara County assessor in 2026

The city council took up the matter of the pilot program again after Page late last year moved to renew the term of the ad hoc committee that was charged with bringing recommendations to improve economic vitality to the council, with the goal of coming up with a more detailed pilot program. The pilot program was just one of a handful of recommendations that the council heard and voted on in November.

Though community members originally turned out by the dozens for meetings of the ad hoc committee and for previous council discussions on the topic, just a handful of residents turned out to the Jan. 15 council meeting to speak to the issue. Most were Saratoga hillsides residents who applauded the city’s efforts to revitalize its commercial scene but questioned whether the city should be doing so amid heightened concerns about public safety after the destructive wildfires in the Los Angeles area.

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“While I appreciate the economic vitality committee’s efforts to promote local businesses through outdoor dining initiatives, I believe this focus is misplaced at a time when fire safety must take precedence, especially for our vulnerable hillside neighborhoods,” a resident identified as Mona said at the meeting.

Zhao, who initially voted against the pilot program late last year, voted in favor of the revised proposal for the program with the clarification that the council will include a public outreach program as part of the effort.

She made the case that due to the Brown Act – state law which guarantees public access to local government meetings – the other council members not on the ad hoc committee could not participate in community meetings on the subject, and wanted to guarantee an opportunity for them to do so now that the committee’s work has been completed.

“You two have attended the meetings and heard public input; we have not,” she said to Page and Aftab, who both served on the committee. “I want to make sure we have a robust public outreach program.”