Palo Alto ARB continues Cedar & Sage storefront, asks for 8-foot walkway and design refinements

The Palo Alto Architectural Review Board on May 15 continued, by a 5-0 vote, consideration of a major architectural review for a new restaurant tenant, Cedar & Sage, at 180 El Camino Real in the Stanford Shopping Center. The board directed the project team to return with revisions addressing pedestrian clearances, canopy and patio details, and material samples before the ARB would approve façade and signage changes.

Board members said the proposal raises safety and pedestrian circulation concerns at a busy shopping-center entrance and asked for clearer engineering and design information. The applicant presented new storefront openings, a retractable awning/trellis over an outdoor dining patio, a bifold door system, a metal pivot entry, planters and a linear fire feature. Staff noted the project increases covered outdoor dining area by approximately 247 square feet and will require sign corrections to meet the center’s master sign program and the City of Palo Alto sign code (section 16.2).

Why the board continued the item

The board’s core concerns were: (1) the clear pedestrian path in front of the patio is shown at about 7 feet in places while ARB practice calls for an 8-foot minimum clear width; (2) the new retractable canopy and the existing metal trellis above the storefront were not integrated into a cohesive design and the mixture of fixed and retractable panels appeared likely to look disjointed; (3) the applicant proposes overhead gas patio heaters and a linear gas fire feature, and the board asked the applicant…