Yolo County, CA Special Events & Permits: Sidewalk Dining & Cafés (2026)

Sec. 606(e) allows outdoor dining to spill into the public right-of-way in Yolo County's commercial zones once the business obtains an encroachment permit, the same permit process the DMX building-projection rule at Sec. 606(a)(3)(ii) uses. The code sets a specific clearance floor: outdoor tables and chairs must leave a minimum of five feet of clear sidewalk for pedestrians wherever that is feasible, dropping to three feet only where five feet cannot be maintained. 604 layers a base zoning permit on top of the encroachment permit, and that base requirement differs by zone: "Outdoor eating and drinking" is marked Site Plan Review (SP) in the Local Commercial (C-L) and Downtown Mixed Use (DMX) zones, but allowed by right (A) in the General Commercial (C-G) and Highway Services Commercial (C-H) zones.

That means a restaurant in the C-L or DMX zone must clear a Site Plan Review before it can add sidewalk seating, while one in the C-G or C-H zone needs only the encroachment permit itself. Because the DMX zone in the code applies specifically to the Esparto downtown corridor, sidewalk dining tied to that Site Plan Review also has to fit the DMX design and setback standards for ground-floor commercial frontage described earlier in the same section.