Poll Question: What should Dublin prioritize most over the next few years?

Follow up question: George, I’d like to understand this better. Which regulations do you think are making it hardest for businesses to open or survive in Dublin? And would you eliminate business subsidies altogether, or only use them under specific circumstances?

Initial research ✓ • Real storefront test ✓ • City inquiry ⏳ • Business interviews ⏳

Step 1: Our test business

 I want to actually simulate opening a business in Dublin.

A bakery would be perfect because Luciana asked for one, and restaurants/food businesses are showing up repeatedly in the polls.



Let's use a hypothetical independent bakery + café in an existing Dublin retail storefront. That's useful because residents specifically mentioned wanting a high-quality bakery, while restaurants repeatedly appeared in the polling.

“I'm considering opening an approximately 1,500–2,500 sq. ft. independent bakery/café in Dublin. What currently available spaces would the City recommend, and what would I need to do to open?”

• For the first run, I would not choose a random listing from a commercial real-estate website yet. Dublin's own Opportunity Sites page says the most current available-space information should be obtained through its Economic Development Office.
• Dublin itself tells prospective businesses to verify zoning and parking before making a financial commitment, not to sign a lease until they have zoning clearance or permit approval, and warns that older buildings can require significant accessibility, fire sprinkler, or HVAC upgrades.
• There are also multiple processes that can stack together. Dublin's current entitlement guide says typical staff-level planning review is around 1–2 weeks; tenant-improvement permits anticipate 15 business days for first review and 10 for second review; permanent sign permits have separate review timelines, and the tenant-improvement permit must be issued before the sign permit is approved.
• George's banner example: Businesses need zoning clearance for temporary promotional banners. They're generally limited to 21 consecutive days followed by at least 42 days before another clearance can be obtained.
• At the same time, we need to be fair to the City. Dublin already has a free Business Concierge Program specifically designed to coordinate Economic Development, Community Development, Fire and Public Works for businesses. And the City offers multiple business incentives, including façade grants, small-business assistance, fee deferrals and certain tax-reimbursement programs. Dublin says it has the lowest business-license fee in the Tri-Valley, has no payroll or utility-user tax, provides site-selection/business assistance, and its adopted Economic Development Strategy explicitly includes Retail Vitality and Small Business Support as goals.

Screenshot of City Inquiry by Kiran, Candidate for Mayor of Dublin

Small Business Friction Audit: Case Study #1

6891–6893 Village Parkway

A current LoopNet listing, crawled within the last week, markets 1,500 to 13,500 square feet as available now at $36/sq. ft./year, triple net, and specifically advertises a back patio as suitable for café or bar use. The property is in the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan area. For our hypothetical bakery/café, let's take the smallest advertised unit:1,500 sq. ft. × $36 = $54,000/year base rent or roughly: $4,500/month base rent. And because it's a triple net lease, that $4,500 does not include all property expenses, utilities, building services, taxes/insurance/CAM charges negotiated through the lease. 

Before the bakery has hired anyone, bought an oven, remodeled anything, or sold a croissant, it could already be committing to at least $54,000 a year in base rent.

But this location has a major advantage

This parcel is in Dublin's Village Parkway District, inside the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan. Historical City records identify 6891 Village Parkway as a roughly one-acre parcel with a building dating to about 1970. The marketing materials identify dining and entertainment among the uses contemplated for the Village Parkway District. Even more importantly, Dublin eliminated minimum parking requirements throughout the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan area in 2024. 

That's a real example of Dublin already removing friction.

Normally, converting retail space into a café could trigger a nasty question:

“Do we have enough parking for the new use?” At this downtown site, Dublin has already substantially removed that obstacle. That's something we should give the City credit for.

Our first scorecard

Available space✅ Real 1,500 SF option currently marketed

Base rent⚠️ ~$4,500/month + NNN expenses

Restaurant/café concept✅ Zoning district appears favorable

Parking🟢 Major friction already removed by Dublin

Exact use approval🟡 Needs confirmation

Existing food infrastructure🔴 Unknown before lease

Building review🟡 ~15 business days first review

Interagency sequencing🔴 Needs investigation

DSRSD🔴 Potentially significant cost

Sign/banner🟡 Fast approval, but restrictive rules

Total opening cost❓ Cannot responsibly calculate yet

Reliable total opening timeline❓ Cannot responsibly calculate yet

And every obstacle gets one of three labels:

🔵 Dublin can change it

🟡 Dublin can potentially streamline it

⚪ State/federal/county requirement

First interesting policy question

There's also a bigger issue hiding underneath George's subsidy complaint.



Dublin currently advertises incentives including a sales-tax reimbursement program for businesses generating more than $10 million in taxable sales, potentially reimbursing part of the City's sales-tax revenue to offset improvements. 

So later in this project we can ask:

Does Dublin's economic-development system work equally well for a person trying to open one 1,800-square-foot bakery as it does for a major retailer considering Dublin?