Laurel Street's Car-Free Block Spends the Holidays Under Construction, With Its Future Due in January

On Friday, December 4, from 5:00 to 8:30 p.m., Night of Holiday Lights fills Laurel Street from San Carlos Avenue to Cherry Street. The main stage sits on Cherry Street. The farmers' market uses that same stretch every Sunday, and the City calls it the 600 block. Across Cherry, the 700 block of Laurel Street is closed to cars, a closure City staff describe as permanent. Harrington Park is fenced off on that block, and the stores and restaurants along it have been running beside construction since April 6, 2026.

Downtown's biggest holiday night happens one block south of the block the City is rebuilding, which leaves the 700 block in an odd position this season. The park beside it is getting its finished surfaces. Many of the merchants on it have asked the City to let cars back in. And the City Council's next look at the block's design comes in January 2027, just after the holidays end.

Where the holiday calendar lands this year

Downtown's November and December events are spread across Laurel Street, Cherry Street and the Adult Community Center:

Night of Holiday Lights is presented by the City and the Parks and Recreation Foundation of San Carlos. The City also runs a holiday notice for Thursday Night Lights, four weeknights of holiday shopping and caroling put on with Chamber San Mateo County. The detail page linked from that notice still shows the 2024 schedule. Check the City's community events page for this year's Thursdays before planning around them.

The farmers' market is on the 600 block for a practical reason. The City says that spot lets it spill into the Wheeler Plaza parking lot when it needs room for more vendors. In May, the market moved its booths back from the curbs, spread into the Wheeler Plaza lot, and reopened Cherry Street to traffic and parking.

Who is on the 700 block while the fence is up

The 700 block hasn't been empty of events this year. In August, a Life on Laurel Friday put cornhole, checkers, Connect 4 and Jenga on the block. At the Art & Wine Faire on October 10 and 11, artist spaces numbered 700 to 799 ran between Cherry and Olive. On most days in November and December, though, the block runs on the storefronts lining it:

1. Diddams Party & Toy Store, 700 Laurel St. One of the City's new Downtown Revitalization information boards stands in the raised planter nearby.
2. TOWN, 716 Laurel St. Its site lists weekly hours and takeout and delivery ordering.
3. Footwear Etc., 730 Laurel St. It's included in the City's 2025-2026 Small Business Spotlight.
4. Bow Wow Meow, 737 Laurel St. It's also in the City's 2025-2026 spotlight.
5. Bistro Mitte, 749 Laurel St. Its site shows weekly hours and online ordering.
6. Mama Coco, 753 Laurel St. In June, the Adult Community Center's Lunch Bunch ate here, and the City described the restaurant as sitting right next to the Harrington Park work.
7. Faith & Spirits, 765 Laurel St., according to its own contact page.
8. West Park Bistro, 788 Laurel St. About 48 business and property owners and active residents met here at 8 a.m. on October 8 for the City's downtown merchant meeting.

The second information board is near U.S. Bank. In August, the City added more Adirondack chairs along Laurel Street. Contractor specifications require safe walking access to every storefront during business hours, and the contractor must coordinate in advance with any business whose entrance has to close for a while.

What goes in behind the fence before January

The City says the new Harrington Park will include a multipurpose plaza for community gatherings, a building with public restrooms and storage, public seating, and a rain garden with a grove of trees. A lot of that work is already done and out of sight. The City's October 8 update lists utility connections, storm drainage and soil cells, bioretention curbs, the building's mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, and its foundation and walls as finished. The Silva Cells, underground structures that give tree roots room to grow and filter stormwater, went in under the park in June.

The same update lists the next three months of work as lighting, furnishings, pavers, landscaping and the wood canopy. Measured from October 8, that's the same stretch of weeks as Diwali Downtown, Night of Holiday Lights and the December Sundays at the market. People coming downtown for the holidays will see the parts of the park they'll actually use, built behind the fence week by week. The City still lists completion as early 2027.

Some of the work won't fit inside the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekday schedule. The City says occasional work outside those hours, such as PG&E utility connections, will come with advance notice. One overnight PG&E pole replacement and power outage was scheduled for October 26, from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Construction trucks mostly use the alley behind Laurel, coming in and out from Cherry and Olive. Four public parking spaces behind the park are becoming a drop-off and loading zone.

The question merchants put on the table in October

The finished park is only Phase 1A. Phase 1B is the rest of the 700 block. In its conceptual design, the block becomes a pedestrian promenade with trees, rain gardens, bike racks and movable seating, plus a pavilion with a raised stage up to 22 feet tall where the park meets Laurel. According to the San Mateo Daily Journal, the City Council approved that concept unanimously for a pedestrian mall to be called Centennial Plaza. Mayor Sara McDowell told the paper, "We've come so far since the pandemic."

The October 8 meeting at West Park Bistro tested that plan. Merchants raised parking, deliveries, foot traffic, storefront access, signage and where events are placed. Some asked the City to reopen the 700 block, or to try a temporary hybrid layout with one-way traffic that keeps the parklets and pedestrian activity where it can. One attendee asked for the Art & Wine Faire to start farther down the block.

City staff posted written answers on October 22. They said downtown sales tax revenue fell sharply during the pandemic, got back to pre-pandemic levels starting in fiscal year 2021–22, and has stayed relatively flat since. Staff argued a pedestrian plaza can bring more foot traffic to nearby businesses. They also said any change to the permanent closure of the 700 block is up to the City Council. The parklets built during the pandemic are on the same timeline. Staff plan to ask the Council in early 2027 how to handle them. Once the plaza is built, the Downtown Specific Plan gives restaurants and retailers 10 feet of City right-of-way in front of their storefronts.

No construction date for the 700 block has been set. Staff say the timeline depends on full funding. The October 8 presentation says design is underway and that staff will give the Council a progress update in January 2027. At that point the Council may revise Phase 1B based on feedback from businesses and the community and on rising costs, and it will review timing based on financing. That means the block will go through the holiday season in its current form, closed to cars and still waiting on its permanent design, right before the Council meeting that could change it.

Parking for a December evening downtown

The holiday events fall at times when the City's extra parking is easiest to get. Under a deal with Caltrain, the City can use spaces 99 through 197 in the Caltrain lot from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on weekdays and all day on Saturdays and Sundays. Diwali Downtown on a Saturday and the Sunday farmers' market both fall inside that window. So does most of Night of Holiday Lights on a Friday evening. The Wheeler Plaza garage has public EV chargers. The City counts 600 to 750 charging sessions a month there, about 8,700 a year, so expect them to be busy. Downtown employees can get free permits under a temporary pilot program for the second floor of the Wheeler Plaza garage or the top floor of the SamTrans garage, which keeps those workers out of other downtown spaces.

On-street time limits could change too. Staff are working on a simpler way to handle requests to change them. That proposal was set for a Planning and Transportation Commission study session on November 2, 2026, and goes to the City Council in early 2027. For Harrington Park questions, the City's construction line is [email protected] or (650) 802-4310.

If you own on or near Laurel Street, the park opening in early 2027 and the Council's decision on the 700 block will both change what downtown looks like from your front door. If you'd like to talk through what those changes could mean for your home's value, Nisha Sharma is glad to help. Request a private consultation and home valuation.