By Forum Staff
The City Council on Thursday voted in favor of establishing a newly revised permanent outdoor dining program under local law that incorporates lessons from the emergency pandemic outdoor restaurants program.
It helps make the permanent program accessible and inclusive to more restaurants, similar to the temporary emergency program, while addressing concerns with more orderly and uniform regulation. The program allows for year-round outdoor dining options: 12 months of sidewalk dining, similar to the pre-pandemic program, and for the first time will allow permanent roadway dining for the warmer 8 months of the year, from April through November. The legislation eases the application process and lowers the cost of participation for restaurants, compared to the pre-pandemic program. As legal authorization of the emergency open restaurants program was determined to be expired, the council’s approval of the permanent program assures restaurants will be able to continue with outdoor dining uninterrupted.
Introduction 31-C, sponsored by Councilwoman Marjorie Velázquez (D-Bronx), will establish a permanent outdoor dining program that incorporates benefits and lessons from the emergency pandemic-era outdoor dining program. The legislation will make it less bureaucratically prohibitive and more affordable for restaurants to participate in outdoor dining than the previous sidewalk café licensing scheme that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also create more orderly and uniform regulation of outdoor dining that provides reliable consistency for restaurants and neighborhoods alike.
Introduction 31-C will:
- Allow sidewalk cafés to operate year-round, and for the first time permanently allow roadway cafés to operate most of the year, specifically the warmer eight months of April through November.
- Make the costs for restaurants to participate in the outdoor dining program more affordable and lower, compared to the pre-pandemic outdoor dining licensing and revocable consent process.
- Reduce the required processes and timelines for restaurants to receive approval from city agencie s and entities.
- In conjunction with zoning changes approved by the council in 2022, permit more neighborhoods and restaurants within them to be eligible for participation in outdoor dining than the previous pre-pandemic sidewalk café program.
- Allow restaurants to continue their outdoor dining operations, even after this local law takes effect, as long as they apply for a license and submit a petition for a revocable consent on or before the date set forth by the City Department of Transportation, which cannot be less than three months after the rules go into effect.
- Establish DOT as the agency to administer licensing of both sidewalk and roadway cafes and enforce rules pertaining to their operation, in continued coordination with other city agencies.
- Sheds, or any structure that does not comply with rules set by DOT, must be taken down no later than 30 days after the determination by DOT to grant or deny a revocable consent to operate a sidewalk or roadway cafe, or by Nov. 1, 2024, whichever comes first.
“The temporary program saved 100,000 jobs, kept restaurants afloat during the peak of the pandemic, and brought new energy and excitement to our streets and sidewalks. But it wasn’t perfect—too many sheds were abandoned and left to rot and too few lived up to our vision of what our streets should look like,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “And a legal ruling just this week made it even more clear: This is our moment to transition to a permanent program that works for our restaurants, our workers, and our communities.”
