Akron, Lakewood Considering Permanent Expansions For Outdoor Dining

Summer is coming and Northeast Ohio communities are discussing how to again accommodate outdoor dining on sidewalks or streets, something that helped restaurants weather the pandemic last year.

Some cities are considering making temporary dining expansions more permanent.

Last summer, Akron offered businesses a chance to temporarily expand into the public right-of-way for more dining space under pandemic restrictions. The city is planning to bring the same proposal before city council again this year, Deputy Mayor James Hardy said.

While not many restaurants used the public right-of-way option last year, Hardy said those who did were pleased with the process. Business owners submitted an application online and received an answer from the city within two weeks, he said.

“Restaurants don’t have the time, nor do they have the ability these days, to go four or five different places to get approval to put up a tent,” Hardy said. “That needs to be a fairly quick and easy process. So that’s what we’ve endeavored to do.”

The option is a valuable resource for restaurants that don’t have the space to offer outdoor dining on their own property, Hardy said.

“We see it becoming a permanent thing for the warm weather months here in Akron,” Hardy said. “We want to see public space and the public realm lively.”

The city wants to encourage this sort of café-style seating and open dining options permanently downtown, Hardy said. Though he cited implementation challenges that include complying with accessibility standards and maintaining safety.

“You always, always, always have to make sure that any pedestrian of any ability level has enough space to get by,” Hardy said. “You don’t ever want to create a situation where someone in a wheelchair or someone who needs assistance can’t get by the restaurant because the sidewalk’s completely taken up with diners.”

Akron isn’t the only city looking at expanding outdoor dining on a more permanent basis. Lakewood is asking its city council to extend an ordinance allowing restaurants to create dining spaces on public sidewalks and streets.

The city is studying what parts of the temporary measures should be made permanent, Lakewood Director of Planning and Development Shawn Leininger said.

“That analysis is not fully started yet, but will be underway later this year so that we have updated permanent regulations in place well before the temporary requirements expire,” Leininger said.

The measure was extended once before to allow restaurants more time, Leininger said. The new extension would last until the end of 2022, he said.

“It also builds in a little bit of recovery period for restaurants so they can take advantage of additional seats and additional capacity, take advantage of some additional revenue that will be generated by the outdoor space,” Leininger said.

About two dozen restaurants have taken up the city’s offer to extend outdoor dining onto sidewalks or parking spaces, Leininger said. One restaurant has added “parklets,” temporary structures that use a portion of a public roadway.

“The response has been generally positive and businesses have been generally appreciative of the ability to create some additional seating capacity,” Leininger said.

And at least some restaurants are interested in continuing with expanded outdoor dining after the pandemic ends. At Salt+, capacity for the outdoor patio was nearly cut in half at the start of the pandemic to account for social distancing, said co-owner Jessica Parkison.

The restaurant – on the busy corner of Detroit and Rockwood avenues in Lakewood – opted for extending its patio through the city’s program, Parkison said, but didn’t move anything out onto the sidewalks.

 “We chose not to do that, first of all because of staffing, and second of all just for access to our guests,” Parkison said.

The additional back patio space was enough to get the outdoor seating back up to its original capacity, Parkison said.

“We are going to submit plans to keep that patio open, the extended side of it, forever,” Parkison said.

In Shaker Heights, the city is opting for license agreements with restaurants that allow them to pursue temporary outdoor dining options. But Shaker isn’t planning on updating its ordinances, Planning Director Joice Braverman said.

“There’s nothing we need to change in ordinances because it’s already permitted,” Braverman said.

In the Van Aken District, one street was blocked off last summer and used for outdoor dining, Braverman said, and that same setup will likely happen this year. License agreements have been crafted to accommodate the needs of restaurants interested in outdoor dining on a case-by-case basis, she said.

“I think that’s something important as we continue through the next year and maybe beyond,” Braverman said.

Not every neighborhood has seen an uptick in outdoor dining requests, though they might be offering the options. In Rocky River, just two or three places have requested additional outdoor space, said Building Commissioner Raymond Reich, and those locations were able to limit themselves to existing parking lots.

“If they came to us and said, ‘Look, we normally don’t have outside dining but I need to expand,’ we worked with them,” Reich said. “The ones that did request, they didn’t want expanded permanent outside dining.”

Rocky River’s current ordinance already allows for outdoor dining in the public right-of-way, Reich said, but businesses need a permit and a design review first. During the pandemic, he said, the city has tried to offer quicker options to assist restaurants in recovery.

“We were taking some shortcuts to keep these businesses operations with temporary occupancies and temporary permits,” Reich said, “which could have easily been requested to become permanent, but no one is requesting it.”