Blog

Apr 09, 2024

NYC legislation will regulate outdoor dining set ups, eliminate street sheds, limit winter options

Lunch hour customers are seen in an outdoor seating area of a restaurant in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York, Tuesday, May 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)AP STATEN ISLAND,

Lunch hour customers are seen in an outdoor seating area of a restaurant in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York, Tuesday, May 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)AP

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic spawned a new era of outdoor dining in New York City with little regulation, but legislation the City Council will vote on on Thursday aims to change that.

Sidewalk cafes and makeshift street sheds became a common site around the five boroughs as restaurants struggled to stay afloat when the government, focused on protecting public health, shutdown indoor dining, but they’ve since become a target for criticism.

Drivers complain about lost parking spots, advocates for public space lament commandeered sidewalks for the benefit of private businesses, and few New Yorkers haven’t beheld the site of an abandoned dining shed neglected by a restaurant owner.

The pre-pandemic system wasn’t much better with restaurant owners having to navigate a maze of city agencies and bureaucracies to set up outdoor dining.

In an effort to bring the chaotic system under control, City Councilwoman Marjorie Velázquez’s (D-the Bronx) legislation will lay out a series of rules for outdoor dining with more to come from the city Department of Transportation (DOT), and streamlined permitting to the five boroughs.

“Our approach to permanently establishing an outdoor program, therefore, must be thoughtful,” she said during a Feb. 8 hearing last year. “We’re not seeking perfection. We are seeing participation and partnership. At the same time, the innovations this temporary program established, including cutting bureaucratic red tape must continue in the permanent program.”

Under the legislation, most enclosed street sheds would become a thing of the past. They’ll be outdoor, open-air cafes in service from the beginning of April until the end of November coming down during the winter.

Restaurants that had a pre-pandemic enclosed sheds approved by the Department of Buildings will be allowed to keep them, but all others will need to come down, according to the legislation.

There will be separate permitting processes for sidewalk cafes and roadway cafes, but all will be overseen by the DOT.

The Council is expected to pass the legislation Thursday, and Mayor Eric Adams, who called for the legislation, is expected to sign it.

Mayor Eric Adams helps dismantle an abandoned outdoor dining structure on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. (Staten Island Advance/Paul Liotta)

Last August, Adams held a Manhattan press conference during which he announced his administration, in an effort to limit community eyesores, would begin dismantling abandoned structures around the city that defunct restaurants left behind.

His press conference came with a pre-planned photo-op during which the mayor used a sledgehammer to bring down a pre-cut wall of an abandoned dining shed.

“We have to do better to make sure that structures like these are existing in our communities,” Adams said. “It can’t be a safe haven for rats. It can’t be a safe haven for illegal behavior. It has to be a place to allow people to enjoy dining.”

MORE NYC NEWS

NYC earmarks $200,000 in funds for 2 Staten Island projects

NYC continues to see spike in migrants, driving some onto street

NYPD tows illegally parked commercial truck on Staten Island

Murders have doubled on Staten Island, yet NYC anti-gun campaign will be focused elsewhere

Mayor touts rat mitigation efforts in NYC, but complaints remain the same on Staten Island

If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. By browsing this site, we may share your information with our social media partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.