Saying April isn’t a great weather month and that retailers favor the change, town officials voted Tuesday to push the opening of the outdoor dining season downtown back one month this spring while tacking on two final days in the fall.
Currently, the outdoor dining schedule for “sidewalk cafes” is April 1 to Oct. 31, according to Town Planner Sarah Carey.
Temporary outdoor dining barriers outside of Patisserie Salzburg and Rosie on Elm Street, on May 1, 2023. Credit: Michael Dinan
The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 Tuesday to allow outdoor dining from May 1 through Nov. 2.
“This is really just to try to balance the various needs of, not only restaurants that are downtown, but also other businesses and various pedestrians and other users of downtown,” Carey told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
Administrative Officer Tucker Murphy said that a survey from last year showed that “overwhelmingly people supported outdoor dining.”
She continued: “However, the retailers feel that there should be some consideration for the month of April when the weather may not be as nice, and to see chairs out in the street with no one in them just really sort of irks them. And so we’re trying to shorten the time period of the outdoor dining to take advantage of the good weather and in response to those concerns.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted in favor of the new dates.
Carlson said the reason for tacking on two days that cover the first weekend of November is just in case it’s a sunny and comfortable Saturday-Sunday, as it was last year.
“And the weather doesn’t tend to be great here in April,” Carlson said. “Maybe you’ll get a few days, but I think that September and October are more consistently great months.”
The selectmen asked whether the barriers setup for outdoor dining will be the same this year as last year (with the addition of sidewalk bumpouts on the south side of Elm Street, including in front of Dunkin and Dolce, and whether additional restaurants can apply for outdoor dining (all restaurants can apply and most do), whether permit fees are based on the number of seats a restaurant puts out (yes), and whether there’s a minimum amount of square footage needed per-seat (no).
Karl said he was going to suggest a small increase to the permit fee this year but with the shorter season “I think we keep the rates the same.”
“It’s a fair compromise,” he said, “but I would say that there is room next year to look at the rates again, because, looking at whether these other towns are charging, there is definitely room there.”