Outdoor dining in NYC: Pandemic-inspired program set to become permanent but with new rules, fees

Roadway sheds for outdoor dining — an arrangement birthed during the coronavirus pandemic’s earliest days — are set to become a permanent fixture of New York City’s streetscape under legislation passed Thursday by the City Council.

But the program comes with asterisks, including a mandate that sheds be taken down during the cold season, Nov. 30 to March 31, a rule likely to reduce the sheds’ prevalence.

The legislation creates a new licensing program, with fees pegged to an establishment’s location: higher fees would be levied to establishments on 125th Street in Manhattan and below, for example.

Assuming the legislation is signed by Mayor Eric Adams — who supports it — the outdoor dining program that began in 2020 as an emergency measure to allow businesses to reopen as the virus spread uncontrollably would become permanent, as would certain kinds of sheds.

Outdoor dining would be allowed from 10 a.m. to midnight, according to the legislation. The vote was 34-11, according to council spokeswoman Breeana Mulligan.

But some restaurateurs say having to take down the sheds will pose an undue hardship that includes disassembling, storing and re-assembling the sheds in the spring, and discourage businesses from participating in outdoor dining.

Those opposed to outdoor dining include some who lament the loss of street parking, noise created by patrons and trash generated.

The outdoor dining program as it has existed since the pandemic had also treaded into uncertain legal waters as a judge questioned whether the emergency used to justify the program since 2020 still existed.

There were 12,000 cafes, bars and restaurants that set up tables on sidewalks or in parking lanes following the program’s launch in June 2020, according to a January report by New York University Professor Mitch Moss. The report concluded that the city's outdoor dining scene grew 12-fold, due to a relaxation of the prior rules, which required a lengthy bureaucratic review process as well as steep fees.

A policy in Paris similar to what the City Council passed Thursday reduced the number of “curb-lane restaurant terraces by two-thirds, from 12,000 to 4,000,” according to an article in The New York Daily News.

Among the legislation’s other requirements: restaurants in historic districts or landmark sites must obtain permission from the city’s landmarks preservation commission — an additional bureaucratic hurdle for certain establishments; there are also design standards for the sheds to be promulgated by the city. Some current sheds would not comply with those standards and would need to be taken down.

Although sheds are to be seasonally restricted, tables on the sidewalk will be permitted year round.

In a statement Thursday, NYC Hospitality Alliance's executive director, Andrew Rigie, and its counsel, Rob Bookman, praised the legislation.

“The new law will cut the red tape and fees for restaurants to participate when compared to the overly restrictive pre-pandemic sidewalk café licenses, which excluded so many restaurants throughout the five boroughs from offering al fresco dining,” the statement said.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.