City finally making patio spaces easier to get
Big number: $1,235.09, the per-space monthly cost typically charged to downtown area restaurants that want to convert an on-street parking spot into patio space. The city is looking at waiving fees like this during the COVID-19 pandemic, part of a proposed CafeTO program.
The pandemic isn’t over — not by a long shot — but Toronto is making progress. If the number of new cases continues to drop and public health experts give the OK, the city and the surrounding region will soon join the rest of the province in stage two of reopening. One of our prizes for getting there: the chance to drink a cold beer on a restaurant patio. I’m ready for it. City hall wants to make it easier for the businesses pouring those beers to be ready for it too. Earlier this month, Mayor John Tory announced CafeTO, a program designed to speed along the process for opening and expanding patio spaces. Online registration started Monday, and if approved by council later this month, the program will offer businesses waived fees and expedited permits.
“The city is creating a registration process to sign up for the additional patio space that people may wish to take advantage of, and to streamline that process so it can be done very quickly,” the mayor told reporters in a press conference on June 4.
It’s an important move, especially with so many bars and restaurants struggling through the pandemic. Quick question, though: Why wasn’t the process for getting a patio permit streamlined and quick to begin with?
For a reminder of how slow and complex things normally are, look at the agenda for this week’s meeting of Toronto & East York Community Council. On Thursday, councillors on the committee will consider two applications for patio permits. One is from a pizza place in the Beaches, while the other is an Indian restaurant at Bloor Street West and Crawford Street.
Both applications, made last summer, are recommended for refusal, owing to a policy requiring a poll of households in the vicinity of the proposed patio. The polls conducted for both patios saw a majority who cast ballots vote in opposition. But dig into the results and it becomes clear that the real winner in both polls was apathy. With the pizza joint application, just 28 of 95 ballots were returned. The Indian restaurant’s patio application saw just 20 of 61 come back.
The polling requirement takes a lot of time and assumes non-participation is the same as opposition, stacking the odds against restaurants. A negative result doesn’t necessarily mean the restaurants won’t get their patios, but overruling a negative poll result requires businesses to launch an appeal process and work with their local councillor to win support for overturning the refusal at community council.
The barriers don’t end there. Applications will also be automatically refused if multiple people write letters in opposition. And permits come at a cost. There’s an application fee, and an annual fee per square metre of patio space. And if a restaurant wants to convert an on-street parking space into a patio, the city requires a downtown area business to pay $1,235.09 per month to offset parking revenue the space would have generated for the city.
Many of these requirements and costs will likely be set aside for the new CafeTO program, recognizing an urgent need to support restaurants during COVID-19. But if a streamlined process and lower fees can support businesses during the pandemic, there’s no reason the same measures can’t support businesses all the time. Maybe some of the red tape being cut because of COVID-19 doesn’t need to be stuck back together.
I am not advocating an anarcho-capitalist free-for-all. Many of the city’s regulations and bylaws governing patio spaces are important. Especially the ones that relate to making sure patio space doesn’t spill onto the sidewalk and block people using wheelchairs or mobility devices. And there are lots of legitimate concerns about noise and rowdiness in some patio spaces.
But instead of maintaining a bureaucratic system that seems to default to saying no, the city could instead permanently opt for a system that actively supports the creation of outdoor space for people and businesses, with clear and reasonable rules.
During the pandemic and after it, perhaps patio permits should be easy to get and hard to keep — instead of the other way around.