‘This is critical’
Town works to keep outdoor dining along Greenwich Avenue
GREENWICH — It’s been called a highlight of the “new Greenwich” by First Selectman Fred Camillo — part of a longterm vision for improving the downtown. And it has been embraced by restaurant owners and diners alike since it sprang up during the COVID-19 crisis.
But without new permits in place, the outdoor dining that restaurants scrambled to create along Greenwich Avenue to hold onto customers could soon go away.
Gov. Ned Lamont issued an executive order last year allowing outdoor dining to expand statewide, loosening local zoning codes without the months of debate that typically would follow. In Greenwich, the zoning department was fully on board and worked with restaurants to move dining into the street, particularly on the Avenue and its side streets.
But with the deadline looming for that executive order to expire April 20, the town is looking to keep outdoor dining on the table.
“This is critical,” First Selectman Fred Camillo said. “We want
to work with our businesses and restaurants on this. I think it worked really well having people outdoors last year, and we have plenty of warm days ahead.”
According to town Director of Planning and Zoning Katie DeLuca, the town has put a system in place to allow the outdoor dining to continue. But the time to act is now.
“It’s the new Greenwich, and we love it,” Camillo said of the outdoor dining. “We want to make sure this is part of our landscape going forward.”
Under a proposal put forth by the Board of Selectmen, the expanded outdoor dining would be allowed to continue from April 20 until Dec. 19.
The Planning and Zoning Department created a webpage at www.greenwichct.gov/428/Planning-Zoning with frequently asked questions and giving restaurant owners instructions on using the new permit renewal forms.
Outdoor dining a lifeline to restaurants
Under the expansion, the seating expanded into parking spaces. And the town took steps to make that safe and popular.
The lower part of the Avenue was cut off to non-emergency vehicle traffic — which created an “outdoor mall” and allowed residents to walk and sit comfortably. “Bump outs” were installed at several locations, with barriers put in place to surround and protect diners from traffic.
Those nodes are still in place, with plans to use them this spring and summer.
“We have created a system whereby those restaurants can continue to use the nodes,” DeLuca said. “If they want to increase the number of seats, they have to go through a review by Planning and Zoning to ensure their facility meets all applicable codes.”
Those codes include rules on the kitchen size and the number of restrooms in a restaurant.
Taking up parking spaces
This past week, the Board of Selectmen unanimously approved allowing restaurants to put out nodes and take up existing parking spaces. The selectmen approved a fee structure to charge restaurants about $1,475 per season to take three parking spaces and put 40 linear feet of barriers in place around those spots to set up outdoor dining.
Town Administrator Ben Branyan said the money would go either to the Parking Services Department to make up for the loss of the revenue from those parking spaces or to a miscellaneous income account for the Department of Public Works.
The town is working to find alternate parking spots due to the loss of spaces on Greenwich Avenue, with help from the Reimagine Greenwich Committee, which is overseen by Selectwoman Lauren Rabin.
Camillo credited the town Planning and Zoning Department and Commission for working as a “wonderful partner” with his office and local businesses to make this plan work.
And with the looming deadline, the department is ready to work extra hours to handle the expected permit applications.
“We have increased the hours of staff who are already well versed in the handling of outdoor dining, so we have no reason to believe that we won’t be able to get everyone sorted out by April 19, assuming they don’t wait until April 18, of course, to obtain their renewals,” DeLuca said.
The town must still amend the town code to allow outdoor dining. The selectmen set an end date of Dec. 19, but the existing zoning code set the last date for Nov. 1. The Planning and Zoning Commission is expected to take up the topic leading to the April 20 start of outdoor dining.
Looking at aesthetics
The Reimagine Greenwich Committee has been focused on raising money privately to help with downtown improvements. Rabin wondered whether that money could be used for “nicer” barriers around the dining nodes.
“You wouldn’t want some restaurants to have nice barriers and others to have yucky ones,” Rabin said. “I would think we would want some consistency of visual appeal to whatever barriers get provided.”
Ultimately, Camillo said that was an expense that could be handled by the businesses.
“That should probably ... be the obligation of the business owner if they want to raise money on their own,” Camillo said. “I think the money we’re raising should just go to public safety and beautification for the whole town, not for specific businesses.”