The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
City relaxes rules on outdoor dining
Sidewalk and patio dining will get a little easier for businesses reopening their doors in downtown Lorain.
A number of area restaurants and retail businesses closed due to the shutdown and stat-athome and shelter-in-place orders prompted by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Now, as Broadway’s restaurants and retail businesses reopen, the city will relax rules set up to regulate outdoor dining.
Councilwoman-at-Large Mary Springowski introduced the legislation.
“A lot of our small businesses in the city of Lorain have been hit very hard,” Springowski said. “A lot of the new restaurants have come up, they just opened their doors when they had to close.
“Outside dining has opened up first before the inside dining, and I think that more people are going to avail themselves even afterwards of the outside dining.”
Relaxing the rules is critical for downtown businesses to succeed, Springowski said.
“I think we have to relax some regulations here in order to help assist these businesses and to support them,” she said.
The suggestion grew out of Mayor Jack Bradley’s economic recovery group and was part of discussion to help the downtown businesses.
Springowski asked for the ordinance so businesses can reopen and have the tools to survive, the mayor said.
“We’re just giving them the opportunity to use more sidewalk space,” Bradley said.
Lorain City Council approved the measures May 18.
The city legislation puts rules on hold until Nov. 1, so the restaurants can use outdoor spaces to accommodate patrons, while respecting the recommended six-feet of space between people to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Legislation deals with Section 909 of Lorain’s city laws dealing with outdoor dining.
The rules stated business owners needed city permits to occupy the public right-of-way, or generally, the sidewalks in front of the shops.
The city required permit applications with scale drawings showing where tables, chairs and fences would go.
Business owners had to pay a $50 fee to apply.
Those requirements are suspended for late spring, summer and fall to Nov. 1.
Ready to eat
Union Town Provisions, 422 Broadway, opened for outside dining last weekend, but the weather was pretty lousy for it, said coowner Tim Scholl.
But diners came out May 20 when sidewalk service started again, Scholl said.
The restaurant was reopening May 21 for indoor dining.
“People were really sort of enthusiastic about, ‘A,’ being able to sit outside, and, ‘B,’ being able to sit down and get food again,” he said.
Inside and out, tables will be appropriately spaced apart, but the eatery has enough room that it removed only four tables to maintain social distancing, Scholl said.
The restaurant is “actually pretty well situated,” he said due to the square footage inside the building.
“People are very anxious to get out and not spread a virus, but to do something normal once in a while,” Scholl said.
Business response
The rule changes could inspire new thinking about how to regulate outdoor dining for the businesses, said Kurt Hernon, president of Main Street Lorain and co-owner of Speak of the Devil cocktail bar.
For example, having fences around patios screws metal into new concrete, then makes it harder to clear snow off sidewalks.
Eliminating that requirement, or allowing business owners to use movable stanchions, could be easier and cheaper to deal with, Hernon said.
He said he was part of the May 15 online meeting of Bradley’s economic recovery committee.
It was encouraging that Council and the administration wanted to hear the ideas of the local proprietors, Hernon said.
With new restaurants, businesses, energy and a redesigned streetscape, summer 2020 was expected to be a breakout time for downtown Lorain, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hernon predicted a slow but sure reopening by downtown merchants who want their customers safe.
“People have stayed upbeat throughout this,” he said. “There’s a positivity and things have been moving on with other projects in town.
“I don’t see anyone throwing in the towel at this point at all.”
Close the road?
Bradley has suggested making parts of Broadway a pedestrian-only zone on weekends.
That way, restaurants could use the street to set out tables and chairs, having even more space to serve customers.
In the online meeting May 15, downtown merchants suggested holding off that plan for now.
“They asked me to hold off on that to see how business is the first couple weeks that they’re open because they felt that vehicular traffic might be beneficial to them,” Bradley said.
The business owners also don’t want senior citizens to have to park and walk a far distance to a restaurant, he said.
Hernon predicted a slow but sure reopening by downtown merchants who want their customers safe.