City can finally press play on patio music, but not at the bayfront

THE CITY’S LONG-DELAYED plan to allow music on outdoor patios is finally a go — just not anywhere on the bayfront.

Council approved a pilot project last year to allow live and amplified music on patios in certain commercial districts across the city — but an Ontario Municipal Board appeal by a North End resident group pulled the plug on terrace tunes just in time for summer.

That legal delay was primed to continue this summer, too — until the city reached an OMB settlement with the Harbour West Neighbours to press play on the musical experiment outside of the bayfront.

“Once they agreed to exclude the waterfront, it didn’t make sense to go on with the appeal,” said lawyer Herman Turkstra, founder of the resident group who confirmed the settlement to The Spectator.

City council voted to approve a confidential report on the OMB appeal Wednesday night, but did not release public details.

Downtown Coun. Jason Farr, however, said he believes eligible bar and restaurant owners will now be able to apply for musical patio permissions this summer.

“That was really the goal (of the settlement), because otherwise who knows how long it might have taken to resolve this,” said Farr, who previously suggested the lack of legal patio tunes makes Hamilton a socalled “Music City minus the music.”

“We didn’t want to miss another summer.”

Turkstra said his group agreed to withdraw its appeal so long as the patio pilot is not implemented along the west harbour from Bayfront Park to Pier 8.

The pilot program — which also requires patio owners to apply for a noise bylaw exemption — was originally meant to allow live music on bar or restaurant patios in districts in or near the downtown, on Upper James Street, in the Dundas core, some rural areas and along the bayfront. However, patio owners outside those districts are still out of luck, unless they pay to pursue a committee of adjustment bylaw exemption.

Turkstra said it was “not our job” to fight patio tunes in other areas of the city, but added his group insisted nonetheless on a “key” city promise to have a latenight bylaw officer available during patio music months elsewhere in the city.

“We were not going to walk away from this without ensuring there would be enforcement,” he said.

It is not clear how late-night enforcement will be provided. In the past, the city has only provided late-night bylaw enforcement when officers can be teamed with paid-duty Hamilton police for safety reasons.

The experiment will be welcomed by patio owners and visitors as long overdue, said Dean Collett, co-owner of Sizzle and Koi in Hess Village. “It’s always been kind of silly to have a blanket ban on patio entertainment,” said Collett. “I don’t think anyone has been advocating to have loud, thumping music outside until 2 a.m.”

“It’s a short patio season in this country and I think people would appreciate being able to sit outside, enjoy a beer and listen to music.”

The agreement to exclude the bayfront from the patio music pilot comes as the city pushes ahead with a Pier 8 redevelopment that it hopes will eventually include 1,500 new residential units and new businesses — including pubs and restaurants.

But the settlement does not guarantee that music has died on the waterfront forever, because the pilot is supposed to be limited to two years.

Turkstra acknowledged the city could make permanent policy changes to allow patio music in some areas without breaching the legal settlement. “If so, we’ll have the right of appeal in that case as well,” he said.

Ironically, the bayfront bar that helped prompt the North End patio music appeal is no longer in operation.

Pier 7 restaurant and bar Sarcoa earned the wrath of residents on both sides of Burlington Bay by holding loud dance parties on its massive harbourfront patio in 2015. An eventual noise bylaw crackdown spurred as-yet unresolved lawsuits between the city, Hamilton Waterfront Trust and the bar, which had its lease terminated last year.