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Restaurants and bars again will have access to expedited approvals for using on-street parking spaces and parking lots as patio space this year, the city of Columbus said Friday.
After intense lobbying from the restaurant and bar industry, Columbus agreed in August to offer the expedited approval process for extra outdoor seating. The program ended in November and restarts March 15.
Restaurants and bars want more space to offset coronavirus restrictions, which require tables to be spaced at least 6 feet apart, a rule that cuts seating capacity in half for many dining establishments.
Infectious disease experts also consider outdoor dining safer than indoor dining. While the virus still spreads outdoors, the chances of infection are much lower, experts say. As a result, some customers prefer to sit outside.
Under the expedited process, restaurants and bars must submit proposed layouts for their outdoor dining areas for city review. The proposals need to show that additional seating won’t infringe on neighborhood parking, violate safety codes or endanger pedestrians.
The spaces also must conform to a handful of other requirements. For example, a buffer must be erected between on-street parking spaces and car traffic. Parking lot seating cannot appropriate more than 25% of parking spaces, and tables can’t block remaining spaces.
On-street seating permits will last through Oct. 31, and permits for parking lot seating must be renewed after 90 days.
“When they reapply, we take into account the existing circumstances,” said Tony Celebrezze, assistant director of the city’s department of building and zoning services. For example, “how is COVID doing? Are we still under a lot of social distancing restrictions?”
Applicants must agree to return the space to its original condition once additional seating is removed.
“The challenge is for the owner to get all the right documents together, and usually within a day we send our inspector, a fire inspector and a health inspector out there together and hopefully approve it,” Celebrezze said.
Wolf ’s Ridge Brewing Co. applied to put 10 tables in an alley adjacent to its Downtown taproom last year, which more than doubled its seating. Coowner Bob Szuter said the process took four or five days, and the brewer plans to apply again in 2021.
The patio brought in needed revenue after foot traffic Downtown plummeted, he said.
“That made a huge difference in getting us through the year,” Szuter said.
Seven restaurants were approved for on-street dining and 18 were allowed to expand seating in their parking lots last year.
In a statement, Ohio Restaurant Association President and CEO John Barker applauded the move.
“Additional sales opportunities give restaurants a better chance to survive the pandemic as they continue to serve the Columbus community and add to the vibrancy of our neighborhoods,” he said.
Prior to the change, restaurants and bars that wanted to offer more outside seating had to apply for a permanent change, a process that could take months.
Seattle and San Francisco.”
For home price hikes, none of those big-time destinations could hold a candle last year to Boise, Idaho, where prices leapt 23.4% from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the FHFA.
Following Boise in the top 10 were Tacoma, Washington (16.3%), Salt Lake City (15.9%), Phoenix (14.8%), Camden, New Jersey (14.7%), Albany, New York (14.5%), Worcester, Massachusetts (14.3%), Cleveland (14.2%), Bridgeport, Connecticut (14.1%) and Seattle (14%).
All Ohio metro areas on the FHFA list of Top 100 cities beat the average U.S. price growth of 10.8%, although none fared as well as Cleveland. In Akron, home prices rose 13.1% from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020, in Columbus 12.3%, in Dayton 11.2% and in Cincinnati 11.1%.
On the bottom rung was San Francisco. For years one of the nation’s most expensive metro areas, the City by the Bay saw home prices rise a modest 2.4% from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the same period in 2020.
Other large or expensive metro areas to see below-average price growth from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020 were Honolulu (2.9%), New York (8%), Chicago
(8.6%), Philadelphia (9.3%) and Washington, D.C. (9.5%).
The FHFA data reflect similar figures from other sources.
The widely watched S&P Corelogic Case-shiller Index, for example, found that home prices in the Cleveland area rose 11.5% last year, better than in New York (9.9%), San Francisco (8.7%), Chicago (7.7%) or Washington D.C. (10.3%).
Part of this is driven by simple affordability. With a median sales price of $1.14 million, San Francisco, for example, is out of reach for many mortals.
Hale expects San Francisco and other
big cities to boom again once the pandemic ends, although she believes it may depend on how flexible employers are with allowing workers to stay home.
“When cultural amenities and other big attractions start to reopen, we will see cities becoming more attractive,” she said. “A lot’s going to depend on whether the pandemic shifts people’s behavior for the long term or whether things revert back to normal soon,” Hale added. “A lot remains to be seen, but I do expect the cities to bounce back.” jweiker@dispatch.com @Jimweiker