ICYMI: City proposing permanent patio program, fees for 2024

Burlington’s downtown restaurants are taking a financial blow when it comes to funding their outdoor patios.

On Tuesday, they pleaded with councillors for funding help or changes to the city’s recommended seasonal outdoor patio program. They are asking that there be no fees for the outdoor patio program in 2024.

Council’s community planning, regulation and mobility committee heard from several downtown restaurant owners about the City’s proposal.

Some fear their restaurants will be forced to close if they have to pay some of the suggested fees and stipulated liability insurance coverage included in the city’s 600-page document provided to them.

The Martini House, Pepperwood Bistro and Downtown Bistro were among the popular hot spots criticizing the city’s report, which also includes design guidelines and patron patio-to-restaurant ratios. It stipulates that the patio makes up 50 per cent of the clientele.

Restaurant operators spent a few hours explaining their circumstances, forcing the committee to send the report back to have staff incorporate some of the feedback.

In 2020 council approved a temporary patio program to support local eateries in response to COVID-19 restrictions. Since then, the city has enacted bylaws each season so the program could continue. In 2021, there were participants in the program, while last year, there were 27.

During last year's patio season, some 17 parking spaces in the downtown were occupied by patios. At $2,982 per space, 17 occupied parking spaces resulted in an estimated total loss of $50,694. Staff say costs for the installation and removal of safety barriers was $10,000 last year.

The city is now trying to establish a permanent, city-wide program for 2024 for patios on both private and public lands – both will have different bylaws and different associated costs.

Staff recommended the following fees: $40 per square metre for occupancy of public lands and $33.25 per linear metre where city-provided safety barriers/signage is required.

They also recommended resumption of a $5-million insurance liability limit for the 2024 patio season.

For patios on private property, the city recommended: applicants be subject to the existing fee for minor site plan approval – set at $1,820 for 2024. Patios on public lands would cost applicants $1,500.

“For us, it would probably kill us. It would do us in," said Mike Lorinczi, of Downtown Bistro. “If we went to 50 per cent (on the patios) we would lose out on that back patio and we’d end up losing five staff members.”

He said it would be like stepping back 10 years in terms of building a business.

“Customers want to sit on the patio,” otherwise, they move on, he added.

Lorinczi said if Bistro reducing the patio by 50 per cent would mean the 30-seat restaurant would only be able to seat 15 people on the patio. He created a patio in the back parking lot that seats 42 people at a cost of $30,000, when wood was at a premium.

Brian Dean, from the city’s Downtown Business Association, and Craig Kowalchuk, representing Burlington Restaurant Association, told the committee that they have spent more than $100,000 in new infrastructure for a permanent patio program in the downtown.

“We wanted to deliver a superior style," he said. "It wasn't managed behind a desk. We worked hand-in-hand with operators. We got out there and made it happen." 

Dean said the program added almost 200 new outdoor patio seating spaces, along with six part-time employees. It also resulted in 310 square meters of new pedestrian infrastructure on five downtown streets.

“We are on the cusp of approving a program with a funding model that downloads all of the cost onto the applicants,” said Dean. This is not the leadership we were expecting from this report and from the committee of council. We want to be part of a program that incentivizes innovation, not one that penalizes it.”

Dean said costs would balloon by some 21 per cent for restaurant owners.

“Our friends in Toronto have figured it out,” he said, pointing to numerous financial programs and matching grants available to restaurant owners under the 'CafeTO' program that are nowhere to be found in Burlington’s report.

Kowalchuk said the hospitality industry is taking years to recover from the pandemic.

He suggested that in a struggling economy, the city needs a vibrant downtown and it needs to eliminate barriers. He said they are struggling in every way possible, including work-staff shortages. Furthermore, he said, insurance at the city’s $5 million liability stipulation could cost $10,000 to $40,000 alone.

Pepperwood’s Stephen Bell and the Martini House’s Barry Glazier agreed that the costs associated with the city’s proposal wouldn’t make it feasible to have any outdoor patio.

“This program, the way it stands right now, for an average operator could be anywhere from $130,00 and $230,000 in sales that we’d have to do, just to recover the costs on this,” said Bell. “Based on what we had last summer, with the rain and the smoke, myself and Pepperwood... wouldn’t participate in the program. It wouldn’t be viable. I mean, for 20 extra seats or 24 extra seats, you’re never going to recover your costs.”

Staff will report back to committee in the new year with updates.