NYC Losing Many Outdoor Dining Areas Due to Expensive New Regulations

Many of New York City’s outdoor dining structures are being removed to make way for (mostly free) parking after restaurants and bars failed to make them compliant with the city’s new requirements. 

According to a report by Kevin Duggan in Streetsblog NYC, businesses with non-compliant designs had to take down their setups by November 1, while compliant businesses must remove them by November 29, since the outdoor dining program doesn’t apply in winter months. The new rules, which call for a public hearing for new outdoor dining applications, require that structures be easily removable and lightweight, banning fully enclosed hard structures.

Restaurant owners say the seasonal program makes operating an outdoor dining area more expensive since they must pay for removal and storage during the off-season, and many say they will stop offering outdoor dining altogether. “The numbers of sheds dropped significantly after the new regime first kicked in over the summer, with around 3,000 applications for roadway and sidewalk cafés as of late September, according to the Department of Transportation. Transportation officials estimate that the program peaked at 6,000 to 8,000 participants, including some 5,000 setups as of this summer.”