Belmont officials Tuesday announced plans to bring outdoor dining to the city to help restaurants contend with restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic — and potentially making those changes permanent.
The City Council during its regular meeting directed staff to establish a temporary conditional use permit process, including a reduction in fees, to facilitate outdoor dining. The aim is to allow restaurants to increase seating capacity and provide a safe dining experience amid COVID-19 and associated social distancing requirements.
“Anything we can do to help the economy, our businesses, and getting people back dining in Belmont in a safe way is great,” said Councilwoman Julia Mates during the meeting.
Community Development Director Carlos de Melo said the arrangement could be permanent.
“We could very well see through our research it could be something beyond a temporary condition. We could look to this change as being a permanent change within our commercial districts,” he said.
While the permit process has yet to be developed, councilmembers directed staff to ensure it’s as quick as possible. An initial proposal was to have the Planning Commission approve the permits for outdoor dining, but that body only meets every other week.
“I’d just like to see if there’s a way to speed it up,” said Councilman Thomas McCune, adding restaurants should be able to serve diners outside immediately while they wait for a longer term permit.
De Melo said staff will look into the request.
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The decision to pursue outdoor dining comes roughly a week after an updated health order that allows indoor dining, but with social distancing requirements. Councilmembers noted many will likely only be comfortable dining outdoors for the foreseeable future despite the new rules.
“There’s an awful lot of people in that same boat with me that are comfortable dining outside socially distanced, but they’re just not going to get there dining inside,” said Vice Mayor Charles Stone.
According to a draft of the standards, outdoor dining will only be allowed on private property or on sidewalks for business that currently have a footprint in the city. Outdoor dining will not be available to mobile businesses or be allowed on vacant property or on property without commercial tenants, according to the draft.
The draft also prohibits outdoor cooking and grilling, music and entertainment, but alcohol ostensibly will be allowed, though proprietors will have to comply with the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
De Melo said he’s spoken to about a half dozen restaurants in the city that welcome the concept, and added certain restaurants are “doing well” with takeout.
“To me [outdoor dining] is kind of a no-brainer, it’s the responsible thing to do,” said Councilwoman Davina Hurt.
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(1) comment
I don't quite understand this article, because Belmont has had outdoor dining for a couple weeks now.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.