TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Trevor Dick, Director of Development Strategy and Facilitation
DATE: March 12, 2021
SUBJECT:title
A staff report regarding outdoor dining throughout the City of Aurora for the 2021 season including a newly streamlined temporary outdoor dining application and approval process, as well as a new pilot program for parklets to better accommodate restaurants.
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PURPOSE:
Outdoor dining opportunities for our local restaurants is extremely important especially during the COVID 19 Pandemic. Last summer the City through it’s “Activate Aurora” program quickly created a simple application and review process to help support temporary outdoor dining throughout the City. As a brief refresher, Activate Aurora was created in April 2020 with the shared goal of reopening our economy. The guide was a collaborative effort between the City of Aurora, Invest Aurora, and the Aurora Area Chamber of Commerce. The purpose of the report was to provide guidance to local retail and restaurants in the City of Aurora with a focus on opening safe and healthy businesses for both employees and visitors. The goals were: 1) to expedite our ability to assist businesses in resuming service while taking preventative measures; 2) to establish a safe and healthy working environment; 3) and to decrease the rate of infections.
Last summer’s program that allowed permits for temporary outdoor dining was extremely successful throughout the City and restaurants in all of our Wards took advantage. The City created flexibility in our requirements to allow “nontraditional” dining spaces including within portions of surface parking lots, on City ROW, and on private property. As we continue to navigate through the pandemic in 2021 staff desires to continue to support outdoor dining in a similar fashion as we did in 2020.
BACKGROUND:
Outdoor dining was a successful way for most restaurants in the City to remain open to serve dine-in customers in a safe and socially distance way during the Pandemic. City staff wants to continue to support this option for restaurants wishing to have outdoor dining. This memo provides an update on two key ways the City is supporting this 1) outdoor dining applications, and 2) parklet pilot program.
1) Outdoor Dining Application. Similar to last year, restaurants seeking to temporarily add or expand outdoor dining areas on City Property, or into parking lots will need to apply for a permit and shall abide by the guidelines including in the online application on the City’s website. Restaurants seeking to temporarily add or expand outdoor dining areas on their current property that are not on City property or City right-of-way do not need to submit any permit application to do so. Guidelines for three (3) types of Outdoor Dining:
1.Existing outdoor seating areas and patios
2.On private parking lots
3.On City-owned property and rights-of-way
2) Parklet Pilot Program. This idea for the City permitting “parklets’ was first brought up at City Council in April 2020 during our Activate Aurora discussions. A parklet can be defined as a small seating area or green space created as a public amenity on or alongside a sidewalk, especially in a former on-street parking space. Attachment A includes Downtown Parklet Design Guidelines, and an Application. These are based upon information compiled from other municipalities from throughout Illinois, as we as State and Federal Department of Transportation Departments. Please note that three different types of “parklets” are shows as recommendations for restaurants to consider 1) Full Parklet (seating area over a parking space); 2) Reverse Parklet or Pedlet (sidewalk moved out over the parking space); and 3) Aurora Downtown Parklet ( a design that has been created by Aurora Downtown for seating over a parking space).
DISCUSSION:
The creation and administration of this program has been very responsive to the needs of our local businesses by providing an easy to use application form and review process. Improvements have been made to this year’s program based upon what staff learned last year. An example is that now within the online outdoor dining permit application depending on how a business answers a questions, a drop-down of more detailed information is quickly show the applicant so that they are aware of additional details or requirements for that particular item (i.e. heaters, outdoor cooking, entertainment, etc.…).
The new parklet pilot program will be an exciting new addition to the City’s outdoor dining opportunities and the City will closely monitor its success and/or any issues to make improvements to the pilot program if it continues after 2021.
IMPACT STATEMENT:
Allowing outdoor dining will support local businesses and will in turn support future revenues for the City and stable business districts throughout the City.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
For information only.
Attachment A: Pilot Program for Parklets