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Columbus waives permit fee for restaurants applying to continued outdoor seating program

On March 15, the City of Columbus officially continued its outdoor seating program for restaurants.

On March 15, the City of Columbus officially continued its outdoor seating program for restaurants.

It was first implemented last spring in order to allow restaurants use of the right of way for temporary on-street dining areas of their parking lots to expand seating.

Mayor Andrew Ginther said local restaurants have been hit hard because of the pandemic and the program allows patrons to support them.

“Resuming the program as warm weather approaches will help these businesses and their employees continue to rebound from the pandemic’s impact,” Mayor Andrew Ginther said.

Anthony Celebrezze, the City’s Assistant Director of Building and Zoning Services, said the biggest challenge for them is just making sure restaurants are creating enough space from the patios to where cars are driving.

The program enforces policy requirements that each restaurant must follow whether it’s for on-street seating or seating in the parking lots.

Celebrezze said as of Monday they have received nine applications for private parcel patios and parking lot expansions. Three have already been approved and four are waiting to be inspected this week.

Last year, there was a $125 permit fee but the city is waiving that fee this year.

“It just makes sense with so many restaurants and bars being at diminished capacity because of COVID, that from our standpoint with the private parking lots, there wouldn’t be as much demand on those parking lots for those restaurants and bars, so the thought was let’s continue to use it,” Celebrezze said.

Wolf’s Ridge Brewing applied to the program when it was first announced last year and has applied again this year. They are able to utilize the alley just north of their building.

“It worked out very well, the city didn’t really change anything as far as the process to get this going. We did shorten it just a little bit to allow for vehicles to turn on and off of the alley a little bit easier, but at the end of the day, it’s what it looked like last year,” Co-Founder of Wolf’s Ridge Brewing, Bob Szuter said.

Taste Hospitality Group also took advantage of the program the first time around and now the second time. The group has six entities, including Hubbard Grille and Wine on High. CEO of the group, Sheila Trautner, said when it comes to providing more seating for their guests, they’re going to take full advantage of that.

Last year, Trautner said they didn’t have much turnaround time from when they were given the green light to add on. Now, there’s time to adjust what worked and what didn’t.

For their restaurants that are taking advantage of the extra seating, their intentions are to keep the set up the way it was last year, just with updated furniture. 

The leaders in the group never questioned whether or not they would be applying again, they knew right away it was the best option for them.

“I think it’s a great program and opportunity that the City has put out there for business owners and I think that without it, it would hurt our revenue opportunities as we are starting to see a sense of optimism out there with more people being vaccinated and more and more people willing to go out to dine,” Trautner said.

When the pandemic is over and capacity restrictions are lifted, Celebrezze said the city needs to consider a lot of factors to determine if the program will continue.

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