Planning Board Discusses Potential Restrictions on Outdoor Seating

Outdoor seating and how much of it the city should allow were the topic of discussion Wednesday night at the meeting of the Birmingham Planning Board as they prepared for a joint meeting with the city commission later this month.

At their regular meeting Wednesday, the board talked the kinds of requirements new businesses would be required to meet if they wanted to set up streetside dining operations. The issue will be discussed again at a special joint meeting of that board and the city commission on June 20.

Matt Baka of the planning department provided the board with a wealth of information culled from all sorts of sources, the state as well as the Birmingham (PSD).

"We got information about the properties, which ones have liquor licenses, police department statistics," he said. "We also have a 2006 PSD report that addresses the need for more restaurants. There's more data coming."

Boardmember Bryan Williams asked if any thinking had gone into the kinds of questions that would be put to businesses wanting to apply for outdoor seating or if the city had contacted other communities that had instituted similar programs and asked how they proceeded. Baka said they did.

"I'm hoping you approach this with a sense of how bistros and economic development can contribute to a sense of place," Board President Robert Boyle said. "I hope you treat this with sincerity."

Carroll Deweese agreed, saying it was important to cultivate a lively, friendly atmosphere driven by street seating. In the past, outdoor seating licenses used to be granted as if they were special land use requests, a long process that city planner Jana Ecker said kept more businesses away than it attracted. Now that the permits are handed out through the site plan review process, more people are coming forward to get the permit.

The board discussed a few different criteria for applicants, including a points system, preferential treatment for certain parts of the city over others, the idea of promoting businesses the city doesn't already have as well as a general desire to get away from a "first-come, first-served" mentality toward handing them out.

Norman Lapage of expressed his excitement about the city finally coming up with a streamlined process for permits. "I'm so delighted the board is considering this," he said. "I hope you come up with the same kinds of results at the joint meeting."

Nothing was specifically decided at the Wednesday meeting, Boyle said it was enough that the board had a chance to talk about what the potential issues were.

"On the 20th we'll get direction from the commission on which board will handle this," he said. "It's probably going to be us."