The lord mayor’s last-gasp attempt to bring outdoor street patios back to Niagara-on-the-Lake’s downtown core this season failed on Tuesday night.
Council voted against a short-term plan that would’ve allowed a select few businesses to reopen their temporary patios on Queen Street, which were closed at the end of last year after the town decided to shut down the patio program it introduced during the pandemic in 2020.
The program was meant to be a temporary solution to let restaurants, bars and cafes open outdoor dining space and bypass the typical process for erecting a patio in Old Town during provincewide indoor dining restrictions. It was renewed every year for the next five years.
Last spring, following ongoing concerns around the temporary patios impacting the downtown core’s streetscape, cutting into municipal parking revenue and creating an unequal playing field for Queen Street dining establishments, council voted to end it and set the goal of creating a permanent program in the future that addresses these issues.
Right now, the town is working on a secondary plan for Queen Street, which will guide several parts of how the historic commercial core operates, including patios and the relationship of outdoor dining spaces to municipal heritage, mobility and public access.
Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa introduced a motion on April 28 looking to allow some temporary patios on Queen Street until the secondary plan is done and in effect, but only where patios can be placed entirely within town-owned parking spaces.
Zalepa acknowledged that council has had its issues with the temporary program — he said this latest proposal was him trying to offer something it could get behind.
“It’s true this council made a decision not to go ahead with the permanent, seasonal patio program,” he said. “I thought, in that light, we would try to do something very limited.”
In the end, council voted against the plan 3-6, with Couns. Andrew Niven and Wendy Cheropita and Zalepa voting in favour of it and the rest against it.
This plan would’ve had several caveats: acceptable patios could not encroach onto private property or take up any accessibility parking spots and business owners would’ve needed to submit a traffic safety plan, ensure emergency access, waste management, visibility and streetscape integrity, among other requirements.
Cheropita said she’s heard from several residents who’ve enjoyed their presence on Queen Street, dining outside during the warmer months.
“I get a lot of calls from residents that say, ‘Why did you cancel the patio program?’ And I still keep getting them,” she said.
She pointed out that, as per Zalepa’s motion, the completion of the Queen Street secondary plan could take up to two years — so, in the meantime, the town should offer people whatever it can.
“Those patios that were there, that were removed, were all busy. They were full all the time. Obviously, that shows how popular they were,” she said.
Coun. Maria Mavridis, however, said that while she likes the outdoor patios and the “vibrancy” they bring to the heritage district, the latest plan on the table would only allow a select few of the dozens of businesses on Queen Street to open patios.
She said, based on her understanding of the proposed rules, two of the 32 businesses in the historic commercial core could reopen their patios.
“It’s hard to say it’s a fair and equitable program when it’s only for two restaurants of out of the 32 in downtown,” she said.
The past five years, the temporary patio program faced a few key points of criticism: the patios alter Old Town’s streetscape; the patios, which sat on town-owned parking spots, take away revenue from the municipality; and businesses benefitted financially from these patios without paying the typical costs for having a patio, which businesses with permanent patios paid.
It was these concerns and others that led to the town shuttering the temporary patio program and electing to figure out a lasting solution that fits in with a long-term plan for Queen Street.
Mavridis said on Tuesday it would be better for the town to finish its Queen Street secondary plan and bring the patios back in a fair and equitable way.
“I think we just need to properly follow the process,” she said, adding that coming up with something for the upcoming tourist season is “not feasible.”
