CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake approved a request from the Irish Harp to make its temporary patio permanent. In fact, the town voted to receive the request.
After having to withdraw a notice of motion from last week’s council meeting on the state of temporary patios in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa says he hopes council can still find a path forward on the broader issue of patios in town.
A notice of motion was part of the Nov. 18 council agenda, requested by Zalepa, looking at two options for how the town should move forward with the patios set up in the town after council cancelled the temporary patio program this year.
That program’s end will see the removal of all temporary patios, many of which have been open since the COVID-19 pandemic, by the end of the year.
Zalepa told The Lake Report ahead of Tuesday’s council meeting that he would withdraw his notice of motion on temporary patios after staff, who consulted legal, advised it is out of order under the town’s procedural bylaw.
“The temporary patio policy has now twice been considered by council, and therefore, it does not qualify as an item to be brought back to the agenda period,” he said.
Zalepa said patios on Queen Street are “well-liked, obviously. There’s no doubt about that.” But he added he is “very concerned” and said the town needs a way to address the issues raised in the community around design, cost and the use of public land.
“That’s what I’m trying to do,” he said.
Council had previously begun researching what a permanent patio program could look like — however, according to Zalepa’s notice of motion, council halted that work before the results of that research could be presented to the community.
The notice of motion notes that, on Sept. 23, council received a request from the Irish Harp Pub that would allow it to keep its temporary patio through a cash-in-lieu payment system for each of the three parking spots it would take up for its outdoor patio (as well as three extra spots it wanted for a short-term rental business being run on the property).
In that approval, it also told staff to review the cash-in-lieu of parking policy for public and private lands and provide an updated policy and process for consideration.
However, the notice of motion states that “businesses currently operating temporary patios are not clear on next steps.”
Therefore, the notice of motion Zalepa put forward would’ve seen council choose from two different actions for next steps, which would’ve seen patio operators either remove or not remove the patios by the end of this year.
He said staff reviewed the rules and advised that the notice of motion could not proceed.
“Staff — very good in their work — they did research, they obviously consulted legal,” he said. “They came back with the advice that the notice of motion, basically, is out of order.”
“It’s disappointing, but that’s the rules, and we’re here to follow the rules.”
The first option involved the town working with patio operators who wish to use public lands for their patios after the town finishes its Old Town parking study, to allow them to pay to use the land. This option would’ve seen operators take down their patios by the end of the year.
The second option, however, would’ve seen the town “immediately work with those patio operators” and “enter into agreements … to compensate the town for lost parking revenues,” with the end result being that operators wouldn’t remove their patios by the end of the year.
Zalepa said he hopes the issue can be revisited in some fashion.
“I’m hoping at some point, in the near future, council can get to a point where it considers the concerns of the community (and) it gets to a better place where we can find a go-forward, you know, for patios on Queen Street,” he said.
“Obviously, that has to be outside of the temporary policy.”
