BAY CITY, MI - The Bay City Commission gave the greenlight for the 2021 sidewalk café season to get underway early.
Current city ordinance defines sidewalk cafés as outdoor dining areas that are located on a public sidewalk or designated parking area during select times of the year.
The city commission unanimously approved two measures to help local businesses get the ball rolling on setting up outdoor venues this spring. An ordinance amendment that expanded the start of the sidewalk café season into March and a resolution that allows for “social districts”, which allow patrons to consume alcoholic beverages sold by specially licensed vendors, to continue existing in 2021, were both approved during the Monday, March 15 regular commission meeting.
“We’re wanting to get those started quickly just so we can help the businesses downtown and in the Midland Street area. So this is just another tool in our toolbox to help them get started,” said City Manager Dana Muscott.
The commission originally received the sidewalk café ordinance amendment on March 1 for its first reading before approving it on March 15. The ordinance moves the start of the sidewalk café season from April 1 to a retroactive date of March 10.
Bay City originally made a move in June 2020 to allow businesses to temporarily expand their seating areas outdoors into the streets while setting up temporary road closures, which were protected by removable barriers. To do so, the city had approved traffic control orders in 2020 to shut down the selected streets. The goal was to boost foot traffic through local businesses since restaurants were restricted in their seating capacity to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 throughout the year.
Muscott said that the 2020 road closures were a success for local businesses and the community.
“I think it went really well. I think with the closure of the streets, the extension of the sidewalk cafés, I think it went really well to get people into our community and the people that live in our community outside and enjoying everything outside since we weren’t able to go anywhere,” she said. “I think they were highly successful and I’d look for a great year this year too.”
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March 17, 2021 at 01:15AM
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Bay City Commission approves early start of sidewalk café season - mlive.com
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