Struggling pubs and restaurants push for larger sidewalk patios

Owners of pubs and restaurants in Halifax struggling to keep their businesses afloat during the pandemic are urging city officials to allow them to extend their dining spaces into the great outdoors.

As they grapple with the new reality of physical distancing, including operating at 50 per cent capacity inside, more are asking for permission to create or expand sidewalk patios.

"There are a tonne of permit applications that all came in at the same time," said Shawn Cleary, regional councillor for Halifax West Armdale.

Among them is a request from Kelly Irvine, owner of the Coburg Social. For years her café operated as a coffee shop in the Dalhousie University district. About a year ago she acquired a liquor licence and started expanding her menu.

She's now asking the city to block Henry Street heading north from Coburg so she can set up a dining space on the section of the street beside the café.

"Our vision is as simple as just setting tables up on the street so that people have a space to sit and enjoy our business," she said Monday.

She believes she has the support of the residents of Henry Street, who would enjoy the traffic-calming effect of living on a dead-end street. She's even started a petition at change.org asking the city for the street closure. To date, it has more than 650 signatures.

"You're doing all kinds of traffic calming around this neighborhood anyway," Irvine said. "It would create a bit of a dead-end street without impeding anybody's access to their driveways or their houses. I think it's just in line with what the city is doing."

At least four restaurants and pubs along Quinpool Road, a busy commuter corridor that runs east to west in the heart of the peninsula, are asking the city for permission to expand their patios further onto the sidewalk.

Doing so would require them to build temporary wooden-deck-style sidewalks on the street. Quinpool operates as a four-lane corridor during the morning and afternoon rush hours, but Karla Nicholson, general manager of the Quinpool Road Mainstreet District Association, said safety won't be an issue this summer.

Freeman's, the Ardmore Tea Room, Heartwood and the Cheeky Neighbour Diner — all on Quinpool — are asking the city for permission to extend the patios.

"Traffic is way, way down right now," Nicholson said "So we are not very concerned about that. It'll be important that everything is clearly marked and that it's communicated well to the public, but we're hoping that working with the city we can make that happen.

"It could make or break some of our businesses. With the issue of social distancing, and people still a little bit nervous about going inside, patio space is just going to be so key to our members this summer."

Patio processes

Although several councillors appear sympathetic to the new existential crisis many restaurants and pubs are facing, approval of such requests fall to city staff, not the elected council.

Cleary said he's aware of at least one restaurant setting up picnic tables in an adjacent municipal park, but due to provincial liquor laws staff can only serve food there, not booze.

Coun. Sam Austin, who represents Dartmouth Centre, proposed a policy change in mid-April that would allow restaurants and pubs to build "non-contiguous" outdoor patios and decks.

His motion, which recently passed, stated: "Non-contiguous patios would result in servers having to cross small sections of open sidewalk."

Austin said on Tuesday he may end up rescinding his motion. The city's legal counsel told him there is, in fact, no municipal requirement afterall that forces all decks and patios to "abut" or run contiguous to an existing establishment.

However, it is up to Nova Scotia Alcohol and Gaming to give final approval.

"Each one is an individual application, and each one has to be assessed on its own," Austin said.