New Policy To Allow Downtown Businesses To Use Parking Stalls For Outdoor Sales

If all goes well you may soon be able to enjoy a good meal or a glass of your favourite beverage or buy some shoes outdoors under a new outdoor patio policy being developed by the City.

“It is an opportunity to provide more access for our local businesses so we are pretty excited to present this to Council,” city manager Jim Puffalt said.

“As Mr Puffalt said we are super excited to bring this to Council and have it open for the coming Summer season,” Michelle Sanson director of planning told Executive Committee. “The existing policy we have now only allows businesses to extend onto the sidewalk. We don’t have a policy where we can extend into a parking space. This will allow businesses to extend their businesses out into a parking space and rent the space in the Summer.”

Administration was proposing waving fees in 2021 to allow businesses to get up and running and that fees would be applied in subsequent years.

Under the proposed policy businesses will be able to continue to be able to extend their business onto the sidewalk but also in the parking space immediately in front of their businesses. For businesses who set up on the sidewalk and/or the parking space there are rules they must follow as part of the proposed new Outdoor Patio Policy as well as bylaws such as the Noise Bylaw and provincial legislation such as health and liquor regulations.

“I think the policy speaks for itself. But we are really, really excited,” Sanson said. “We are just looking to get this up and running for the season and I think we are excited that it happens.”

An example of a permanent seasonal outdoor eating patio in Europe - MJ Independent file photo

The policy has been reviewed and passed through the Moose Jaw Downtown Business Association (MJDBA) and there were no objections.

There will be two seasons offered, a summer season from April 1st to October 31st and a winter season from November 1st to March 31st. Businesses will be restricted to the sidewalk during the winter season so as to allow for efficient snow removal on Main Street N.

The proposed summer seasonal rate is $1,100 or $7.50 per day plus a summer seasonal rate of $500 or $3.40 per day for additional parking stalls. The $7.50 rate matches what the City receives from a contractor who rents a parking stall to do work in the Downtown.

There is presently no fee charged, and will not be a fee under the proposed Patio Policy, if a business decides to only extend their operations onto the sidewalk in front of their store. A 1.5 meter pathway must be open for pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk.

“I think this will be a fantastic idea and I am glad to see it come forward in such great detail and I have spoken to a couple of businesses that are pretty eager to participate in the program,” Councillor Crystal Froese said. “Waiving the fee this year we will definitely see a couple of more people come on board with this.”

Councillor Heather Eby said she supported the program but hoped the proposed policy be communicated to the Downtown business community so they are aware of it.

“I really hope we can do our part to encourage businesses to (participate),” Councillor Eby said.

She said she was disappointed with the pictures in the brochure announcing the Patio Policy because other than one picture in the brochure all of the pictures are from somewhere else.

Councillor Eby felt the brochure should use local patios already in use in the community.

“So those businesses (with existing patios) get a little bit of a shot in the arm that’s a good thing, we can swap those out easily,” she said. “Let’s make this Moose Jaw’s brochure and not Google’s or whomever.”

An outdoor walking mall in Europe showing temporary summer patios to the far right - MJ Independent file photo

“I am excited about this and I really want to see our business community grow. I know there has been a lot of communication from the Downtown business group, the Chamber of Commerce, City Hall and our Economic Development Office and you know really promoting our Downtown businesses and we have got such a beautiful Downtown,” Mayor Fraser Tolmie said.

Mayor Tolmie said he was in favour of amending the policy so that 2022 fees would be set at half the proposed cost as “we don’t know what this year’s business is going to be like. I want to see how we survive.”

The mayor said he would “be keeping a close eye on this” and that he would propose the lower fees during the next round of budget deliberations later this fall.

“I want to see us helping local businesses,” he said.

Councillor Jamey Logan said he was in favour of the motion.

“I think the economic development team hit a home run with this. I like the initiative…if you have ever been to a city that does this, boy you are excited about this. This is going to be fun for the city, it is going to be fun for tourist we are a tourist destination and they are going to come and they are going to enjoy it. It is going to be a lot of fun Downtown when the patios are set up all over the place and you can just go from patio to patio,” Councillor Logan said.

Councillor Doug Blanc saw moving business outdoor onto a patio as beneficial during the pandemic because a number of people were leery about going into smaller stores with COVID - 19 still in the community. Being able to shop outside might actually generate sales from people who are leery of shopping indoors, he said.

In a unanimous vote Executive Committee approved the policy.

Another example of outdoor patio dining in Europe - MJ Independent file photo

MEDIA SCRUM

During a media scrum Puffalt said although the new policy will take away from Main Street parking that there was plenty of other nearby parking people could utilize.

“As we said, it will certainly take some parking spots out of circulation then, but there’s also a lot of parking lots on Main Street that you can access really easy,”

Puffalt said it is not typical that a person can actually park in front of the Main Street business they chose to access so with patios on Main Street there would be “lots of cool things to do.”

Asked by MJ Independent if a Downtown business decided not to participate if another business could set up in a spot not in front of their business Puffalt said they would not be able to do so.

“I believe it is only in front of your own business (if you set up elsewhere) then you are attacking your neighbour,” he said.

The policy as it stands would not allow a business to set up a seasonal standalone outdoor patio and they would have to have a physical Main Street address. Many businesses in other communities which allow outdoor patios set up temporarily in a central outdoor patio space leaving at the end of the tourist season.

Puffalt gave the example that businesses could not apply to set up a patio right in front of City Hall as it would become “unwieldy” as people still needed to access the building.

Although it might be tempting to set up a patio for customers to dine and imbibe into the wee hours of the morning all patios would operate under existing noise bylaws. Moose Jaw’s Noise Bylaw #5448 restricts unnecessary noise between 10 pm and 7 am from outdoor events.

Believe it or not this outdoor seasonal patio is a McDonalds - MJ Independent file photo

All photos used to illustrate the popularity of outdoor seasonal patios in the tourism industry.