Hundreds of restaurants will be unable to serve alcohol in their outdoor dining areas this summer due to a delay in permitting.
New York City restaurants hoping to serve alcohol in their outdoor dining areas will likely have to wait months, writes Kevin Duggan in Streetsblog NYC, “due to a gap in the city’s effort to fast-track a backlog in permitting as the opening of season kicks off in mere days, legal experts warned.”
Restaurants won’t be able to serve alcohol if the State Liquor Authority doesn’t accept the city’s “conditional approvals” for outdoor dining. So far, only 42 out of 3,500 applications have received a full DOT license.
According to one attorney who specializes in hospitality, outdoor dining without the option to serve alcohol is “not worthless, but pretty close” as far as revenue goes. The delay could last as long as four months, Duggan adds, impacting restaurants the most during the busy summer season.
Many NYC restaurants have already removed their outdoor dining setups after new city rules were put in place last year that drove up costs for businesses. Outdoor — or al fresco — dining boomed in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, when social distancing precautions prompted restaurants around the country to expand outdoor seating options. Yet as early as 2023, some cities began clawing back outdoor and curbside space or enacted prohibitively expensive or onerous regulations.
FULL STORY: ‘Disaster’: Outdoor Dining Snafu Could Ban Alfresco Booze For Months
NYC Approves Only 40 of Over 1,300 of Outdoor Dining Applications
Restaurant owners say they’ve been in limbo for months as city departments point fingers at each other for delays in permit approvals.
NYC Losing Many Outdoor Dining Areas Due to Expensive New Regulations
Restaurant owners say the city’s new outdoor dining program makes it too difficult and expensive to operate al fresco setups.
NYC Releases Outdoor Dining Designs
New guidelines for the city’s ‘streeteries’ are set to go into effect next April.
Florida Considers Legalizing ADUs
Current state law allows — but doesn’t require — cities to permit accessory dwelling units in single-family residential neighborhoods.
Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?
Research Shows More Roads = More Driving
A national study shows, once again, that increasing road supply induces additional vehicle travel, particularly over the long run.
EV Chargers Now Outnumber Gas Pumps by Nearly 50% in California
Fast chargers still lag behind amidst rapid growth.
Affordable Housing Renovations Halt Mid-Air Amidst DOGE Clawbacks
HUD may rescind over a billion dollars earmarked for green building upgrades.
Has Anyone at USDOT Read Donald Shoup?
USDOT employees, who are required to go back to the office, will receive free parking at the agency’s D.C. offices — flying in the face of a growing research body that calls for pricing parking at its real value.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Moreno Valley
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
City of Cambridge, Maryland
Newport County Development Council: Connect Greater Newport