Perhaps some wiser heads at City Hall noticed the seeming contradiction in tone, and that’s why one week after they announced the get-tough policy, a June 8 Public Meeting to “discuss and review” the licenses for sidewalk cafés was on the schedule. They are enlivening our downtown streets and helping with the pandemic by using the outdoor air. While we no doubt need compliance with these issues and all businesses should pay their rightful share for using city right of way, on the other hand these businesses are trying to do exactly what people have been asking for by putting tables on the sidewalk. The business in the example will owe $4,468.80 for year one and then $2,100.00 annually thereafter. Take for example a restaurant that wants to put out two little tables with four total seats. The eight-page Sidewalk Café Permit Program Guidelines and Checklist and accompanying fees seem kind of onerous on their face. Permit applications are available on the City’s website here.” Phase two will ensure that the additional seats will be paid for starting October 1, 2021. Phase one will ensure that food service establishments that want to place tables and chairs on City sidewalks have completed and submitted the application to the Planning Department ensuring that the requirements for insurance and ADA have been met.
RADICALLY SPEED UP OUTLOOK 2016 INDEXING CODE
“The City of Key West’s Code Compliance will begin enforcement of the Sidewalk Café Permit Ordinance beginning in two phases. Now the City has announced its Code unit will be more readily checking up on the folks who did move some seating outdoors and ensuring their permits are in order and paid up. Why can’t these endeavors seem to gain any momentum and permanence? Fodder for another story… City Aims to Bring Restaurants into Café Compliance The Mall on Duval pilot ended with acrimony all around, the Duval Study was to have begun months ago, only to be thrown back on the street for yet another RFP, and the business efforts of the COVID Plan have expired. The mayor also spearheaded a Key West COVID Recovery Plan that aimed to assist restaurants with attempts to move some seats outside. First with the Mall on Duval pilot project and then with the Duval Street Revitalization Study. To her credit Mayor Teri Johnston has been trying. On the one hand people want a car-free Duval and on the other people say it can’t be done because where will the traffic go? And so, stalemate. Perhaps because of the all or nothing approach of much of our discussions, nothing gets done. We’ve seemingly talked and talked about a more people friendly Duval and adjacent commercial streets for decades and nothing seems to happen. A More People Centered Duval Keeps Stalling Out Hmm… While it seems officials just want to get a handle on making sure businesses are complying with ADA clearance rules, insurance requirements and paying the proper amount of fees, perhaps it’s time to look at the issue more broadly and relieve the stress on our overcrowded downtown sidewalks by taking away some space from cars. In response, a week later the City announced a June 8 public meeting on the subject. Comments from business owners and residents started popping up on Facebook. On May 19 the City announced they’ll begin tighter code compliance with the Sidewalk Café Permit Ordinance. This story was written and published for KONK Life newspaper on May 28, 202 1 and is reprinted here with permission.