There are some solutions we find by accident. Penicillin, silly putty, smoke detectors and Coca-Cola were all accidental products of an unrelated project. Sidewalk dining is much the same. During the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants were trying to figure out how to thread the needle of social distancing in a scenario where masking wasn’t really an option. Many of them took their restaurants outdoors, to the parking lots and sidewalks.
And guess what? It was a hit.
Many restaurants found that sidewalk dining wasn’t just some thing they were temporarily doing, some customers genuinely preferred it. That’s why you can still see places taking advantage of outdoor seating long after any COVID mandates about social distancing have ended, especially during the summer.
It seems like we found one thing that worked coming out of the pandemic. But it hasn’t been smooth sailing for some establishments.
People are also reading…
Previously, The Daily News reported on Longview restaurants being faced with daunting costs for outdoor seating. Six local restaurants, including Antidote Tap House, have been cited for issues involving the sidewalk right-of-way.
Not much good came out of the COVID pandemic, but discovering sidewalk dining was one example. But rather than reevaluate city policies as the various emergency declarations expired, we put an expensive policy in place, using the pricing structure Longview uses to lease city-owned buildings rather than setting a reasonable rate.
Currently, the city offers two ways to have public sidewalk seating: One, restaurants can have chairs and tables they put out at the beginning of the day and take in as they close. The other is to buy a permit which allows you to lease part of the sidewalk. Two businesses looking to keep their sidewalk seating were quoted a one-time $3,000 application fee, and hundreds more each month for the lease.
Compared to other cities in Washington, Longview’s current rate seems downright extortionate. Permits for Vancouver are less than $200 and the cost to lease space sits between $200 and $400 a year. Currently, the city is claiming that sidewalk space in Longview is somehow worth a dozen times as much as Vancouver or Spokane.
On Monday, city officials met to discuss dropping that fee by thousands of dollars. The City Council still has to OK the new proposed rate of $240 a year, to be renewed annually. We want to call on the council to expedite this process. It’s taken far too long to act on this problem.
We’re glad to see city officials acknowledge the permit price was far too high, and promise to get it to a level similar to other Washington cities. But Longview had an opportunity to reexamine their pricing after COVID shutdowns ended and they missed it.
This should be a lesson for the future: if a new trend emerges, the city should take a close look at how other municipalities are dealing with similar issues.
When city councils make decisions, they often review what other nearby or similarly populated areas are doing, like when Castle Rock recently weighed raising council wages and Woodland looked at increasing residential developer fees to pay for parks. We think city staff should have done the same.
We do recognize that the city does not have complete latitude in setting policy. The city does have to deal with regulations set higher up which they have to navigate. For instance, city staff have cited the federal Americans with Disabilities Act as complicating permitting. Antidote and The Lemon Drop’s sidewalk seating came into question in the first place when the city alerted them they were blocking what is deemed the accessible part of the sidewalk.
Ensuring people with disabilities can use city spaces the same way able-bodied people do is necessary and just. We are sure businesses would agree with keeping a clear path for everyone.
Another piece of red tape to jump is with the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, which has rules like requiring some outdoor seating where alcohol is served to be staffed to ensure underage people don’t enter. That can be a deterrent for a business that doesn’t want to pay another employee, but is a reasonable request.
We appreciate that while state and federal agencies are working to protect the vulnerable, the city of Longview is working to have the least financial impact on businesses as possible. We wish TDN would have been able to report that the city had revised prices months ago based on businesses’ initial sticker shock, but that’s in the past. All that can be done is to act now.
Making permit prices more reasonable would be a welcome relief for restaurants, especially downtown. City officials talk a big game about partnering with local entrepreneurs to help grow the local economy, and now they have an opportunity to walk the walk. City Council, it’s time for you to get those permit costs under control. Your local restauranteurs will thank you.
