June 18, 2020 · 0 Comments
By Mike Baker
Many downtown Orangeville restaurants will be taking their business to the streets after Town Council signed off on allowing local eateries to set up outdoor patios along Broadway and Mill St.
The move on June 8 came just hours after Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced much of the province would be allowed to move into Stage 2 of its economic reopening plan. That particular move also saw the government expand social gathering limits to a maximum of 10 people, up from five, while also allowing places of worship to reopen, limiting attendance to 30 percent of a building’s capacity, and allowing services such as hairdressers, beauty salons, tattoo studios and day spas to reopen.
The measures included in Stage 2 of the provincial reopening, which came into effect last Friday (June 12).
There was much discussion amongst Council regarding how they can best assist local restaurants who wish to provide a patio service, with ideas ranging from extending patios into parking spaces, as Rustik Local Bistro has done along two spots on First Street, to completely closing down Broadway on certain days to create a “pedestrian mall”, and allow the eateries to extend their services and place tables on the road along Orangeville’s main strip.
The idea of implementing a pedestrian mall in Orangeville was intriguing to Coun. Todd Taylor.
“I’ve been to some of these streets in other towns that are like a pedestrian mall and they’re a lot of fun. I would suggest for the times we’ve all been through, closing a roadway for a period of time is a great experiment,” Coun. Taylor said. “We should be giving these restaurants as much room as possible to try and earn some money back. It would be my wish to open this up as far as we can in terms of space.”
There was some concern that closing down Broadway to allow restaurants to encroach into the roadway would have a detrimental effect on other businesses. Alison Scheel, General Manager of the Orangeville Business Improvement Area, called into the meeting last week asking that Council be “flexible” in its approach to this issue, noting a one-sized fits all proposal would not work in this instance.
“BIAs all over Ontario are looking at this issue to help their restaurants survive,” Ms. Scheel said. “Every restaurant is different, their needs are different. It’s all based on their locations, and whether or not they have a licence to sell alcohol. I’m hoping Council will have a flexible approach to this issue.”
While Coun. Joe Andrews liked the idea of closing down Broadway, perhaps a couple of days per week, to allow restaurants and other businesses to extend their outdoor reach, he wondered about how such an arrangement would impact pedestrian safety and accessibility.
“As chair of the Business Economic Development Advisory Group, our number one priority is to get the economy moving in our community. I couldn’t be more excited about this, but I want to ensure we have pedestrian safety, and that we explore the possibility of this impeding, or supporting, other businesses,” Coun. Andrews said. “I want to make sure this is done right.”
Coun. Debbie Sherwood, who sits on the local BIA board, said the downtown advocate group would likely be more in favour of losing a few parking spots to allow businesses to develop extended patios rather than endorse a full closure of Broadway.
“We’re in full support of the patio, it’s very essential to keep our restaurants open, but closing roads could ultimately affect others, and we shouldn’t be just playing favourites to the restaurants. We have to look after all of our downtown merchants,” Coun. Sherwood said.
In the end, Council decided it would allow ‘boulevard cafes’ in the downtown core to extend into the parking spaces in front of their restaurants, providing that adequate accessibility is maintained for patrons and the public. Information about the application process can be found on the Town’s website at www.orangeville.ca.
In the meantime, Mayor Sandy Brown says restaurants outside the downtown core are asking if they, too, can take advantage of the new rules, by transforming parking spots in front of their business into an extended patio. He says he’s fielded calls from Chucks Roadhouse, located on the west side of town along Centennial Road, and The Mad Hatter, located on First Street.
“They want us to step up and give them the rules and regulations in which they can expand their patio space into parking lots too,” Mayor Brown said.
Orangeville CAO Ed Brennan noted that Town staff would continue to work with restaurants and other businesses, both within the downtown core and across the community, to come up with potential ideas and solutions for reopening. Council signed off on a motion that transfers delegation of authority for approval of downtown patios, and potential closures of downtown roads for the purpose of creating a pedestrian mall, to Mr. Brennan.
“Town staff will work with the BIA and business owners on Broadway to think outside the box to make this work. From extended patios, to the possibility of fixed periods of shutdowns for pedestrian malls – it all makes sense,” Mr. Brennan said. “We would consider all safety requirements, all pedestrian accessibility requirements to get the patios up and running as soon as we can. If we get further down the road on this, we will certainly come back to Council to get further direction as needed.”