Archive

Orangeville’s patio season set to return April 1

March 18, 2021   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

Restaurant patio season is returning on April 1, one month earlier than usual.

During an Orangeville Council meeting earlier in the month, a motion was approved that expands patios onto sidewalks and extends the season for downtown restaurants.

“This of course is part of our COVID relief put forward last year and wanting to continue with it this year, a number of restaurants took advantage of it and this is expanding and including merchandise for those businesses that wish to do this,” said Mayor Sandy Brown.

It’s important to note, while regular patios are permitted to start April 1, any establishments looking to extend their patios into a maximum of two parking spaces will have to wait until May 1 so they don’t obstruct Town equipment for road snow removal. If there’s a late season snowfall, restaurant owners will be responsible for snow removal on their sidewalk patios.

In terms of downtown sidewalk reconstruction, which is set to take place this year, Douglas Jones, general manager of infrastructure services for the Town said restaurant owners will be notified in advance if their patios have to deconstructed. 

“We are currently working with a consultant to develop options that we are then going to be bringing forward to the public, the BIA as well as council to look at this project,” he explained.

“Originally, the plan had been to move forward with that construction work in the fall [of 2020] to allow the summer festival season to pass in any normal year and to allow for the tourist season in the summer to be had before we got into construction. We’re thinking along the same lines this year but certainly there’s going to be consultation with the BIA as well as the patio owners with respect to what they set up and when.”

As the Town moves through the sidewalk reconstruction, Mr. Jones noted that they will be mindful of the disruptions this could cause for downtown businesses, especially as they continue to struggle with impacts of COVID-19 restrictions.

“We fully recognize the challenges that all of the downtown businesses have faced and imposing a long closure on them for this sort of construction would be fairly tone deaf at this point, I think,” Mr. Jones remarked.

“We are going to try and segment it, phase it as best we can, so that the construction work in front of any individual business will be minimized to the extent possible, wrapped up and then we would move on to the next section.”

Jones said Orangeville BIA are very keen to learn more as the project progresses and will be kept informed as the reconstruction approaches.

Coun. Todd Taylor said he’s glad the BIA are being consulted as small businesses have faced unprecedented challenges in the past year due to COVID-19.

“I think we all need to just be very aware that we have businesses hanging by a thread and we need to ensure that we’re working with them. So, thank you, Mr. Jones for your very sensitive comments. I appreciate it.”

Readers Comments (0)