Hamilton to allow restaurant seating on sidewalks and streets to combat COVID-19 impacts

Hamilton hopes a new rule allowing restaurants to spread out onto sidewalks, parking lots and parts of the street will help save its popular food scene when the province lifts COVID-19 restrictions.

City council voted Wednesday to let business improvement areas (BIAs) and others create "outdoor dining districts" where restaurants and cafes can all seat people outside. Each application would be approved on a case-by-case basis.

When the province eases COVID-19 restrictions to allow people to start dining in again, there will likely be restrictions in place around people being two metres from each other, says Jason Farr, Ward 2 (downtown) councillor. 

This will allow them to spread out, he said. Clusters of restaurants can also create "outdoor dining districts" and apply to close the street, so long as two-thirds of the businesses on the street agree.

"What we're talking about is essentially expanding footprints just for the summer or fall," Farr said.

Restaurants "are a major part of our economic success in this city," he said. It's also a sector much lauded for helping Hamilton's economic turnaround. Restaurants also employ more than 18,000 people, Farr said, and "if your footprint increases, you have more staff."

He hopes it helps restaurants "tackle what is undoubtedly going to be a major challenge."

Outdoor seating changes would only last as long as provincial restrictions do, Farr said. The city's special events advisory team (SEAT) will also approve applications.

Some councillors were concerned though. 

"How are we protecting businesses that are not restaurants if the restaurants on that street choose to close the street?" said Brad Clark (Ward 9, upper Stoney Creek). 

Jason Thorne, general manager of planning and economic development, said that would be part of the SEAT analysis.

"We want to make sure we're not making it impossible for some other business, or residential use, to have access to their loading area, to their access area, to their storefronts."

The move comes at the same time as new survey results showing restaurants are among the hardest hit by the pandemic shutdown.

The city, three chambers of commerce, 13 BIAs and Workforce Planning Hamilton surveyed 1,040 businesses and found Hamilton has lost at least 13,000 jobs, a city-wide decrease of 35.8 per cent. More than 90 per cent of respondents said they made less money in April than they did the month before, and 50 per cent said their revenue had decreased by more than half. 

Personal services were the hardest hit, followed by tourism, restaurants, retail and creative and cultural industries. 

The survey also shows 2.8 per cent had closed, and 10.7 per cent were considering it in the next month.