The Board of Selectmen voted on Monday to approve Greenwich’s 2025 outdoor dining guidelines that include allowing public parking spaces to be utilized for restaurant seating. The item was presented by town administrator Kate Buch.
The shortened season is proposed to begin right before Memorial Day and end in mid-October. This reduces the number of days of outdoor dining from 186 to 122.
Ms Buch talked about a phased increase in the cost for the use of Highway Dept’s jersey barriers used to create “nodes” on top of parking spaces to more closely reflect cost to the town.
Janet Stone McGuigan suggested restaurants be charged a fee to install and remove barriers that reflected the town’s full cost, which is $47 per linear foot instead of the proposed $29.
Ms Buch said the town had received two comments about outdoor dining. One was supportive of reviewing costs and making sure the town was recouping all its costs, and the other was a concern that sidewalks be kept clear for pedestrians to walk through.
Ms Stone McGuigan was concerned the cost of enforcement was not incorporated into the fees.
“I’m not looking at outdoor dining to be a revenue source but at the same time we need the price to be right,” she said, adding that costs to the town went beyond foregone parking fees and installation/removal of barriers, and should probably include the costs of enforcement by Police, the Health Dept and Planning & Zoning Dept.
She noted while Zoning charges an application fee to restaurants, it does not necessarily cover their enforcement officers.
She said it would be important to know if there was authority to charge fees and issue fines for violations of zoning.
Revenue collected for use of public parking space is deposited to Parking Services Fund.
Revenue collected for use of traffic barrier is deposited to DPW Highway revenue.
For 2024, the Town collected total of $131,437 in fees from 17 restaurants.
Fees included $22,069 in barrier cost and $109,368 in parking stalls revenue.
For the 2024 outdoor dining season, 49 parking spots on or near Greenwich Ave were occupied with outdoor dining. Based on prior year utilization, with approximately 411 parking stalls, 12% of parking stalls are displaced.
“If we went with the full $47 per linear foot to install the barriers, it doesn’t seem to be overly onerous. I would support we do not do this in phases. Even (going to $47) we are well below the market rate for this outdoor space.”
Selectwoman Lauren Rabin agreed more data was needed.
First Selectman Fred Camillo said spring interns could reach out to other municipalities for information on their fee structures.
During public comment, Rachel Latto, an employee of Diane’s Books at 8 Grigg Street, just off the bottom of Greenwich Avenue, spoke for the book store owner Diane Garrett.
She noted that at the bottom of the Avenue at least 7 restaurants are near the book store.
She thanked Mr. Camillo for approving a half dozen 30 minute parking spaces behind the store. However, she said Ms Garrett wanted some sort of accounting of how the spaces are used at the bottom of Greenwich Avenue and how that situation impacts her store.
“There are 6 or 7 restaurants down there, and they take up a lot of parking spaces,” Latto said. “(Ms Garrett) wanted to have her comment on record.”
“Yes, that’s ‘restaurant row’ down there,” Mr. Camillo responded. “But we did shorten up the season a bit this year and we are going to keep monitoring it and see if we can be accurate in pricing and be fair. You bring up a point. I know where you are (located) it’s an issue. One business there, who is not a restaurant loves it because he gets walk-in traffic, but it’s still taking up (parking) spaces. We’ll continue to look at that.”
The Selectmen voted unanimously to approve the proposed outdoor dining guidelines with the revision that reflect the town’s full $47 per linear foot cost for installation and removal of jersey barriers.
“For you restaurant owners, it’s not a huge difference,” Camillo said. “The numbers are not that different. We’re trying to be a bit more fair and cognizant of everyone who is paying rent down there.”
See also:
Selectmen Consider Shortening Outdoor Dining Season in 2024; ADA Accessibility & Compliance Urged
Feb 19, 2025
Outdoor dining inside a node on Greenwich Ave. August 2023
Empty nodes on Nov 21, 2022 ready for removal.