Prior to council’s Monday meeting, I mentioned to our publisher that the agenda was a ‘long and busy one’, and in deed it was, with many important items on the agenda, from the final approval of the 2025 municipal budgets to officially appointing Meaford’s new Chief Administrative Officer, to an update on the coming Short Term Accommodations bylaw, a top priority for this term of council. Also on the agenda was a recommendation to discontinue the downtown restaurant patio program for this summer, a pause as it was referred to, in order to explore and address a number of concerns, primarily surrounding safety and accessibility.
I, like other residents including some downtown business owners and all seven members of our council, agree that there are certainly improvements that can be made to the program; there are a number of issues that need to be addressed from safety to accessibility, and equally important, the impact that those patios have on neighbouring businesses. I also agree with members of council that an exploration of those issues, and a review and re-working of the program can be undertaken without pausing the program for the coming summer patio season.
The staff report presented to council at Monday’s meeting noted four primary concerns including the need for retro-reflective tape on the barriers around the patios, the need for compliance with the provincial Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), parking and patio space concerns, and the need to ensure that the patios comply with the Ontario Building Code. The report also noted concerns that have been expressed by owners of businesses neighbouring the restaurants with patios, including the loss of parking spaces and the encroachment of the patios into the frontage of neighbouring businesses which can block visibility and access to those businesses.
All valid concerns, and all issues that should and must be addressed, but none rising to a level that should be cause for the program to be discontinued this summer while a review and revamp is undertaken.
Council’s discussion of the report was extensive, lasting for more than an hour of the nearly six hour meeting, and ultimately council unanimously rejected the recommendation to pause the program for 2025, while at the same time unanimously approving the second and third recommendations in the report, which gave direction to staff to obtain quotes for new safety barriers and to review the patio program application rules and regulations in order to ensure alignment with the provincial building code and AODA.
For me it was a sensible approach that acknowledges the real issues that have been raised, while at the same time supporting what has become a popular program for both restaurant owners and their customers.
Safety and accessibility are important issues, and staff is right to highlight these issues in their report, and they are right to encourage council to direct staff to work toward resolving any and all such issues.
Business owners neighbouring those restaurants are also right to be frustrated that the visibility of their businesses can be hampered during the patio season, and I hope that the review that will be undertaken will find some creative solutions to help those business owners. I have long thought, for example, that the barriers used to delineate the boundaries of the patios could have special signage promoting the businesses that can have their storefronts obscured by the patios, and I am sure that with some thought, there are many initiatives that could be undertaken that would help to resolve the concerns that neighbouring business owners have expressed.
It is a bit of a tricky situation as our downtown area does not have particularly wide sidewalks to begin with, and parking, particularly in the summer, can be limited, so taking up street-side parking spaces and crowding the sidewalk between the restaurant and the patios are valid concerns.
At the same time, the patios have been a huge benefit for our downtown restaurants, many of which might not have survived the pandemic era without them.
Personally I am not bothered by the downtown patios, nor would I miss them if they were gone. I could count on one hand the number of meals I have enjoyed at a restaurant in the past decade, though I did have a lunch with my sons on the Leeky Canoe patio a couple of years ago. Truthfully, I would have preferred to have had a table inside, I’m just not a patio person.
My own business, this newspaper, neighbours a restaurant that has had a patio, and it has never been a concern for myself or this business, but for other businesses the patios have certainly caused issues.
Many love restaurant patios, however, and I can certainly understand the draw that they can have for tourists and locals alike.
While I might personally be indifferent to restaurant patios generally, I do think that they are overall a good thing for the community: they are good for tourism, and they are good for the restaurants and other downtown businesses. However it is important to find a way to ensure that neighbouring businesses remain visible and easily accessible because those other businesses are equally important to the community, and those business owners should not experience negative impacts, financial or otherwise, in order for restaurants to be able to offer summertime patio service.
One thing that became clear during council’s hour-long discussion of the restaurant patio report on Monday was that, for many of the issues that have been raised regarding the patios, there are already rules and regulations in place, whether municipal policy or provincial legislation. But some restaurant owners have not followed them, and perhaps more importantly, the municipality has not enforced them. As one councillor noted, it would be unfair to pull the rug out from under the restaurant owners this summer, when for the past five years the municipality hasn’t enforced the rules that are already on the books which would have addressed a number of the concerns expressed by neighbouring businesses and residents.
I agree with council that solutions to the many issues that have been raised can be explored and implemented in the months to come without pausing the program for the 2025 season. More important in my mind is that this municipality actually enforce the current rules, and any changes that will come from the pending review of the program. Rules and regulations are only as good as the enforcement efforts, and from what I heard during council’s discussion on Monday is that this municipality has some work of its own to do in order to step up enforcement.
