Downtown Community Improvement District wants to update sidewalk dining ordinance
Columbia leaders and residents said they think the city’s sidewalk cafe ordinance is outdated and want to see an update to the decade old laws.
“We started talking a couple months ago about how we wanted to continue to encourage outdoor dining but when you look at the code, it was written about a decade ago,” said Downtown Community Improvement District Director Katie Essing. “There’s some opportunity to make some updates and allow for some more options.”
Kurt Mirtsching, who’s been managing Shakespeare’s Pizza for the better part of forty years, had a hand in advising council on the original ordinance and has been helping the Downtown CID with their changes.
“City Council put together some good ordinances at the time but they were a little on the informal side because that’s the way Columbia was back then,” said Mirtsching. “There’s a lot more businesses and restaurants so its come time to revisit those ordinances and updated them to the current situation.”
Below you’ll find the current ordinance:
The ordinance isn’t really enforced, so many restaurants and businesses have taken their own liberties. For instance, according to the ordinance, sidewalk dining must have a black, powder-coated fence with a chain. Columbia residents will find that some restaurants aren’t taking that code to heart.
Mirtsching said with an updated ordinance that does away with that single fence requirement, they could all have a legal advantage.
“What difference does it make what color they are or what material they’re made out of?” said Mertching. “It should be up to the business to chose what color or material type fits their decor or color choices.”
Changing the ordinance would keep things fair, he said.
“The biggest part is we’d like to have is that everything be fair and the same for everyone so that no one has a particular advantage depending on certain things,” he said.
Some of the more outdated parts of the ordinance target the amount of alcohol content someone can drink outside. For beers, it’s 5 percent at most. Essing said that could be looked at or even eliminated.
“There’s also certain hours a day you’re allowed to dine outside,” she said. “I think that could be opened up to allow for more operating hours.”
The Downtown CID has already sent off a list of suggested changes to Mayor Brian Treece and the City Council. The board has also recommended some sort of enforcement tool with a complaint-driven process. Essing said they’ve been getting ideas from other cities like Houston, TX and Athens, GA.
You can see those suggested changes below.
