Cities can support restaurants, coffee shops, and other food and beverage establishments by temporarily allowing outdoor dining in the public right-of-way (ROW).

Under the Governor’s new Healthy Washington – Roadmap to Recovery, restaurants in Phase 1 and Phase 2 are permitted to allow outdoor dining for up to six people from two households per table.

Several cities in Washington have already taken steps to allow restaurants to set up outdoor dining by using sidewalks, on-street parking spaces, private parking areas, and even road lanes closed to traffic. Implementing ROW dining can be as simple as modifying a current program or issuing a general proclamation or executive order.

In late 2020, the Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) held a webinar entitled “The Ins and Outs of Outdoor Dining – How Cities are Working with Businesses to Provide Flexibility during COVID.” The webinar featured planning and economic development staff from the cities of Woodinville, Everett, Edmonds, and Lynwood discussing their permitting programs.

Below are our four top takeaways from the webinar:

1. Work with your local chamber and businesses. Take the time to understand the needs and the challenges of your local restaurants by working directly with owners. This will not only help create an effective permitting process but also serve as a means of publicity for the program.
2. Make the permitting process quick and simple. Cities found that by simplifying the permitting process they were able to turn around permit requests in less than 24 hours. Most cities made the application available online at no cost and only required a few points of information like location, approximate area, and if there would be any structures or barriers.
3. Stay in your lane. Cities made it clear to applicants that city permits only authorized use of the ROW for outdoor dining. Any requirements from the Liquor and Cannabis Board, Department of Health, or other authority would need to be handled by those agencies.
4. Success could be limited. Cities have seen a steady stream of applicants over the past several months with a few cities reporting only 20 or so applicants. They expect that there are more restaurants operating in the ROW without a permit and handle those situations on a case-by-case basis. However, the feedback they have received about their programs has been overwhelmingly positive.

The APA webinar is available online for viewing (the presentation begins at the 11-minute marker).

For additional information on outdoor dining, check out this article from MRSC outlining methods, benefits, and challenges of ROW dining.