A Locke Street restaurant owner says “there’s light at the end of the tunnel” as Hamilton city council plans to hold a special meeting to expand the city’s temporary outdoor patio program amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Brandon Stanicak, owner of the West Town Bar & Grill, said his business was one of only seven restaurants in the city that was initially rejected for a temporary license because they were abutting residential property.
He says it puzzled him because they’ve used the empty lot next door for outdoor dining multiple times in the past.
“It’s very hard to believe, especially in a lot that we have licensed for temporary patios fifteen times,” said Stanicak. “For the Locke Street Festival we’ve done it, special occasions we’ve done it, but usually it’s only for a day or up to five days at a time. So I just assumed that this one would fall right into that temporary license. Because this is a temporary license.”
For weeks, Stanicak said it seemed as though the city wasn’t going to budge on the zoning issue.
“One councillor said it’s a pipe dream. And to us, this is our livelihood and the livelihood of 40 different staff, and hearing him calling it a pipe dream, I’m thinking, ‘we’re not going to give up.’ You’re telling me there’s no way it can happen, but we’re going to keep pushing because we don’t have anything else to do. It’s not like we can go back to work.”
The situation may change for Stanicak and the other restaurant owners whose applications were initially rejected, as a motion from Ward 4 Coun. Sam Merulla will be the sole topic of discussion at Tuesday’s special council meeting, to be held after the regularly-scheduled planning committee meeting.
If approved, that motion will temporarily amend the zoning bylaw to allow temporary outdoor patios that are abutting a residential zone.
Ward 2 Coun.r Jason Farr, who is seconding Merulla’s motion and brought forward the initial idea to allow for outdoor dining districts in Hamilton back in April, said the provincial government also announced last week that it would be making it easier for restaurants across Ontario to open patios outdoors.
“The province announced that they were — for now — going to do away with the appeal process,” said Farr.
In an email to city councillors on Friday, the city’s general manager of planning economic development Jason Thorne wrote that the province removing the appeal process means that there will be no delays in the bylaw coming into force once it’s passed by council.
“We could have unanimously passed this motion that complements my first motion and takes care of that zoning bylaw,” said Farr. “But during an appeal, there’s not much you can do. You have to wait until the appeal process plays out. And I think rightly … the province recognized that, and they do have the power.”
“They understand that it’s a huge economic impact, having these bars and restaurants open again … and so they didn’t want to slow the process down with a few neighbourhood appeals or site-specific appeals.”
The plight of the seven restaurants initially rejected for outdoor patios came to the attention of Ontario’s premier during a media update on June 23, when a reporter asked Doug Ford about restaurants that had not received approval to have outdoor dining areas.
Ford expressed sympathy for those business owners, urging municipalities to be “flexible,” but also acknowledged that businesses “have to follow the protocols.”
Stanicak said he thinks the premier’s remarks helped to put pressure on the city to figure out a solution for those businesses.
“I think they were getting a lot of emails from neighbourhood people. And then with the premier sort of calling them out on that too, I think that helped, for sure. And then they figured out a way to do it. But when I say ‘figured out a way’ … until we have it, nothing’s for sure.”
Stanicak said he’s just waiting to see what happens on Tuesday, and will celebrate once he knows for certain that the empty lot next door can be filled with customers, giving him and other restaurant owners some stability after months of uncertainty.
“It’s good to see a light at the end of the tunnel, and hopefully a light for the bigger picture too, of getting back to what was normal before.”
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