Baltimore is gearing up for another summer of crabcakes and cocktails on porches, patios and picnic tables. As the warm weather rolls in and a new outdoor dining season springs into action, the city has decided that one coronavirus pandemic innovation, the curbside dining parklet, is here to stay.
Since 2020, Baltimore has allowed restaurants to set up tables and chairs in parking spots as a way to draw customers who want to eat out but are wary of contracting COVID-19. For nearly three years, the program operated under emergency rules meant to bestow temporary privileges to these businesses, which do not currently pay a fee for the right to host outdoor dining.
With a federal public health emergency for COVID-19 slated to expire May 11, the city is moving to enact new guidelines for curbside dining that will transform the once-temporary program into a permanent one, once the Board of Estimates approves the fee schedule.
Baltimore’s decision to preserve restaurant parklets follows a public feedback period that started last fall, when the Department of Transportation issued draft guidelines for the program. DOT officials say they received more than 2,000 comments on the proposed rules.
Here’s what to know about the city’s new curbside commercial policy, which takes effect in July.
Restaurants will pay fees based on a tiered system tied to equity scores.
The amount a restaurant will pay for its dining parklet depends on where in the city it’s located.
Baltimore’s curbside commercial program will use equity scores from the city’s Complete Streets annual report to determine how much to charge restaurants in different communities. Equity scores are based on census tract data, including the percentage of households with people of color within a community, as well as that area’s median income and the percentage of households that have access to a car.
In affluent areas with a low equity score, such as Fells Point and Federal Hill, restaurants will pay $10 per square foot for their curbside dining setup. Restaurants in communities with a middle equity score will pay $7.50 per square foot, and those located in an area with a high equity score will pay $5 a square foot.
These curbside commercial fees will fall under the city’s minor privilege permit program, which sets the rates that businesses pay to encroach on public space with awnings, planters, fences, fire escapes, bike racks and more.
Liam Davis, who helped craft the guidelines as DOT’s legislative affairs manager, said the equity-based fee structure is new for the city.
“This is probably going to be one of the first, if not the first, minor privilege permits that factors in equity,” he said.
The Board of Estimates deferred approval of the fees at a hearing Wednesday.
The fees encountered some pushback from Bikemore, a group that advocates for expanding bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in Baltimore. In a letter to the Board of Estimates, Bikemore’s interim Executive Director Jed Weeks noted that the proposed fees for curbside dining are costlier than the fee that restaurants pay for a valet parking lane for vehicles. The city’s Complete Streets ordinance, he added, requires Baltimore to prioritize pedestrian uses over automobile uses.
“Curbside dining is a pedestrian use, and research shows curbside dining is a more productive economic use than parking,” Weeks wrote.
He asked the city spending board to either lower parklet fees or raise valet parking permit costs.
City solicitor Ebony Thompson asked the board Wednesday to give the law department a little more time to review a proposed fee schedule for the parklets.
Thompson said she requested a deferral to give the law department additional time to review the parklet regulations, and that the delay was unrelated to Bikemore’s concerns.
“It’s really just double checking to make sure it’s all good,” she said.
The Board of Estimates plans to take up the curbside commercial fees at its May 17 meeting, according to Comptroller Bill Henry.
The guidelines set standards for safety and accessibility.
City officials focused on making sure curbside parklets are safe and accessible, rather than setting aesthetic guidelines, Davis said.
The new policy establishes fire safety rules for the outdoor dining structures — no open flames will be allowed, for instance — and also requires the parklets to be separated from the street by vertical blockades such as concrete barriers or water-filled Jersey walls.
Parklets must feature an entrance that’s flush with the curb, at least 4 feet wide, accessible via the sidewalk and complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Though DOT fielded several comments about the look of the parklets, Davis said the department decided to leave aesthetic concerns to individual communities. Transportation officials are looking to draft City Council legislation that would give local main streets the authority to create their own design codes for parklets, if they so choose.
“We’re not really in the aesthetics business, but we understand where these communities are coming from — some are in historic districts,” Davis said.
Businesses that violate the new policy risk having their parklets removed.
The guidelines give DOT the authority to remove a curbside dining area that violates the rules, at a business owner’s expense.
The department also can ask for parklets to be temporarily removed to make way for repairs and emergency preparations in the event of flooding or other severe weather.
Restaurants have a little time to ease into the new guidelines.
The existing emergency outdoor dining permits are valid through June 30, and enforcement of the new curbside commercial policy will begin July 1. DOT started accepting applications Monday for curbside commercial facilities.
If meeting the new guidelines is a challenge, Davis said DOT wants to help businesses find their way to compliance.
“This is the first round of permits, it’s kind of a tight time period — what I’ve been advocating for is that we’re flexible,” he said. “From an enforcement standpoint, we throw the hammer down on the businesses that are bad actors.”
Curbside commercial privileges aren’t just for restaurants.
Though restaurants and bars have been the most enthusiastic adopters of parklets, Davis said other businesses are eligible to apply for curbside commercial privileges, too. Boutiques, for instance, could apply for a retail parklet in the parking spaces in front of their shop.
“We were very careful not to call these ‘streateries,’ because in theory any business, if they see value in extra space outside, they can use it for other purposes,” he said.
Baltimore Sun reporter Emily Opilo contributed to this story.
