AN ORDINANCE relating to street and sidewalk use; amending Ordinance 126474 and the Street Use Permit Fee Schedule authorized by Section 15.04.074 of the Seattle Municipal Code; and amending Section 2 and Section 3 of Ordinance 126339.
Reporter The Transportation and utilities committee. Excuse me. Transportation. Seattle Public Utilities Committee. Agenda Item 12 Council Vote 120 256 Relating to street and sidewalk use amending ordinance 126 474 and the street use permit fee schedule. The committee recommends the bill pass. Thank you. Councilmember Strauss. So are you. Good afternoon, Council president colleagues, bringing forward to you a bill I have brought to you before, which is extending the sidewalk and outdoor dining permits. So we're extending the free outdoor dining permits. And my apologies. I thought we were into Zoom for all of these years and I didn't get my video. Good to see you. Council president. Good to see colleagues here. I am speaking into a black box moving forward. As I brought this legislation to you in the past, I bring it to you again today. I may bring it to you once more before we finalize these these outdoor dining permits, because it is important to give businesses , residents and all of Seattle, all Seattleites, the opportunity to weigh in and create the right sized regulations for our outdoor dining. Outdoor dining has been something that some have been interested in for many years in Seattle. And I can tell you during the pandemic, it has been widely accepted and celebrated. And now that means that we need to change how our guidelines, permits and parameters are set so we can best set up our businesses. In the past, we've charged fees that were associated with parking costs for that parking stall. And that's just a it's a blunt tool that's not right size. So I'm looking forward to getting our final regulations from START. And this legislation will extend free permits so that business owners have the consistency that they need to know how to plan for the year. And so these cafes, street outdoor dining permits will be extended until January 31st, 2023. Last year we passed legislation introduced to extend the permits until May 30th, 2022. These long extensions are intended to allow City Council time to work with stakeholders and adults through this program while providing restaurants the predictability, stability they need to retain and improve their outdoor structures. So with this extension, it's one part in the pathway to permanence that I've laid out for cafe streets and outdoor dining. And again, my intention, if we aren't able to create those permanent regulations by the end of this extension, we'll do this one more time. I do like to do the time duration segments rather than just extending them for a very long time. So here we are today. I urge a yes vote at this very popular outdoor dining bill. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Councilmember Strauss, are there any questions or concerns that we want to ask of Councilmember Strauss? Seeing a hearing done with the court called the role on the passage of the bill. Councilmember Herbold. Yes. Councilmember Lewis. Yes. Councilmember Macheda I. Councilmember Nelson. I. Councilmember Petersen. Councilmember. So. Yes. Councilmember Strauss. Yes. Council. President Suarez. I ain't in favor and unopposed. Thank you. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Right. Moving on to item number 13. Will the clerk please read item number 13 into the record?