Future Of North Shore Outdoor Dining? It's Getting More Complicated

SALEM, MA — Salem will allow outdoor dining — a boon for restaurants and patrons navigating the uncertainty and personal comfort concerns of the COVID-19 health crisis over the past three years — once again this spring and summer.

It's just going to take a lot more planning, effort and greater expense on behalf of a business to apply and qualify for a permit if outdoor food and alcohol service is not already included in its operating license.

With the April 1 expiration of the state exemption giving cities and towns a wide berth in allowing dining on outdoor patios, sidewalks and even some streets — barring legislative action — Salem businesses now must retain a professional plumbing code review, submit a detailed plan of the proposed outdoor seating, complete an alteration of the existing alcohol permit premise application, if necessary, to include outdoor consumption and, for restaurants in Salem's Downtown Renewal Area, complete an additional outdoor dining area application to be reviewed and permitted by the Salem Redevelopment Authority.

In short, restaurants that want to offer outdoor dining once again in 2023 will have to have that outdoor area encompassed in a full permit process rather than simply allowed by the city through an extension of the existing building permit.

Required documentation includes the architectural code review certification, a detailed site plan showing locations of tables, chairs, barriers and other physical items, specific sheets or photographs of those items and sheets or photographs of any umbrellas planned for use — noting that those umbrellas must not have any logos (which are often alcohol-based sponsors such as beer and liquor brands) on them.

City Solicitor Beth Rennard told Patch on Friday that a notice of these requirements was recently sent out to city businesses and that they were advised to start the process as soon as possible so that Salem Redevelopment Authority and Alcohol Beverage Control Commission approval can take place in time for the outdoor season.

The question is whether the now-more-cumbersome process will be worth it for outdoor dining, which was certainly a welcome option for the past three summers but may not be the necessity it once was during the more intense stretches of the pandemic.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu recently announced that outdoor dining would become permanent in that city — with the added requirements and expenses — with the exception of the North End, which has been a neighborhood of many conflicts between restaurant owners and residents over the provisions in recent years because of the narrow streets and density of restaurants.

"Outdoor dining expanded as a way to keep our businesses open during the pandemic, and has turned into a popular opportunity to enjoy our streets and each other's company," Wu said in a statement last week. "The Permanent Outdoor Dining Program is a multi-departmental collaboration to reimagine our public space for the benefit of residents, business owners, and visitors.

"We've taken what we learned over the last couple of years to inform the permanent program, and we're committed to working with our neighborhoods to make this program a success."

Rennard told Patch last year the city was looking to continue to "embrace" outdoor dining, though the lack of state action this year is making that a more involved process.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)