Teuta restaurant outdoor dining plans paused

By Grace Lovins

Brunch restaurant Teuta, located at 168 W Maple Road in Birmingham, is looking to add an outdoor dining area to the business’s amenities but the planning board members reviewed the proposal which ultimately ended with postponement due to the plans being incomplete.

City planner Leah Blizinski noted that the restaurant is proposing to add an outdoor dining platform in the W. Maple right-of-way with four tables and eight total chairs. As of the meeting on Wednesday, May 7, there is only one other outdoor dining platform in the area at Dick O’ Dows, two storefronts down from Teuta. Blizinski wrote in the memorandum to the board that Cafe Origins, across the street from Dick O’ Dows, is also in the process of applying for outdoor dining.

The plans submitted by Teuta, said Blizinski, did not include specification sheets for the proposed materials as well as the details for outdoor dining elements including trash cans, overhead protection and heating elements.

On top of the missing materials, planning board members took issue with the platform's displacement of an ADA parking space on the street. According to Blizinski, the city planning department would not recommend approval of the plans if the ADA space is lost, but staff are looking into the possibility of transitioning the next parking space over to an ADA space. Teuta would have to pick up the associated costs as a condition of approval.

Several board members expressed frustrations over the representatives from Teuta not attending the meeting to further explain the plans and address the missing materials.

Planning board chair Scott Clein said Teuta was just one of multiple businesses over the past few meetings that have not attended meetings where their applications were on the agenda. The board’s last meeting included the postponement of outdoor dining plans for Luxe and Origins Cafe as questions were left unanswered due to no business representation being in attendance.

Board members voted unanimously to postpone consideration of Teuta’s plans until the Wednesday, June 11, meeting.