Year-round outdoor dining plans reworked

By Kevin Elliott

Amendments to Birmingham’s outdoor dining ordinance were forwarded to the city commission on Wednesday, December 8, by the city’s planning board in order to allow for outdoor dining, sans enclosures, through the 2021-2022 winter season.

Birmingham Planning Board members voted unanimously to approve amendments to the ordinance, which ends temporary outdoor dining in the city on November 15 each year. Board members were tasked by the city commission to rework the ordinance to allow year-round outdoor dining. The December 8 motion is intended to provide a temporary expansion of outdoor dining while the planning board completes a permanent ordinance.

Birmingham Planning Director Nick Dupuis said the city sent all permit holding dining establishments a letter in October that a study to eliminate the November 15 deadline was underway and that the city would be pausing enforcement of the deadline while the study progressed.

Planning board chair Scott Clein said the board expects to have a permanent ordinance complete in early 2022 to forward to the city commission for final approval.