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Photograph: San Francisco Planning Department/Flickr

Chicago could be flooded with street cafes this spring

Written by
Nick Kotecki
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Once the snow melts this winter, Chicago could see a surge in outdoor dining options. The City Council approved a measure on Tuesday that would allow restaurants with narrow sidewalks to occupy the curbside parking lane outside their buildings with tables and chairs, the Sun-Times reports.

Curbside cafés would be allowed to operate from May to September, four months less than the sidewalk café season, which runs from March through November. Participating restaurants need to be fronted by a sidewalk less than 8 feet wide and the dining space can be up 40 feet long or the length of the business's frontage.

The catch? (This is Chicago, are you kidding? There's always a catch.) It's only a two-year pilot program. If the city doesn't like the results, they can pull the plug. There's another catch for restaurants, too. Well, to be fair, there's a few—starting with a $600 permit. In addition, restaurants will have to fork over lost meter revenues to the company Chicago sold it's parking meter rights to. After restaurants are licensed and agree to pay fees, they'd also have to block off the seating area from traffic and make the area's "floor" even with the sidewalk to prevent patrons from stumbling. Oh, then they have to store this makeshift patio somewhere over the winter months.

The idea was brought to the City Council by North Side aldermen Michele Smith (43rd) and Tom Tunney (44th) of Lincoln Park and Lakeview, respectively, where parking is already a cramped ordeal. The impact to parking is likely one of the reasons for the pilot in the first place. Ald. Tunney said that he'd like to see several curbside cafés on Clark St, which is a traffic disaster in some stretches.

Will any restaurants actually bite? We'll give it a solid maybe. With a few tweaks here and there though, Chicago could be poised for an outdoor dining renaissance this spring, summer and fall.

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