But the city says it will invite businesses to re-install their own patio extensions in 2024
Kamloops city council is considering a phased out removal of its patio extension program and allowing businesses to erect their own in future.
The patio extensions, which have been in place the past two years, consist of brick bypass sidewalks the city constructed in off-street parking stalls to allow more seating on the sidewalk in front of businesses in the downtown and along Tranquille Road.
The program was implemented in response to COVID-19 gathering restrictions that banned indoor dining or limited restaurant seating. On Tuesday (Jan. 17) council will discuss removing all existing patio extensions this spring or just the ones no longer required, permitting ones outside businesses that want to retain them for 2023 until Oct. 31, at which point the city would remove the rest.
Staff recommend all current bypass sidewalks be removed by November and new bypass patio guidelines be implemented for the 2024 patio season.
“This will provide businesses with one year to prepare for the new bypass patio program,” a staff report in this week’s agenda stated.
The city intends to allow businesses to construct their own patio extension bypass sidewalks starting the 2024 patio season between April and October, at a cost of $700 per displaced parking stall.
To help offset the addition expense of businesses having to construct their own bypasses, staff are also recommending 50 per cent of the annual fee be waived for the first year. The city used its provincial COVID-19 Safe Restart Grant for Local Governments to build the patio extensions in the spring of 2021, spending about $197,000 of the $200,000 fund to date to install and maintain the bypass sidewalks.
According to the report in this week’s agenda, 22 businesses between the downtown and Tranquille Road commercial areas requested extended patios, displacing approximately 40 metered parking stalls. That represents an estimated potential loss of parking revenue of $15,000 for each month, assuming all of the stalls removed would have been fully occupied.
The Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association (KCBIA) recently surveyed businesses about the impact of the patio extensions, and the feedback was the extensions increase the downtown’s vibrancy and outweigh the loss of parking.
According to the staff report it would cost the city about $81,000 to remove all the sidewalk extensions this spring, and about $53,000 to remove about half and maintain the rest. It would cost another $51,000 cost to that half in the fall.
Under the city’s original and ongoing regular patio program it allows patios on the sidewalk for minimal annual cost, permitted to be located on the public sidewalk if there is a minimum of 1.5 m clear width for pedestrians.