The City of Beaverton is considering new outdoor business regulations that will affect the future of outdoor dining on the street, sidewalks, and private parking lots. In order to provide City Council with some additional personal perspective, we spoke with downtown business owners to get their thoughts. We targeted our outreach to focus on people who might not have their voices heard as much when it comes to conversations like this.
To see the proposed code, click this link.
Afterwards, we drafted the document below and shared it with City Council on Monday, August 16, 2021.
Introduction
Zachary Mettler (BDA board member) and Kevin Teater (executive director) walked through downtown talking with a small sampling of restaurant owners and non-restaurant owners about the proposed outdoor dining regulations. We spoke with the businesses listed below, and this is what we heard. Thank you so much for your support of downtown as we seek to find the best way to do this more permanently!
- Afuri IZAKAYA
- Carina’s Bakery
- Family Cafe
- Forager Vintage
- Koya Sushi
- Pedro’s Upholstry
- Raindrop Tap House
- Royal Hair Designs Day Spa
- Yada Thai Cuisine
Main Themes and from Business Owners
- Price & Time: There are many concerns about the unknown amount and costs of the fees for engineers, permits, and renewal. There are also concerns of the added and unknown time that some of these additional steps will add before getting their outdoor dining permitted by April 2022.
- Engineering: Some feel that any engineering stamps required should be facilitated through the City (or a City-contracted engineer) with the hopes that it will expedite time, create more equally-priced rates for businesses, and allow more opportunities for fast support, rather than businesses needing to find specific engineers privately.
- General Outdoor Feedback: While some businesses may have been skeptical of outdoor dining initially, all the businesses the BDA met with said they loved the outdoor dining, whether it’s the on-street, off-street, sidewalk dining, or the Dining Commons. Many said that it was worth losing a parking stall or two on their block to get more pedestrian customers stopping in after dining outside.
- Traffic Speeds: Some feel that the outdoor dining has slowed thru-traffic on 1st Street and at intersections where people must make slower turns. Others feel there needs to be more intense safety measures for pedestrians, like bump-outs, freshly marked crosswalks, and clearer stop signs.
- Non-Restaurants: The non-restaurant businesses we spoke with appreciate outdoor dining spaces because it has allowed their neighbors to stay afloat during the pandemic and has brought a lot of life and energy to the streets this past year and made Downtown feel more like a destination.
- Sidewalk Dining: Some businesses want to make sure sidewalk dining is clearly visible for visually-impaired employees and pedestrians, so no one is tripping or getting hurt doing their job. A clear path is essential.
Quotes from Business Owners
- Mark at Raindrop Tap House: “There are a lot of kids who cross here Farmington and Main]. We need marked crosswalks to make it safer, and we need the stop sign to be visible. We could even stop left turns onto Farmington from Main and onto Main from Farmington… My business would have died without the outdoor dining and now people just really enjoy it.”
- Talib at Family Cafe: “This is just the start of my outdoor dining. We are ok building a deck and are more than happy to do it ourselves, but it can be difficult not knowing the price of the fees and what costs will be. Some people can afford $5,000 or more. But we will need to be doing this (permitting, material purchases, & construction) for $500… We love the outdoor seating because we have such a small store; this really helps us expand how much dining we can have as a small store.”
- Kathy at Koya Sushi: “Parking was a problem beforehand so the outdoor dining didn’t change that. We really love the kids’ area in the Commons, we would just really like our renovated storefront to be more visible and not blocked off by the outdoor dining structures.”
- Hazzel at Forager Vintage: “ I think the outdoor dining has been really successful because as people are outdoors eating and walking around it lets them see our businesses, which increases foot traffic and stop-in customers, even if our street loses a parking spot or two.”
- Carla at Royal Hair Designs Day Spa: “I love the Commons because it slows down traffic and keeps drivers from rushing across 1st Street from one end to the other. I was not in favor when it started, but now I love, love, love it!”
- Pedro at Pedro’s Upholstery: “I’m really glad [the outdoor dining] has been able to support all of my neighbors. Whatever needs to be done to help keep these businesses afloat. You know me. Don’t worry about me.”
- Annie at Yada Thai Cuisine: “If after covid we get more dine-in customers, we might do outdoor dining. Most people do takeout from us. One of our biggest concerns is finding parking on Broadway because there isn’t much parking to begin with and parking time limits aren’t enforced.”
- Taichi at Afuri IZAKAYA: “If the City made the Commons permanent with more park amenities and permanent structures, we would get rid of our temporary dining in the parking lot and extend our patio to make permanent outdoor dining. They should make it more like a park!”
Want to support what’s happening in downtown? Join our Raise Up Downtown Beaverton program! Every donation helps fund more art, more events, more business support, and more design improvements!
