UPDATE: Jan. 9. 11:45 a.m.
As of Monday, Jan. 9, restaurant owners in Philadelphia must have a streetery license if they want to continue providing outdoor seating and food service in the parking lane in front of their business. City officials say they will now issue warnings to restaurants that do not comply with new safety regulations.
A number of business owners have taken down their streetery structures rather than go through the application process to keep them, saying the new rules are too complicated and the application process is too cumbersome. And now that the licensing deadline has come, many more are streeteries are expected to come down.
Streetery license guidelines and requirements are available at the city's website.
The original story follows
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The deadline to apply for a permanent Streetery License in Philadelphia is fast approaching, but many restaurants have yet to apply.
Streeteries were created as part of an outdoor dining modification during the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications to keep these seating expansions are due Monday, Jan. 9, and out of the 800 streeteries in the city, less than 50 have filed an application.
“It is concerning that people don't want to put in for the application,” said Richard Montanez, deputy commissioner of the Philadelphia Streets Department. “And that is concerning to us, but we want everybody to put in.”
Montanez said they will begin enforcing permits on Monday and reminding businesses to submit their applications.
But Ben Fileccia with the Pennsylvania Restaurant and Lodging Association says the issue is not that restaurant owners don’t want to be in compliance, it’s that the process is complicated.
“The process is so difficult for some folks that they can't even to get that initial application in,” Fileccia said.
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He said he is confused about rules surrounding heat, electricity and accessibility.
“You can't have electric in there,” Fileccia said. “Well, the streetery has to be well lit. How can it be well-lit without electric? We want them to be four seasons, but you can't provide any type of heat.”
“They have to have crash-proof barriers, obviously, because we want to keep them safe. However, the crash-proof barriers that have been suggested are 18 inches and that's going to cut into the streetery and, you know, we want to also make sure they're ADA accessible.”
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Leo Dillinger, with the Manayunk Development Corporation, said there is a flowchart guide provided, but a lot of businesses are stuck on step seven out of 21.
“...The lead times on some of these things are anywhere from 14 to 20 business days.”
Montanez says they’re looking into clarifying the rules for Streeteries but noted the city has overlooked some of the issues with streetery structures for a while now.
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“It was actually not legal as of last year,” Montanez said. “We actually let them run an entire year without permits. It took us 12 months to come up with the regulations, how we were going to enforce, and things like that.”
For more information on streetery permit eligibility, visit the City of Philadelphia’s website.