Portsmouth loves outdoor dining, wants more in 2023. But restaurants may pay higher fees.

PORTSMOUTH — City staff have proposed making some adjustments to the city’s popular outdoor dining initiative, including hiking the fees for restaurants to use parking spaces or sidewalk spaces.

The staff also recommended shortening the season in 2023, proposing it run May 1 to Nov. 12, shorter than the 2022 season, which was April 7 to Nov. 27.

City councilors did not take a formal vote on any of the staff suggestions during their Wednesday meeting after receiving a presentation on the issue from Planning Director Beverly Mesa-Zendt.

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Councilors spoke generally about the importance of continuing outdoor dining, which started during the COVID-19 pandemic to encourage the public to continue to frequent Portsmouth’s many restaurants.

City Councilor John Tabor believes “there’s not a lot of argument about shortening the season,” along with “some increase in the fees.”

Staff has proposed hiking the fee for the season for restaurants to use a parking space from $1,500 in 2022 to $3,000 in 2023. They also recommended increasing the cost to use sidewalk space from $5 per square foot to $10 per square foot, according to Mesa-Zendt.

A downtown parking space brings in on average $5,700 for the season, she said.

Tabor said it was “really smart to not try to recoup all the parking revenue.”

“Restaurateurs are telling me that the labor situation is getting a little better each month, but it’s still a factor,” Tabor said during Wednesday’s council meeting, the last one scheduled for 2022. “I think modest increases in fees is important because we’re also charging more for less of a period of time.”

“To me, outdoor dining has been a success, a real success, it’s taken the downtown and created a whole new experience,” he said. “And Portsmouth was a great experience to begin with. But we added this extra dimension of an experience. To me, we want to go as far toward on the outdoor street experience as we can."

Mesa-Zendt reported that when the fees were introduced in 2022, “they did not result in any measurable decrease in participation.”

“I believe we had two less applications this year,” she said.

City Councilor Andrew Bagley reminded councilors that “the reason we did outdoor dining, the reason outdoor dining happened, was to save the restaurants and to give people a place outside where they felt safe so they could eat out.”

“We kind of discovered that by and large most people enjoyed that experience ... and would like to see it continue,” he said. “We’re doing the outdoor dining because we want the vibrancy.”

Should Portsmouth double outdoor dining fees for restaurants?

Bagley said, “I would not like to see us double them, maybe we could make a small increase.”

City Councilor Beth Moreau said she “completely” supports all the staff recommendations.

“I do think we need to double the fees,” she said.

That includes the staff’s recommendation that any outdoor dining application that results “in a significant impact to the traffic pattern or that result in a change to the directional pattern of the street, should not be considered.”

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Moreau agreed with staff’s assessment “that it’s a huge problem.”

Mayor Deaglan McEachern said “to a councilor we agree that outdoor dining has been successful, and we want it to continue.”

“We want this to last long-term,” he said.

In terms of the fees, McEachern said, “We want to make sure the restaurants are using that space and they’ve got some skin in the game to maximize that space. If you spend double the fees, you’re going to put a lot more effort into making sure that that is a great product that you’re putting out there, and not an afterthought."

Mesa-Zendt said the city staff believes there should be “some level of uniformity” for the barriers used to keep outdoor diners safe. Options include limiting the Jersey barriers to 3 feet, except for planters on top or using a standardized approach to on-street barriers of between 3 to 5 feet in height, according to her report to the council.

City staff also interviewed abutters to restaurants who offered outdoor dining in 2022.

Sixty-three percent of those surveyed said their experience was positive, but 27% indicated their experience was negative, she said.

One respondent said, “Outdoor dining blocks sidewalks, even when it is unused, which is often.”

“It offers limited benefits for a few businesses at the expense of other business, pedestrian traffic, parking spaces …and vehicle traffic,” the respondent said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth NH may double outdoor dining fees for restaurants in 2023