Jasper’s sidewalks will see patio seating this summer, as long as eligible restauranteurs complete their permit applications and obtain the appropriate insurance.
Parks Canada approved the municipality’s one-year sidewalk seating pilot project April 30, authorizing the municipality to issue permits to the restaurants that have met all of the necessary requirements.
The next step is for restauranteurs to obtain liability insurance for a minimum of $2 million and to present proof of that insurance to the municipality. Once that’s done, restauranteurs will meet with the municipality’s licensing and enforcement manager to go over the permit requirements and receive their permits.
There are 16 restaurants eligible for the pilot project. Those restaurants were selected after the municipality’s March application process, which had restauranteurs submit measurements, a letter of consent from their lessee, drawings showing the restaurant’s proposed street furniture and photos of the proposed location.
Each restaurant had to prove there is room for 1.8 metres of unobstructed sidewalk beside its proposed sidewalk seating. This requirement meets national standards for sidewalk width and was confirmed by municipal staff, which visited each restaurant to take its own measurements.
During the April 23 Planning and Development Advisory Committee (PDAC) meeting, nearly a dozen of the 16 eligible restauranteurs appeared to show their support for the pilot project, touting the great benefits of sidewalk seating.
Following the meeting, PDAC provided Parks with a positive recommendation, which was then supported by Jeff Anderson, Parks’ vice president of operations for Western and Northern Canada.
In a letter to the municipality, Anderson wrote, “The committee is excited by the prospect of a revitalized downtown and patio seating should help to provide this. I am, therefore, pleased to accept the positive recommendation of the committee.”
“PDAC appreciated the fact that we reviewed all of the applicants on site and ensured that they met the criteria that was set out,” Mark Fercho, municipal chief administrative officer, told council May 5. “So, we got a positive recommendation that went to Calgary and it came back approved.”
With that approval, permitting is now in the hands of the municipality.
This week, all 16 restaurants have received letters laying out the steps for obtaining an event permit and now it is up to them to follow through.
“Now we work with the individual applicants to issue them the permits that will allow them the use of that space,” said Fercho, noting that the goal is to have everything sorted out in time for June.
“The next two steps are fairly straightforward. It’s having their insurance updated, because they’re going to extend their operations onto public property, so they will need to indemnify the municipality and Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada―Parks Canada.
“Then that insurance goes to Dave Osborne, [licensing and enforcement manager], and a permit is issued.”
Restauranteurs have been requesting sidewalk seating for many years, but until now it hasn’t been considered because there isn’t a bylaw governing commercial use of public land.
In recent years, that has created frustration for businesses and organizations, as they try to navigate their way through numerous levels of bureaucracy in order to host events.
Administration is currently working on a bylaw to deal with such things and anticipates that it will take about a year to complete. As well as sidewalk seating, it will consider busking, street festivals and the farmer’s market―which was recently approved for its second pilot project, allowing it to use the McCready Centre parking lot for its summer markets.
Nicole Veerman
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