Seattle council backs more sidewalk cafes

Hoping to spread cafe culture across the city, Seattle eased the way Monday for more restaurants to set up sidewalk cafes.

Mayor Greg Nickels, inspired by downtown revitalizations in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Melbourne, Australia, proposed in June reducing licensing time and permit costs, to about $600 for an average cafe.

The changes have been criticized for weeks by blind community members already fed up with obstacles littering the sidewalks — sandwich boards, temporary no-parking signs, parking pay stations. They predict most of the outdoor tables would be rained out and empty for most of the year.

After making some alterations to the mayor's proposal, the City Council on Monday passed changes for cafe permitting.

"I live in Pioneer Square," said Councilmember Jan Drago, Transportation Committee chair. "I see existing sidewalk cafes being fully utilized."

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen opposed the change in a 7-1 vote, with Councilmember Tim Burgess absent.

The city's Transportation Department will hold more public hearings to discuss how to set up the rules for cafe operation.

The legislation lowers permit costs from about $2,300 to $600 and sets a timeline of 10 days to review permit applications for sidewalk cafes throughout the city. Previously, restaurant owners complained of spending months waiting for a permit.

Seattle's changes were modest compared with policies in other cities. Portland charges $10 a year to operate a sidewalk cafe. Seattle restaurant owners will now pay a one-time review fee of $450 plus an annual permit fee of $101 and $1.56 annually per square foot of sidewalk used.

Craig Benjamin, then a graduate student at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs, spent the summer of 2007 as a fellow in Nickels' office researching ways to create public space downtown.

Looking at similarly sized cities Copenhagen and Melbourne, he found that in the span of a few decades, both gradually brought more pedestrian life to their downtowns and reduced auto traffic.

He made several suggestions for Seattle: Turn utility boxes into art spaces, create a street-performers program, encourage food and flower street vendors, build small plazas and pocket parks, and ease the way for more sidewalk cafes. Copenhagen now has 5,000 cafes, which residents use even in the winter, and Melbourne has more than 600, Benjamin found. Seattle now has 225.

"Sidewalk cafes are great," said Benjamin, now a project associate for the Cascade Land Conservancy. They "put eyes on the street, encourage an activated streetscape, really get people out there."

Several blind people say the changes will impede mobility for elderly people and people with disabilities.

"We've got a ton of problems on sidewalks, and they want to make them worse," said Doug Hildie. "It's not that we can't get around things, but the planning seems to be without consideration for pedestrians."

Joe Fugere, the owner of three Tutta Bella restaurants, said having outdoor diners reduced crime outside his Columbia City location.

"We noticed a significant amount of crime [reported] by people using cellphones and calling the police when they saw drug activity across the street," he said.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com