The Bayview-Leaside BIA reports that the City is conducting a review of sidewalk café and marketing display fees as part of an attempt at bylaw harmonization. The proposal suggests increasing permit fees, with some Toronto businesses being asked to pay an almost 900% increase per meter squared per year.Specifically, Bayview Leaside businesses with patio’s, or street marketing currently pay $21.42 per meter squared per year. The review suggests that fees would increase almost 900% in some cases, with non-alcoholic patios at $148.86 per meter squared, patios with alcohol sales at $161.78 per meter squared, and enclosed patios at $213.56 per meter squared. The proposal relies on market values to make estimates surrounding the permit fees. Along with an increase in permit fee’s, officials suggest that new categories of permitting be created (cafe, patio, parklet and marketing display) each with their own specific fee, while new boundaries for fee zones are also being proposed. The city stresses that the review has not been adopted and officials are still looking for feedback, we encourage all businesses that will be affected to attend the upcoming meeting to discuss and share your thoughts.
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Monday, January 30, 2017
Committee Room 1, 2nd Floor
Toronto City Hall (100 Queen St. West)
Check out all the informational slides here.
This is a tough call. On places like Bayview south of Eglinton, there’s plenty of sidewalk space and the patios tend to be welcome, but then there’s places like Eglinton east of Yonge, where the annual starbucks patio forces hundreds of commuters to cram along a little stretch of sidewalk in a busy intersection.
I know these assessments don’t take that into account, but at the same time, if you can’t tangibly define “congestion cost” caused by patios placed in busy foot traffic sites, maybe an increase to all of them to deter such setups is warranted. However, as to whether or not *these* amounts are appropriate? I’m not in a position to say.