Nelson city council has decided to give downtown restaurant patio owners a year to stop heating their outdoor spaces with gas.
This was one of several updates to the downtown patio rules that council made at its April 9 meeting.
Councillor Rik Logtenberg, who has for several years advocated at the council table against restaurants using fossil fuels to heat the outdoors on city property, reluctantly acquiesced to the suggestion that owners be given a year’s notice.
“But I’d like to see these gone by next year for sure, if not sooner,” he said, adding that there are patio heating alternatives that “probably would be cheaper in the end over the long term.”
The annual rental fee for a patio will be increased from $300 to $480 per parking stall, to match the recent 60 per cent increase to parking meter rates.
The option of expanding a patio into parking spots in front of a neighbouring business, with the annual permission of the neighbouring business, will be continued. Planner Sebastien Arcand reported that only two businesses used neighbouring parking stalls in 2023.
Council also agreed to increase the minimum distance between a patio and the business frontage from two metres to 2.3 metres on Baker Street and from 1.6 metres to two metres on other streets. These revised distances will apply to new patios or existing patios that are being redesigned, and to any patios that are extended in front of a neighbouring business.
Arcand reported that last year’s total of 27 parking stalls taken up by patios amounts to four per cent of the total number downtown parking stalls.
The earliest allowable start date for patio operations is May 1.
READ MORE:
• Nelson returns to pre-pandemic patio policy
• B.C.’s pandemic patios need local approval to operate past June 1
• Nelson council waives fees for restaurant patios, shortens time frame
• Nelson council hears results of survey on patios and food trucks