Restaurants in Glens Falls seeking outdoor dining permits which would allow them to place tables and chairs on city sidewalks will face a new application system this year. At the Common Council meeting March 28, Mayor Bill Collins said he would introduce the new system at the next city council meeting in April.
In the meantime, the city has announced two hearings on the possible new rules, both at Crandall Library, on Tuesday April 4 at 7 p.m. and Thursday April 6 at 2 p.m.
Permits are issued from June 1 in one year to May 31 the next year.
“As we got our new buildings and codes department going, we found our applications weren’t following what’s called PROWAG regulations,” the mayor told the council on Tuesday when he said that he would be bringing changes forward.
The federal Access Board is developing what are now proposed Public Rights-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines, or PROWAG regulations.
The Access Board is a federal agency that, among other activities, develops accessibility guidelines and design standards in public settings. The regulations they are proposing fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA), the board's website says.
Many of the outdoor dining permits that have been issued in the last two years were a result of the COVID pandemic. Then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo allowed municipalities to issue outdoor dining and alcohol sales on sidewalks and in street parking spaces in front of restaurants. At the time, restaurants could fill rooms only to 50% of the normal capacity, and the outdoor spaces were meant to replace the lost seats inside.
Glens Falls was among the cities to allow outdoor dining, but “some of those [approvals] were in blatant violation” of PROWAG, the mayor said. “So we were, by accident, breaking the law.”
Although the mayor said that the required clear width on a sidewalk is five feet, our reading of the regulations says “the continuous clear width of pedestrian access routes shall be 1.2 m (4.0 ft) minimum, exclusive of the width of the curb” and “street furniture” must be in compliance with other regulations, the website says.
We will attempt to clarify the discrepancy in a future story.
The mayor said he understands that some people will be upset.