Two weeks after a public hearing drew just one comment from the public, the East Hampton Town Board voted last Thursday to amend the town code to create a pilot program for outdoor dining, a move that could permanently relax outdoor dining rules for restaurants.
The amendment provides for a renewable annual permit, issued by the Planning Department, allowing a restaurant to have as many tables and chairs on the street as it has indoors, provided there is adequate space. Without site plan review, however, a restaurant’s combined indoor and outdoor occupancy cannot exceed 100 percent of its pre-existing approved indoor seating capacity.
The few restaurants in town located within a residential zoning district will be allowed to put 75 percent of their indoor seating capacity outside. Restaurants that predate the zoning laws and are non-conforming uses in a residential district are not eligible for the permit.
The program follows the temporary relaxation of outdoor dining rules put in place as the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted much commercial activity on the tourism-reliant South Fork, particularly that of restaurants and bars. Outdoor dining, including on sidewalks and other public property, proved popular. Previously, only 30 percent of a restaurant’s indoor capacity could be placed outdoors.
Outdoor space can be converted to dining use only if it is not in conflict with the property’s approved site plan. There is to be no reduction or displacement of off-street parking required for the existing restaurant use, and an application for an administrative lighting permit must also be submitted to the Planning Department.
Food preparation and bar use will not be permitted outdoors, nor can any new use be introduced indoors without site plan approval, though vacated indoor space can be used to facilitate takeout service.
The use of outdoor dining space is limited to 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and music is allowed only with a music entertainment permit from the town. Amplified music in outdoor dining spaces is allowed only between 1 and 9 p.m., unless it is part of a catered event for which a special permit has been issued.
Also at last Thursday’s meeting, the town board resolved to spend $5,000 for advertisements to be published in The Star and elsewhere next month, to promote community engagement with planning for the town’s new senior citizens center, to be constructed on Abraham’s Path in Amagansett.
Councilwoman Kathee Burke-Gonzalez told her colleagues at the board’s April 19 work session that R2 Architecture, chosen by the town late last year to provide architecture and engineering services and develop a community engagement plan, will conduct a survey and attend listening sessions and stakeholder workshops to that end.
A virtual work session has been set for May 18 from 6 to 7 p.m. R2 officials will visit the existing senior citizens center, on Springs-Fireplace Road in East Hampton, on May 20, to meet with senior citizens and the town’s human services department staff. A listening session will happen in the main meeting room at Town Hall on May 21 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The board voted last year to acquire seven acres off Abraham’s Path on which to site the new senior citizens center for $1.63 million. The property is part of a 14.3-acre, residentially zoned parcel adjacent to an undeveloped portion of the town-owned Terry King ball field complex.
The board also voted to accept a proposal from GDS Associates, a Georgia engineering and consulting firm, to outline the pathways and strategies needed for the town to meet its 2030 goal of 100 percent of communitywide energy consumption of electricity, heating, and transportation with renewable sources. The firm will be paid $100,000 this year and $89,000 in 2023.a
