GREENWICH, CT — Outdoor dining in Greenwich has been a big success since it was implemented after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in summer 2020, but there’s been an eye-catching problem each season — the concrete barriers provided to restaurants for their spaces are ugly.
With warmer days on the horizon and the annual review of outdoor dining fees underway by the Board of Selectmen, town officials are working to come up with solutions to hide the concrete eyesores, but it will increase costs for participating eateries.
“Over the last five years since we’ve had this program in place, we’ve heard that our barriers are ugly,” Greenwich Department of Public Works Commissioner Jim Michel told the selectmen during Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting.
“We don’t take a whole lot of offense to that, because we know they’re concrete and we’re public works, so we deal with that stuff all the time. We’ve been exploring different options.”
Michel said using concrete remains the best option for providing optimal safety for diners and pedestrians.
However, the department is considering purchasing easily removable sleeves that can be placed over the top of each barrier.
Michel noted the sleeves, which could be dark green, similar to traffic signal boxes seen around town, would need to be removable so DPW crews could move the barriers with specialized gripping equipment. A shrink wrap-like cover would likely be torn, Michel said.
“We’ve got some quotes for doing this. What we figured is, if [the sleeves] can last three years, that would probably be a reasonable timeframe for that, just because of where they’re located with the road and everything else,” Michel added. “They might last a little longer, they might not last that long, but we’ll see. If we do that, we figure the cost of these things would increase our barrier costs, if we distribute it over a three-year period, to be about $15 a foot for the individual barrier.”
The current proposed barrier fee per linear foot for restaurants would increase from $48.50 to $63.50, Michel said, noting most restaurants use an average of 40 feet.
The selectmen are considering two options for the length of this year’s outdoor dining season. The season would begin on May 22 and run to either Oct. 4 or Oct. 18.
With the sleeves factored in, the total average fee per restaurant would increase from an estimated $6,572 to $7,148 if the season goes through Oct. 18, and from $6,148 to $6,716 for Oct. 4, according to Michel.
Michel explained the barrier sleeves would remain blank, since labeling them or designing them for each restaurant would conflict with the town’s signage regulations.
“We feel it’s needed for uniformity that we want them all to be the same,” Michel said.
The board did not vote on the outdoor dining fees, even though this was a second read of the agenda item. Town Administrator Kate Buch asked the board to push a vote to the next meeting to allow more time for feedback from the public and restaurant owners.
Selectwoman Lauren Rabin supported the concept of a uniform design for the sleeves, citing nearby drivers on Greenwich Avenue.
“It would be distracting if something was over-stylized or inconsistent,” he said.
First Selectman Fred Camillo also voiced support for the idea and said some restaurants have contacted him in the past seeking to cover the barriers themselves.
“This would be terrific,” he said.
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