More than half of New York City restaurants that received outdoor dining permits under the city’s program waited longer than 19 months for approval, according to a new investigation that also found the Department of Transportation lacks the data needed to pinpoint where applications are getting held up.
The report that City Comptroller Mark Levine released Tuesday found that just 1,405 of the 4,911 applications received since the program launched in March 2024 had resulted in licenses as of June 15, 2026 — a rate of 28.6%.
Another 2,115 applications remained pending at the time, including 58 filed when the program first launched more than two years earlier.
The findings follow a months-long investigation Levine launched in May amid complaints from restaurant owners about the city’s complicated approval process.
But while DOT has substantially accelerated approvals this year, the comptroller’s office found the agency still lacks an adequate system for tracking how long applications spend at each stage of review.
That makes it difficult to determine whether delays are caused by DOT, applicants submitting paperwork, or other legally required reviews involving community boards and the City Council.
“Unfortunately, the permitting process is a maze of approvals that takes far too long, depriving restaurants, bars, and cafes of expanded capacity and sorely needed revenue,” Levine said in a statement.
The report found that restaurants often spent months corresponding with DOT staff over application requirements, including technical drawings of proposed outdoor dining setups that can be difficult for small business owners to produce.
For roadway cafes, the delays were particularly costly under the seasonal system in effect until this fall, when restaurants could only operate their outdoor setups from April through November. Some applicants waited long enough to miss more than one dining season, according to the report.
DOT says its outdoor dining review backlog is cleared
Patrons eat at an outdoor dining shed in New York. File photo by Dean Moses
DOT, however, says the situation has improved considerably since the period examined by Levine’s office.
“NYC DOT has no backlog of applications awaiting review,” the department said in a statement to amNewYork, pointing instead to City Charter requirements that force restaurants to navigate separate sidewalk and roadway cafe applications, public reviews and multiple rounds of newspaper advertisements.
A city official clarified that no pending applications currently require action by DOT to advance. Instead, the official said, outstanding applications are either undergoing legally required public review or awaiting additional information from restaurant owners.
The official also said the full approval process typically takes a few months, depending in part on how quickly applicants submit the required paperwork and respond to requests for additional information.
The department did not provide a current count of unresolved applications in its response to amNewYork.
Levine’s report acknowledged that DOT has made substantial progress in moving applications through the system this year.
From March 2024 through January 2026, the agency submitted an average of 29 approved applications per month to the comptroller for registration. Beginning in February, that figure jumped to more than 228 per month, peaking at 475 in July.
Between June 15 and Oct. 21 alone, DOT submitted another 1,092 applications for registration, according to the investigation.
But investigators said DOT could not provide detailed information showing how much time applications spent in individual stages of review or how much of the delay was attributable to restaurants, agency staff or other reviewers.
Without that information, the comptroller’s office said, it could not determine whether the faster pace of approvals reflected lasting improvements to the process.
Voters weigh permitting changes
Mayor Zohran Mamdani (left) and City Council Member Lincoln Restler after signing a bill to restore year-round outdoor dining in the city. Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. Photo Credit: Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit.
The findings come less than two months after Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed legislation restoring year-round roadway dining, reversing the seasonal restrictions enacted under former Mayor Eric Adams.
The seasonal program had seen participation plummet from nearly 13,000 restaurants during the pandemic to fewer than 2,500 under the permanent system, according to figures cited by Levine’s office.
Restaurant owners and advocates had complained that the cost of dismantling and storing outdoor setups each winter made participation prohibitively expensive.
But while the new law removed those seasonal restrictions, it left the city’s existing permitting requirements in place.
Those requirements could change under Question 1 on the Nov. 3 ballot, which New Yorkers voting earlier are already having their say on.
The proposal, advanced by Mamdani’s Commission on Government Efficiency, would combine sidewalk and roadway cafe applications, eliminate mandatory public hearings and certain newspaper advertising requirements, and remove the City Council’s authority to reject individual sidewalk cafe applications.
Community boards and local elected officials would retain opportunities to provide input.
The commission estimates that those changes, combined with separate operational improvements at DOT, could reduce outdoor dining approval times from eight months to two.
DOT has pointed to the ballot proposal as a way to make the process faster and less expensive for restaurants.
But Levine’s investigation found that the agency does not adequately track how much time is spent on the very review steps that the proposal seeks to eliminate or shorten, making it difficult to assess how much time those changes would save.
The comptroller’s office has not taken a position on the ballot measure. Instead, it recommends that DOT establish processing-time targets, improve its data tracking and publish a detailed plan for achieving the two-month goal.
The office also urged DOT to simplify technical application requirements, including through digital tools that could automatically identify obstacles to outdoor dining at particular locations.
Those recommendations, the report argues, should be pursued regardless of whether voters approve the charter amendment.
If approved, the ballot changes would take effect March 1, 2027, and would not apply to applications already submitted.
Dining and Cooking