Restaurants in Newmarket may be able to open rooftop patios by the time the warm weather returns if all goes to plan.
Currently, rooftop patios are mentioned in Newmarket's bylaws, but with no actual rules or process allowing a restaurant to open one. Now council is looking to fix that discrepancy.
"This would allow rooftop patios as an accessory to a restaurant, a banquet hall or other commercial use and would allow them in ... a wide variety of areas across Newmarket," Phoebe Chow, senior planner, told council Monday.
"It is felt that commercial rooftop patios would be good for businesses and good for our downtown areas."
Planning staff presented council with a package of proposed amendments to multiple bylaws to do that. Chow explained that rooftop patios could follow many of the same regulations governing their ground-level counterparts for the sake of simplicity, including the requirement to obtain a permit from the Newmarket works department.
To do that, they would also have to submit site plan drawings to the town and go through a streamlined approval process that would not include the need to have a public consultation meeting. Under the proposal, almost all the project vetting and approvals would be done by the planning department unless councillors ask for the plan to be sent to the municipal site plan review committee.
Regulations for rooftop patios differ greatly from community to community, even within York Region. But one rule that multiple municipalities share is not allowing them to be adjacent to residential areas.
However, staff are not recommending that Newmarket have that rule, arguing that the planning department can determine if a patio's location is appropriate on a case-by-case basis, rather than having a blanket rule.
"Our approach has been to stay on the simpler side and not be overly prescriptive," said Chow. "If we review them on a case-by-case basis we ... can limit the impact on residential uses without putting very prescriptive rules through the zoning bylaw."
One issue that still needs to be determined is what the noise restrictions on rooftop patios should be. Manager of regulatory services Flynn Scott noted that special noise rules would need to be created because of how high up the patios will be.
"So that is a good rationale for having specific regulations relating to noise and hours of operation for rooftop patios?" he said.
Mayor John Taylor suggested that perhaps noise attenuation walls should be added to the building code for all rooftop patios.
No decisions were made about the potential patio rules on Monday, as the report was aimed at providing council and the public an opportunity to provide feedback on the idea. The town has not received any public feedback, positive or negative, so far, and no residents registered to speak at the meeting on Monday. Residents can send their opinions to the town via email to [email protected].
Council's reaction to the plans was largely positive, and Councillor Bob Kwapis said he would like to see the initiative move forward quickly so restaurants can construct and open their patios in time for next summer.
