The city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) penned a letter to the comptroller’s office expressing frustration over what the agency called a “lack of knowledge” about the City Council’s law on NYC outdoor dining permits.
DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez sent the letter on Monday in response to NYC Comptroller Brad Lander’s “misleading” Feb. 13 press release that said the DOT is lagging behind on permitting nearly 4,000 outdoor dining applications in time for the Dining Out NYC season on April 1.
Specifically, Lander said just 40 outdoor dining permits have been approved thus far, and blamed the DOT for the slow rollout.
“Spring is almost here, and restaurant owners are running out of time to design new outdoor seating and obtain liquor licenses,” Lander said in the press release. “The Department of Transportation needs to stop ticket stacking and start sending their permits to this office.”
Rodriguez, however, strongly denies his agency is causing the permitting bottleneck. He said in the letter that the comptroller’s office should raise their concerns with the City Council, which created the “cumbersome” process for outdoor dining permits, which must include approvals from the DOT, neighborhood community board, and a public hearing, in that order.
At the end of the process, the comptroller’s office reviews each application before the DOT can take over again and issue a license.
“The city council opted to make roadway dining seasonal, set program parameters, and mandated an application process that includes review by the New York City Department of Transportation, community board, the public, and local council members, among others,” Rodriguez wrote in the letter. “Without a doubt, it is cumbersome. But NYC DOT is bound by the law to follow this process.”
Both Lander and Rodriguez are former City Council members themselves.
Rodriguez noted that the DOT agrees with Lander about the importance of outdoor dining as a symbol of “recovery and continued economic strength” during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
He also said that the DOT has reviewed all applications for both roadways and sidewalks in accordance with the law and pushed two-thirds of roadway applications through the mandated process. The remaining third, the letter states, requires additional information from applicants.
“Contrary to your letter’s misleading claims, we have forwarded your office each and every application that has met all of the above legally prescribed steps,” Rodriguez wrote. “It is incumbent on community boards, city council people and others to now do their part,” the letter goes on to say.
amNewYork Metro contacted the comptroller’s office for comment about the letter, and is awaiting a response.
Timing of applications is especially important this year because restaurant owners must comply with updated outdoor dining regulations that include new barriers and floors for their structures to help ensure safety and cleanliness.
The DOT has defended its record on outdoor dining, saying that the agency “fought hard to make outdoor dining a permanent part” of the city’s streetscape after the pandemic. Dining Out NYC is the “largest outdoor dining” program in the nation, Rodriguez said.
In the meantime, a City Council spokesperson told amNewYork Metro on Feb. 13 that the implementing agency—in this case, DOT—still controls the details of the application process and operations through rulemaking.
The spokesperson added that council members will also be overseeing the DOT’s implementation of the program “to gain greater clarity.”
Read More: https://www.amny.com/nyc-transit/
