Sidewalk Dining Season Extended In Wallingford

WALLINGFORD, CT — In an effort to help out restaurants amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Wallingford Town Council unanimously approved extending the outdoor sidewalk dining months in the center of town.

The council voted this week to amend the ordinance that governs sidewalk dining in the center of town, along North Main Street and down Center Street. The approved amendment extends outdoor sidewalk dining by two months — one month on each side of the season, according to Town Councilman Chris Shortell.

Shortell, co-chairman of the council’s Ordinance Committee, said the amendment was the “first part of a larger discussion related to COVID, related to what are steps that we can take as a council and as a community to make things easier for our restaurants.”

“Specifically, how can we help them out, thinking beyond COVID,” Shortell said while presenting the ordinance amendment.

Restaurants in that area of town can now start offering sidewalk dining March 1 and end Nov. 30. Before the change, the sidewalk dining season was from April 1 to Oct. 31. The restaurants will still need to apply for a permit for sidewalk dining, according to Shortell.

“The rationale being that you do get some good weather days in those sort of bumper months,” Shortell said of the change. “And why not leave it up to the restaurant to try and take advantage of them.”

Shortell said while he prefaced the amendment by saying it’s because of COVID-19 and to make things easier, the ordinance specifically has nothing to do with COVID.

“I don’t want to confuse people,” he said. “When you look at the Simpson Court dining now, this has nothing to do with the parking lot part of that. This is really just the sidewalk part that we had before COVID and we’ll have after COVID. It’s that simple. It adds two months.”

Shortell said there was some discussion about making this “year-round” but the committee decided to try the amendment as a “baby step” and if it works, “we can always change it in the future.”