Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) Commissioner Gretchen Dykstra today announced a proposal to create a more efficient, streamlined process for approving unenclosed sidewalk café licenses. The proposal, requiring City Council consent, will make the approval process faster and provide authority for the City to close restaurants that repeatedly break the unenclosed sidewalk café rules. It will reduce the approval process, now mandated at 226 days but often taking as many as 465, to a maximum of 100 days while still including full public review by Community Boards and approval by the City Council.

"The often confusing and tedious process of licensing sidewalk cafés has been a deterrent to both potential and existing restaurant owners," said Mayor Bloomberg. "We have created a process that will make it dramatically easier for sidewalk cafés - one of the City's most treasured amenities - to become legitimate and operate legally. This solution is a result of agencies, advocates, and operators working together to create a system that works."

"This is a win-win for everyone - the public, which loves sidewalk cafés, the restaurant operators, and the communities that have had to deal with reoccurring problems," said Commissioner Dykstra. "The new process will make it easier for restaurants to open cafés and easier for the City to shut down those with repeat violations."

The proposal will streamline the existing multi-agency approval process and give one City agency - DCA - centralized authority, thus reducing waiting time for restaurants by more than half. Under the current law, businesses must endure a cumbersome process that requires consent from the City Council, Community Boards, and six City agencies - the Department of City Planning, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Transportation, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the Mayor's Office of Contracts.

Under the proposed system, DCA will undertake the technical review with operating businesses, conduct the public hearing after Community Board review, make recommendations to the City Council for its approval or denial, and for the first time, have the authority to temporarily padlock the restaurants that have repeat violations. Also as part of the new amendments, DCA will allow cafés to remain open year-round and will grandfather sidewalk café platforms.

This past spring DCA reviewed approximately 275 pending sidewalk café applications. Since June, 215 have been licensed and DCA has put a solid, more efficient tracking system in place. There are currently more than 700 sidewalk cafés licensed to operate in New York City.

For more information on sidewalk café licensing, call the Department of Consumer Affairs at 212-487-4444.