Edmonds City Council votes to reduce extension fee for ‘streateries’
Jan 5, 2022, 6:36 AM | Updated: 9:22 am
Streateries at restaurants in downtown Edmonds. (MyNorthwest photo)
(MyNorthwest photo)
The Edmonds City Council voted Tuesday to cut the fee for “streateries” at local restaurants in half. The structures will be allowed to stay through April, if the owners are willing to pay.
The streateries in Edmonds are outdoor dining structures that some businesses have built in public parking spaces to help expand capacity and be able to serve more customers when indoor dining was limited during the COVID pandemic.
After postponing the initial vote on a streatery extension fee more than once, the Edmonds City Council voted in late December to allow restaurants to keep their seating in public parking spaces through the end of April — for $4,000.
With business owners complaining that $4,000 was outrageously high, and that they need the streateries to keep their doors open during the pandemic, the council reconvened less than a week later to debate lowering the fee. But only four of the seven councilmembers attended to listen to testimony and vote on the fate of the streateries. After hearing the testimony, councilmember Will Chen walked out, leaving them without a quorum. This prompted the four councilmembers to adjourn.
The latest move by the council on Tuesday, Jan. 4, reduces the fee to $2,000 to keep the structures through April, payable in monthly installments of $500. The first payment will be due Jan. 15. For streateries that occupy one parking space, the fee is $1,000, payable in monthly installments of $250.
Any streatery operator not willing to pay the permit extension fee must remove their streatery from the right-of-way by 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 15.
Councilmember Kristiana Johnson says it’s only fair that the businesses pay something.
“I’d like to point out that these are not fees, this is rent for the use of the parking spaces,” she said.
But others said the cost hurts small businesses that are just trying to survive the pandemic.
“I believe we’re going beyond a rent and going into a punitive amount with this,” Councilmember Laura Johnson said.
The city will use the money collected from the streatery extension fee to rent parking spaces for the public.
Those against streateries have said they take up too much public parking, and that it’s not fair only certain streets are allowed to have them.
KIRO Newsradio’s Nicole Jennings contributed to this report.
