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Temporary Street Patios in Downtown Chandler Niels Kreipke to: Kim Moyers, John Owens 04/07/2021 10:40 PM Cc: "Mary Murphy Bessler" History: This message has been replied to. Hi Kim and John, This past year has certainly been challenging and especially for hospitality industry. I applaud the City for the forward thinking and help with regards to the on-street patio extensions that did help businesses navigate the horrible impact of the COVID restrictions on the various businesses. The temporary patios provided temporary relief for the additional restaurant seating during the period where there were restrictions on the interior seating capacity. The additional seating opportunities plus all the various local and federal grants plus loan programs helped most establishments weather the storm. Now the City is at the crossroad of deciding next steps and I hope that you consider all aspects when considering an extension. Universally throughout downtown, there is support for extending the temporary patios on a short-term basis of 3-5 months to help businesses for a little while longer. However, there is mixed reviews and serious concerns if the patios were to stay longer. Please consider the following when making this decision: • Seating restrictions have been lifted by the Governor, allowing for 100% normal seating capacity, thereby eliminating the need for extra seating. • Businesses are thriving once again. In fact, most are having record months, which I am confident you can see on the City Tax collections records. • The patio extensions are NOT available to everyone – creating an unfair balance. For example - all the restaurants up and down Arizona Avenue cannot get patio extensions. • Numerous parking spaces that other businesses rely on have been temporarily eliminated and some customers, tenants and property owners are frustrated as a result. • Safety concerns: ◦Potential loss of vehicular control could cause someone to drive into the unsecured patio structure which lack concrete barricade protection. This would be a terrible situation and could devastate downtown Chandlers’ reputation should someone get hurt. ◦Vehicular and pedestrian visibility triangles are blocked in some cases. We have already seen many close accidents as a result. ◦The umbrellas, customers sitting and other patio items are within arms lengths of cars going by and create driver distractions. • None of the extension’s patios meet code: ◦The additional seating does not meet bathroom capacity requirements. ◦The patios lack foundations and structural tie downs. ◦Gas heaters on wood structures present a high risk. ◦The patios lack proper protection from vehicular traffic. • “Free” patios create a significant unfair benefit versus the “permanent” patio owners who endured extensive cost for code requirements when building permanent patios. Most temporary patios expenses were covered by State grants and have skirted all additional building code requirement costs. Here are some examples of businesses who will be hurt by “free” competition of the temporary patios: ◦The Perch is spending $1.6mm to enhance their extensive outdoor patio experiences. To do so, the City code required 4 extra bathrooms, more kitchen space, fire exiting and fire safety Page 1 of 2 5/12/2021 file:///C:/Users/ericab/AppData/Local/Temp/HMVPHOI7.htm equipment, etc., all which add up to a huge cost that the temporary patios have managed to avoid. ◦Craft 64 Woodfired Pizza spent nearly $200k to create their patio space inclusive of the additional City code requirements. ◦The Uncommon and Tipsy Egg are spending nearly $150k for their patio spaces with code requirements including approx. $20k which was paid to expand the sidewalks. ◦The former El Zocalos location is in the process of expanding the patio space and will be getting significant enhancements at a cost nearing $500k inclusive of additional bathrooms and other code requirements. ◦These mentioned above and other permanent patios were planned and committed to prior to the arrival of the “free” temporary patios. These temporary patios take away customers and overall business from those businesses that had invested in the very expensive permanent patios. Again, there is universal support for additional 3-5 months short term help for the downtown businesses via the temporary patios. Additional time beyond the short extension has mixed support at best and frankly creates unfair advantages to those businesses who have gained extra seating and business with minimal to no cost to their businesses. The idea behind the temporary patios was created to help businesses short term through COVID only. Now that businesses can fully open with 100% seating capacity, only a short extension should be considered. I appreciate the temporary help that was offered during the difficulty of navigating the Covid pandemic and want to thank you for those efforts! Please send this to Mayor and Council as part of your package for their consideration. Best, Niels Niels Kreipke 3002 East Washington Street Phoenix, AZ 85034 (O) 480.999.4935 (C) 480.216.1195 www.desert-viking.com CAUTION: This Email is from an EXTERNAL source. Ensure you trust this sender before clicking on any links or attachments. Page 2 of 2 5/12/2021 file:///C:/Users/ericab/AppData/Local/Temp/HMVPHOI7.htm