Vancouver pandemic patio bylaw amended: ‘More patios make for a more enjoyable city’

If you are looking forward to patio season in Vancouver, it seems your table will soon be ready.

City council has voted to amend the patio bylaw, making it “permanently easier for storefront businesses to activate their outdoor spaces,” according to Mayor Ken Sim.

“More patios make for a more enjoyable city,” he wrote in a tweet Tuesday. “This decision will make our city a more vibrant place to live while helping Vancouver’s small businesses succeed.”

More patios make for a more enjoyable city.

Today, Council voted to make it permanently easier for storefront businesses to activate their outdoor spaces.

This decision will make our city a more vibrant place to live while helping Vancouver’s small businesses succeed.#vanpoli https://t.co/CvbHMhTUDm

— Mayor Ken Sim (@KenSimCity) March 7, 2023

The sometimes-improvised outdoor spaces were brought in on a temporary basis in 2020, filling spaces in parking lots and walkways with a lot of plywood, plastic sheeting, and propane heaters to allow establishments to welcome more customers during COVID-19 restrictions, and to give people the chance to dine out and socialize.

We’ve heard from businesses about how these extra spaces helped keep many financially afloat over the past three years, and we are hearing from people excited the city’s developing patio culture won’t be clawed back.

“It’s really exciting, I mean we have such nice weather by the coast,” said one patio patron at a coffee shop on Broadway, enjoying Monday’s winter sunshine.

“I’ve loved seeing these patios come up,” said another. “If you go most other places in the world, especially Europe and I know Montreal has a huge patio culture,” he told CityNews.

“I think one of the biggest things Vancouver lacks is community. I think people are still skittish, so, having the ability to have more things like this, I’m super for it.”

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Also enjoying the sun, the manager of a restaurant in Kitsilano told CityNews the temporary patio bylaw offered a lifeline to establishments hit hard by pandemic restrictions.

“We built one of the first patios at Fourth and Macdonald,” said Josh. “We opened it up when inside seating had to be at 50 per cent capacity and we had to build partitions. Having a patio, especially in Kitsilano when a lot of restaurants shut down, the community really needed it. It definitely hiked up our business from virtually nothing to actually having enough money to employ staff.”

He believes allowing these patios to become permanent will continue to make a big difference, post-restrictions.

Vancouver’s pandemic patios were originally only to be allowed until March 31 of the following year. Vancouver city council’s Tuesday vote to amend and enact the new patio bylaw comes after a public hearing and resolution in February.