Naples City Council has proposed new outdoor dining restrictions

The city council has proposed new Outdoor Dining restrictions. Skip Quillen a 5th avenue merchant and owner of Culinary Concepts, which operates Chops City Grill, Pazzo! Cucina Italiana and Yabba Island Grill on Fifth Avenue South, is in the Naples Daily News that he told the Planning Advisory Board he’d seen the city make a lot of good decisions over the years, but this wouldn’t count as one of them.
The new proposal would require restaurants on Fifth Avenue to provide a minimum of three off-street parking spaces on-site for “each 1,000 square feet of outdoor dining in use” – or pay for the same number of parking spots in a public garage
“This is a really bad idea,” he said. “We have something that is working.”
Restaurants, he said, make 5 cents on the dollar and buying parking spots in a city garage would make turning a profit even more difficult for owners.
City staff estimated the one-time cost of one garage space at almost $40,000.
To pay for three spots, at a cost of about $120,000, Quillen estimated he’d have to bring in $2.4 million to break even according to a recent post from 5th Ave South Facebook page
“You’re looking at maybe anywhere from 15 to 20 to 30 chairs. That’s going to take many, many, many years to get back,” he said.
He criticized Council for seeking such changes with little notice. Especially at this time, when businesses are recovering from Hurricane Ian, facing worker shortages, dealing with increased food and labor costs, and coming off a “poor season” impacted by bad weather and red tide, he said.
“It’s a fragile environment,” Quillen said.
He said City Council has reached a “fork in the road” and if it makes the wrong decision there’s no going back, with dire consequences that will impact future development.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Quillen said. “It doesn’t solve anything.”
That’s because the proposed ordinance wouldn’t create more parking, he said.
Other restaurant owners on Fifth Avenue spoke in opposition at the hearing, sharing similar sentiments.
Business owners and landlords criticized the lack of details in the ordinance, including no mention of whether restaurants that already have outdoor dining would have to comply with the new rules, or whether they would be exempt – or “grandfathered in” – and how smaller eateries with less than 1,000 square feet would be treated.