The city of Richmond strongly supports sidewalk cafés. The Sidewalk Café is located adjacent to food or beverages services. The city of Richmond supports the Sidewalk Cafes by adopting the guidelines of the city Code Ordinances that approves the establishment the sidewalk cafes. The cafes occupy the public sidewalk and are lively during the business hours of the next food and beverages services. The sidewalk will be installed with the barriers if the Restaurant is served with alcohol as required by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for safety purposes (Izumiyama, 2016) .
The design and guidelines of the sidewalk café were adopted by Richmond resolution of the city planning commission back in November 2012. The instructions were expected to be amended with time. The vision of the sidewalk café plan is to enhance public space and motivate city and regional residents to patronize Richmond eating establishment, contributing to vibrant city culture by making Richmond streets more dynamic places to walk, socialize and dine. Streets and sidewalks are the public property, and the food and beverages café owners offering the sidewalk café shall comply with all guidelines and regulations in accordance with Code ordinance.
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The sidewalk cafe exists in different states and standards. An enclosed non- standard is a unique standard of the sidewalk café which has specific materials and color with details that conform to the rules. Non-enclosed sidewalk café is another official establishment that is strictly defined for the appropriate means. The sidewalk and marks may be used to determine the way. Also, there is a round enclosure sidewalk which is installed with rails to control the pedestrians’ movements and population.
There are primary concerns about the plan of the sidewalk cafes. For instance, space concern is a common issue. A sidewalk café must be a minimum of 100 feet of and fronting along the same street as the property as required by residential Zoning District. Some street may lack this kind of space hence not complying with the sidewalk standards. Another concern is the conflicts between the café owners and manager with the neighboring businesses. The sidewalk café should not in any way obstruct the visibility and accessibility of the neighboring business. The sidewalk café must adjust to the layout of the plan comply with the standards, and in this case, it may raise concern due to the availability of the space.
The application is the first step in securing a permit to run a sidewalk café. Dimensioned and scaled plans, graphic representation, photographs along with other essential materials have to be submitted with the application. The plan should be accurate and must be drawn clearly; an operator can look for professional help in preparing the document. The sidewalk café includes the barriers, chairs, tables, shades, heat lamps, menu displays, access points, and planter. The barriers should extend for a minimum of 3 feet into the public right-of-way and it removable and in good condition, and its access points should be controlled by restaurant establishment, and it should be located along the parallel or front edge of the barrier. The access points should measure not less than 44inches and clear from other materials. Furniture should be clean and free from corrosion, fading and with permitted color. All these factors should not interfere with the neighborhood. The umbrellas must be limited to confined sidewalk café area, and it should be 7 to 10 feet when open with canopy shape (Sousa, 2017) .
Implementing a plan is not always easy since it requires critical planning involving all the involved parties that have an interest in a specific venture. For instance, starting the cafes will not an easy way to go since various organs or bodies must be fully satisfied. Hence, a step to implement the Sidewalk Cafés will commence by applying for the procedure from the required bodies or agencies. The next step will call for the management to analyze the existing sidewalk in Richmond. The location layout is another step which implies that the café should be situated at a favorable location. If all the required procedure for implementation is followed, the plan will be successful. However, the permit for the implementation of sidewalk cases is always only valid from 1 st April to 31 st March of the subsequent calendar year. Once the city's governance has permitted a sidewalk, it will not be transferred to another operator; the permit can be renewed on a yearly basis to the operator, and the owner of a café filling has to fill and sign the Sidewalk Café Renewal Form dully as well as remitting the payment of the yearly renewal fee of $100.00 by 15 th March. This is just but one of the compliances that a café operator must conform to so that they stay with the governance’s stipulations.
References
Izumiyama, R. (2016). The Activity Evaluation Method of Public Space by the Human Oriented Perspective. Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of All) , 2763-2773.
Sousa, N. (2017). Sidewalk Infrastructure Assessment Using a Multicriteria Methodology for Maintenance Planning. Journal of Infracture Systems .
