Massachusetts restaurateurs push to extend outdoor dining past March 31 deadline

The Massachusetts Restaurant Association has launched a campaign in which restaurant owners are sending a letter encouraging state lawmakers to extend the state authorization for outdoor dining past next month’s deadline.

If a municipality hasn’t put in permanent outdoor dining regulations by March 31, and no state action is taken, a restaurant would have to get municipal and state approval in order to serve outdoors, said Steve Clark, director of government affairs for the MRA.

“It has brought new vibrancy to different dining areas,” Clark said of outdoor dining. “Most people across the state are supportive of more outdoor dining opportunities. We just need the state authorization to be extended.”

Restaurants with liquor licenses also are slated to lose the ability to sell beer, wine and mixed drinks with takeout and delivery orders on the same date.

If an extension is granted, it will allow municipalities to authorize outdoor dining and restaurants to sell to-go drinks without having to receive approval from the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, Clark said. Pre-pandemic, the outdoor-dining permitting process lasted at least four months, he said.

State lawmakers have proposed a bill that would extend the authorization until April 1, 2024, which the MRA supports and would be similar to last year’s statewide renewal.

Municipalities are scrambling to come up with their own rules as they are waiting for state action, said Greg Reibman, president of the Charles River Regional Chamber which serves Newton, Needham, Watertown and Wellesley.

“State action would make that so much easier,” Reibman said.

This is the time of the year when restaurants start planning for outdoor dining, designing their outdoor menu and getting furniture ready, he said, underscoring the need for the state to make a final say sooner than later.

Newton City Council will soon be voting whether seasonal outdoor dining becomes permanent, while Needham approved a zoning change in 2021 to allow outdoor dining in public parking spaces.

In Boston, officials are evaluating a permanent program process and taking steps to streamline it. The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services is holding a meeting Thursday on updates on on-street dining in the North End, the neighborhood where restaurateurs fought a specialized outdoor dining fee last year.

In the past, various city departments were part of the outdoor-dining permitting process, such as fire, inspectional services, public works and the disability commission, said Lesley Delaney Hawkins, former executive secretary of the Boston Licensing Board.

“It really was a lengthy process,” she said. “That’s why Boston is trying to move towards a streamlined process where they are also providing technical support, grants, examples of applications so it’s not that everybody is starting from scratch.”