Tiburon moves to make sidewalk dining permanent

Diners share drinks on the sidewalk outside the Caviar Co. on lower Main Street in downtown Tiburon during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. The Town Council on June 17 advanced a permanent ordinance that would let restaurants serve customers on town-owned sidewalks, formalizing outdoor dining that began under temporary permits during the pandemic. (Elliot Karlan archive / For The Ark 2021)

More than two years after it set out to formalize sidewalk dining, Tiburon has advanced permanent rules that would let restaurants serve diners on town-owned sidewalks.

The Town Council voted unanimously June 17 to advance the rules, though the council must adopt the ordinance on a second reading at its Aug. 5 meeting. The new rules would take effect 30 days later, on Sept. 4.

The ordinance allows sidewalk dining in front of restaurants and other food services along lower Main Street and in areas zoned for mixed use. Dining areas cannot extend beyond a building’s frontage, though neighboring businesses can share fixtures on a case-by-case basis.

“What I think we have is a very clean, simple ordinance that essentially does what the town needs to do in terms of reasserting control over its property and ensuring safety,” said Mayor Jon Welner, who served on a subcommittee that worked on the ordinance, “while at the same time being extremely generous and encouraging of restaurants to have sidewalk dining.”

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