An outdoor patio has been set up at Shorty’s Casual Cuisine, 554 W. Central Ave., not long after City Council approved the permit earlier in the week.
“It’s a small, about 400 square-foot temporary outdoor patio,” said city Planning Director David Efland at the council meeting Monday. “Part of the issue involved here is making sure that the patio doesn’t extend beyond these parking lines.”
The patio occupies two parking spaces in the front of the business. It would be open from March into November, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The 1.1-acre property, across from Grady Memorial Hospital, is zoned as a community business district.
“The site has more than sufficient parking to absorb the loss of two parking spaces,” states a city staff report to council.
There would be no speakers or outdoor music, but tables and overhead string lighting would be placed inside the five-foot tall wooden split-rail fence, with the posts cemented in concrete buckets, and surrounded by six-foot tall potted bushes. Staff recommended placing parking blocks in front of the fence to provide a barrier between it and the parking lot.
“This is really a temporary trial for them (the applicant),” Efland said. “They’ve been approached by patrons and sports teams to have an outdoor space like this. They want to see how this goes, and potentially make it more permanent.”
The new owners of Shorty’s said they wanted to extend their state liquor permit to the patio.
In other business, council approved:
• A liquor permit transfer at Ohio Wesleyan University. Catering/food service provider Compass Group USA Inc. sought to transfer the permit from Selby Stadium back to the Hamilton-Williams Student Center due to the Ohio Machine professional lacrosse team’s move from OWU to Ohio Dominican University.
• An agreement with Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown. “This will allow us to work with the university on a project involving data-sharing between law enforcement and mental health agencies,” Police Chief Bruce Pijanowski said. The city is being reimbursed $3,000 for participating in the study, which Pijanowski said will be given to the Delaware-Morrow Mental Health and Recovery Services Board. “They can use it to fund more mental health training for law enforcement across the county,” he said. “They are the primary sponsor of our crisis intervention training that we try to have every one of our officers go to.”