With the deadline for New York City restaurants to apply for its new permanent outdoor dining program approaching Saturday, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi joined “Mornings On 1” Friday to highlight the enforcement of new rules.

Restaurants with existing roadside seating must submit their applications by Aug. 3. Establishments that do not apply will have to dismantle their outdoor setups or face fines. Permits for curbside and sidewalk seating are priced at $1,050 each for a four-year term, permits for dual seating is set at $2,100, with additional charges based on square footage.

As of Tuesday, the city Department of Transportation reported receiving 1,516 applications, a relatively low number compared to the roughly 12,000 outdoor dining structures that went up during pandemic.

“We've been advertising for a very long time. This is written in the law, decided by Council, that Aug. 3 is the deadline for the shabby sheds. So restaurants know about it. We've been doing a lot of outreach, but we will start summonses on Aug. 4 at 1 a.m.—or 1:01 a.m.,” she said.

The new program bans curbside sheds and requires seating areas to remain open without a roofing structure. It also outlined regulations for size and location, with additional costs for certain neighborhoods and larger structures. Businesses will also have to dismantle and store the structures during the winter months.

“The rules are really common sense. You can gussy up your outdoor dining setup any way you want, but it's got to be clean and uniform,” Joshi said. “And I think New Yorkers said to us and to the press and to everybody, ‘That's what we want, no more shabby sheds.’”

Removing dining sheds will be a last resort, she said.

“We've taken down about 600 that have been abandoned, that have been real eyesores, but really it's a restaurant's responsibility to take down the shed that they have, if they haven't applied,” she said.

Joshi expects the number of applications to increase at the end of the deadline.

“Hundreds and hundreds of restaurants are probably online right now applying. It's the way New York is. We're always socially late to the party. But it's such a success. It was a lifeline for 100,000 workers. We love the outdoor space; we found our sanity in outdoor dining. So, in this new, better version of it, we're going to see it evolve,” she said.

Business owners are critical of the new costs, but Joshi said the program will give more restaurants an opportunity for outdoor dining. For example, prior to the pandemic, only a few restaurants in Manhattan could maintain small sidewalk seating areas, she said.

“It's about $500 a year [for a sidewalk and roadway dining license]. And we're requiring you to follow certain specs, but there's a whole marketplace that's built up now. We have over 20 fabricators that are making these setups, they’ll put them there and they'll store them for you,” Joshi said. “So, there is going to be a cost, but compare that to brick and mortar rent in real estate in New York City. It's a real bargain.”