Restaurants in the Town of Huntington are getting a little more elbow room. An option for street dining for restaurants to expand their outdoor dining footprint into a road’s shoulder or parking lane - called a “parklet” in a press release - has been approved.
“As outdoor gathering limits expand more rapidly than indoor limits, we are providing flexibility for food establishments that are eligible to safely expand their outdoor dining footprint past the sidewalk into the street with our new Parklet program,” said Huntington Town Supervisor Chad A. Lupinacci.
According to a rendering on the Town’s website, a parklet is an enclosed dining area set off of the restaurant’s sideway in the street. The parklet must be enclosed with plating boxes that are fully filled with soil. Reflective tape must be placed on the surrounding barriers, which must be between 30-36 inches high, and a plastic barrel placed on the outside facing traffic flow. The parklet must be 20 feet from a crosswalk and extend a maximum of 8 feet from the curb.
The Town also announced that it has extended business reopening and recovery measures initially approved in 2020 to 2021, including the approval process for outdoor dining and retail on sidewalks and the ZBA approval process for outdoor dining on private property.
Applications and instructions for restaurants seeking a parklet permit can be found here: https://huntingtonny.gov/reopening#parklet