Dunedin business pushes back against outdoor dining ordinance

DUNEDIN, Fla. — A Dunedin business owner is urging the city to change its rules for outdoor dining.

George Courtney, who owns Reboot Arcade & Bar on Scotland Street, created a petition calling for outdoor dining areas to be allowed to stay open past 11 p.m. that’s collected thousands of signatures in the past two weeks. He said he’s also seen a lot of support from the community.

“We’ve had most of our patrons, some of them live downtown, a lot of them live close by, and many of the businesses downtown are really worried that if this doesn’t pass and the ‘vacate’ isn’t taken out, then it’s going to detrimentally impact it,” Courtney said.

Courtney was referring to an amendment to the outdoor dining ordinance expected to be discussed by Dunedin’s local planning agency later this month. According to Dunedin Director of Communications Sue Burness, the current ordinance passed in 2011 and states that outdoor dining areas must be vacated by 11 p.m., Sunday through Thursday and by midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. 

“We had no idea that this verbiage was in any part of the ordinance,” Courtney said.

While Reboot Arcade & Bar has been open for nearly six years, Courtney said the first time the city contacted him about its outdoor seating was a few weeks ago.

“We started getting messages from the city saying, like, ‘Hey, neighbors kind of want the place to close down a little earlier. What can you do about it?’ And we made a lot of concessions,” he said.

Reboot Arcade & Bar closes at 3 a.m., but Courtney said the outdoor area has closed at 11 p.m. for the past two weeks.

“It basically makes it difficult if we have patrons that have dogs or they want to smoke because it’s a no smoking establishment,” Courtney said.

Burness provided Spectrum Bay News 9 with a copy of the outdoor dining permit Courtney signed that does state the vacate times for outdoor areas. Courtney said that was never previously enforced.

As of Monday evening, Courtney’s petition on Change.org had nearly 3,400 signatures.

“What we want is for them to understand that this affects not just us, but every business outside, whether they’re a bar or restaurant, that has seats outside,” Courtney said.

According to Burness, 25 city businesses have the outdoor permit, including 15 downtown. 

Talks among the city, residents, and businesses regarding outdoor dining and noise complaints began two years ago as part of the Business Resident City Task Force, Burness said. Those talks are what she said led to the proposed amendment, which would remove the vacate times but make businesses responsible for complying with the city’s noise ordinance. She said that states noise should never exceed a weighted 65 decibels measured at the property line. 

“I feel like the ordinance, the sound ordinance that’s in place, is good enough because we could still get in trouble if we’re too loud,” Courtney said.

The local planning agency meeting where the ordinance amendment is expected to be discussed is scheduled for July 22 at 6 p.m.