Outdoor dining fee hike on Plymouth businesses vote fails; heads back to drawing board

FOX 2 (WJBK) - The controversy over outdoor dining in Plymouth went before the city council Monday - restaurant owners say if rates shoot up, they'll have to close their patios.

A vote for the 13-page proposal failed tonight - meaning it will be back to the drawing board.

"Two dollars per square foot subject to change by the City Commission. This is a slight increase," said Plymouth Mayor Nick Moroz.

Plymouth City Commissioners proposed numbers, trying to strike a deal with downtown restaurant owners over city fees for outdoor patio dining.

It’s all to ease tensions after they’ve taking fire for an early proposal to raise those fees by as much as 900 percent.

But in the end, no deal was reached this time.

"I think no deal is better than the wrong deal," said Christine Champness, Plymouth business owner. "So, it gives them more time to flesh it out and not make a rush decision."

The debate has been pretty nasty in recent weeks too.

"We talked to the press because I don’t think we really had any other option to get it out there and let people know,"  said Sam Khashan, Plymouth business owner. By no means did any of us want it to be contentious or any sort of negative emails. I just think some people take it way too far."

Business leaders say the original proposal of going from $1.50 per square foot of patio space to $15 per square foot came out of nowhere.

"We just, like I said, we got blindsided," said Billy Farwell.

Farwell owns the Penn Grill and Bar.

"We got up, got everybody together to tell them our side of the story," he said. "Which was to lower the patio rates and keep them open for the people. Otherwise, we were all together, we were going to close them all down."

He says such a large jump in fees would hurt business after things became good again following the pandemic.

"I lost my key chef. I lost my general manager and my key barmaid because they had to find jobs somewhere else," he said. "And then trying to replace them, it’s hard to get help now."