Should Radnor Expand Outdoor Dining?

Radnor Township may expand the number of restaurants allowed to have outdoor dining.

A subcommittee held a discussion on outdoor dining last week and directed township staff to propose broad allowances but protections for bordering neighborhoods.

(Watch the discussion on outdoor dining in the video section of this article.)

Outdoor dining is allowed in the Wayne Business Overlay District in downtown Wayne.

Existing zoning on outdoor dining is inconsistent across six zoning districts in the township, says John Rice, township solicitor.

In zones Commercial 1 and Commercial 2, which straddle parts of Lancaster Avenue and Conestoga Road (see a map in the pdf section of this article), outdoor dining is explicitly prohibited.

But restaurants like the want in on the outdoor dining.

But Hogfish, like many of the properties in those districts, backs up to residential properties. The commissioners on the subcommittee — Don Curley, John Fisher and Jim Higgins — expressed the need to keep those neighborhoods protected

“People love it, it brings life to the town. I don’t know of any bad instances that come of it,” said Chris Todd, owner of in Wayne, of outdoor dining.

Todd said that they were “berated” by customers who wanted to eat outdoors during the mild month of March.

Todd would like to have the outdoor dining “season” expanded (currently it’s April 1 to September 30), and the 10 p.m. curfew on outdoor dining removed.

“A lot of people say ‘Where are we? What year is this?’,” Todd told the subcommittee of the restrictions.

Changes that may come to outdoor dining:

• The restrictions of when people can dine outdoors may be lifted, following a very mild winter in which people wanted to dine outdoors.

• Amplified music may be prohibited in outdoor dining areas in certain zoning districts

• Some extra parking may be required for outdoor seats in certain zoning districts