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Our communities are ready to make up for lost time after months of being stuck indoors.
NSW has the perfect climate for outdoor dining, bringing life to our streets and public spaces. Outdoor dining gives people a way to reconnect and socialise while following social distancing rules.
Following a successful outdoor dining trial, we are changing the planning rules to permanently enable pubs and small bars across the state to implement outdoor dining as exempt development.
This means all pubs and small bars can apply to use the footpath and public spaces to serve diners alfresco under exempt development. These changes align pubs and small bars with the existing planning rules for cafes and restaurants.
We are supporting councils and businesses to bounce back by changing the rules for alfresco dining on public and private land – to include parks, registered clubs and open spaces.
Hospitality providers will have an easier application process. Similar to the outdoor dining trial, they will be able to apply to setup alfresco dining as exempt development with landowner’s consent. These temporary measures will run for seven months from now until 18 April 2022.
These temporary measures mean:
Registered clubs are located across the state to readily support more access to safe spaces for people to dine. These measures are part of the NSW Government’s efforts to support businesses and communities recover from the pandemic, as vaccination rates increase.
All sites will be subject to development standards to manage environmental impacts such as hours of operation, patron capacity, safety and waste management.
The changes are supported by equivalent legislative changes prepared by Liquor & Gaming NSW to amend liquor licenced boundaries.
These changes mean that there is no need for a planning approval to have outdoor dining, making it easier, faster and cheaper for businesses to focus on recovering from the pandemic.
All venues must seek landowner or council approval to have outdoor dining. If it's on council land, outdoor dining is considered against the related council's outdoor dining policies and guidelines. Other approvals are also needed under the Roads Act 1993, the Local Government Act 1993 and any changes to liquor licences issued under the Liquor Act 2007.
Consent authorities (usually councils) can approve outdoor dining more quickly and at a lower cost to pub and bar owners. To help speed up the application process, the department has also created an online platform on the planning portal that allow councils to receive an online lodgement for outdoor dining.
To help speed up the application process, the department has created an online lodgement for outdoor dining through the planning portal. The Office of Local Government published Streamlined outdoor dining approvals (PDF, 7.2 MB) to support councils with the outdoor dining approval process during the trial.
The Small Business Commissioner’s Outdoor Dining Policy and User Guide (PDF, 6.7 MB) assists councils with outdoor dining.
We have amended the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008 (Codes SEPP) to make the exempt development pathway for outdoor dining available to small bars and pubs permanently.
Councils or Place Management NSW (the managers of The Rocks and Darling Harbour) will continue to assess applications for outdoor dining against their outdoor dining policies.
They will manage venues under the approvals they grant under the Roads Act 1993 and Local Government Act 1993. These approvals are then fast-tracked to Liquor & Gaming NSW which approve new liquor licence boundaries.
The temporary alfresco measures are a further amendment to the policy to support more safe spaces to dine outdoors.
The amendments support the Premiers Roadmap to recovery and help businesses to operate under the social distancing requirements in the public health orders.
Outdoor Dining trials
In October 2020, the NSW government announced an outdoor dining trial to support local venues and boost the economy.
The trial has run smoothly. Businesses have benefited from increased turnover and the community has enjoyed new outdoor dining areas. During the City of Sydney trial, Darling Harbour businesses saw a 27% increase in customers.
The changes have been embraced by the community and deliver an economic benefit to local businesses.
The trial allowed small bars and pubs to provide outdoor dining on footpaths or public spaces in:
- The Rocks from 16 October 2020
- City of Sydney (except for The Rocks) from 30 October 2020
- State-wide from 1 December 2020.
The department has amended the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008 (Codes SEPP) to allow outdoor dining as exempt development for small bars and pubs in all NSW local government areas.
Image credit: Destination NSW.
The 12-month trial of outdoor dining for Sydney Local Government Area is now underway, with the trial to end on 31 October 2021.
Image credit: City of Sydney
The NSW Government has opened outdoor spaces outside approved food and drink venues for drinking and dining just in time for the summer months with a 12-month trial in The Rocks.
