Outdoor Dining Clarification Considered By Trustees

Northport Village trustees are considering a clarification to ensure that rooftop dining does not fall under the village’s legal definition of permitted outdoor dining, trustee Henry Tobin said.

A public hearing on the proposed change is scheduled for March 7.

“Rooftop dining was never included in the law and so this is to clarify what the situation has been since outdoor dining was initiated approximately 16 years ago,” Tobin said. “It’s always been in the law because it was never permitted and so this is making sure people realize that it is not permitted.”

The original village code permits outdoor dining for restaurants and deli-style businesses in certain “districts,” such as the downtown business district that stretches east from Northport Harbor down Main Street to the intersection of Church Street and Ocean Avenue, and including portions of Bayview, Woodbine and Scudder avenues.

The village board’s proposal would amend the law to state that no restaurant, tavern or bar in central business districts A and B, and highway business district “shall be permitted to have outdoor dining or serve beverages including alcohol and the rooftop or roof of its building.”

Tobin said village officials never intended for the law to apply to rooftops. “It was always going to be essentially street level, or not on top of building structures, because there was concern about crowding, noise and over-intensification of services.”

Tobin claimed that the proposed amendment is not directly linked to a specific business.

However, the Northport Village is currently in the midst of a lawsuit with Marie and Paul Gallowitsch, owners of Skipper’s Pub, who were denied when they approached the village with plans to add rooftop dining to their Main Street pub.

The Gallowitschs announced in July 2015 their plans for the $400,000 project that would have added 109 rooftop seats and a 2,750-square-foot bar to the 34 Main St. pub. That application was rejected in November 2015, however, leading the Gallowitschs to file the lawsuit against the Village of Northport and its Zoning Board of Appeals.

Northport Village Attorney Stuart Besen said on Wednesday that the suit is pending before the Suffolk County Supreme Court.

The public hearing to amended outdoor dining will be held on March 7 at Northport Village Hall, and will begin at 6 p.m.

-LAW