Hillsborough’s Board of Commissioners made a few changes to the sidewalk seating ordinance at a recent meeting.

According to Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens, these changes were mostly meant to clear up some things that were not made clear in the initial ordinance, such as seating delineators and specifics on outdoor furniture.

“There [weren’t] any major changes, but there were important tweaks,” says Stevens. “A lot of it had to do with the descriptions of the barriers or the delineators, and, again, didn’t change things so much, but clarified.”

Stevens says the board plans to continue meeting with downtown stakeholders, restaurant owners and merchants to see what other ways the town can use their sidewalks to benefit local businesses and downtown life.

“Downtowns are very, very important to the community, so we have this ongoing discussion about what’s the best way to make our downtown vibrant, and to make it prosporous for the businesses that are located there,” says Stevens. “We’re very fortunate we have so many local shops and restaurants.”

Noteworthy changes to the ordinance include:

  • New sidewalk seating delineators must be at least 50 percent transparent.
  • New sidewalk seating delineators can be no more than 4 feet tall to receive approval without a full review by the Historic District Commission.
  • Live plantings are appreciated in the design of the delineators.
  • Patrons should be sitting and not standing within the delineators, and the capacity of the outside seating area is limited to the number of seats provided.
  • Outdoor furniture and delineators should be stored out of the way or pushed up against the building when not in use.
  • The sidewalk seating delineators installed between January and September 2018 are “grandfathered” in.

More information is available at the town’s website.

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