Outside dining options to cost Milan businesses more this year

The dining area outside Milan’s coffee shop The Owl:  Morning ‘til Night has become some of the most expensive rental property per square foot in the city, according to the owner. 

This shift comes after the Milan Downtown Development Authority (DDA) increased the cost to rent a parking spot for patio use by 600 percent.

The city first began allowing restaurants to convert parking spaces into outdoor dining in 2020, as a way to help businesses during the pandemic. 

Until this year, the DDA kept rates at $150 per parking spot for the entire six-month season, along with a $150 registration fee and a $1,000 refundable deposit. The below-market rate was intentional, recalls the former Milan Main Street director Jill Tewsley, acknowledging the economic challenges businesses faced at the time.

Mutual support

Looking back, Owl owner Ryan Wilman recalls the deep gratitude he felt toward the city and DDA for the parklet program. He said he invested about $10,000—both in funding and hands-on effort—to create an inviting parklet, complete with flower baskets and carefully crafted seating. 

Over the years, his customers have enjoyed sitting in the patio while watching downtown events, including Third Thursdays and Live From Tolan Square. He said they are close enough to Tolan Square to enjoy the music, but far enough away to enjoy evening conversation.

Placemaking

Tewsley first learned about parklets from a Main Street conference she attended in 2017, but says the pandemic gave the idea momentum.

The idea is to reimagine the uses of spaces in downtown areas to make them more accessible to people. The Downtown Milan Parklet Manuel refers to the concept as placemaking—an idea coined by an organization called the Project for Public Spaces. Groups nationwide, including Michigan’s Ford Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation, have worked with the Project for Public Spaces for community making. Notable projects in Michigan have included Detroit’s Campus Martius Park and the Flint Farmers Market.

Cities small and large nationwide have used parklets to attract new visitors, boost the economy, improve perceptions, increase property values and encourage longer stays, Tewsley said. When visitors linger outside, research indicates it results in more sales for surrounding businesses, too. As the organization states:

“If you plan for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places you get people and places.”

Competing priorities

Executive Director of the DDA Jes Meingasner said the outside eating spaces create an energy important for the downtown’s vitality. 

However, she said the DDA revised their policy after hearing some concerns—including from Councilman David Snyder who at the April 2024 city council meeting said he had tenants who felt the lost street parking hurt their businesses. At that meeting, council members—including Snyder—stated that they felt like the city had extensive parking behind buildings and nearby for those who wanted to walk a little and that they supported parklets.

Snyder told The Sun Times News he values parklets ability to draw in extra customers and strengthen the downtown business district. However, he said for certain types of businesses where people just want to stop in for 15 minutes and grab an item, the lack of close street parking can deter customers. He likes the new policy.

“I think that the DDA to downtown Milan has gotten the parklets to a compromise place that works pretty well,” Snyder said.

Rentals

Rates are now $150 per month per spot, in addition to the $150 registration fee and $1,000 deposit.

Despite the change in costs, which Meingasner said were based on rates collected from other communities, the same two businesses as last year will be renting parking spots.

Wilman rented two spots for the full six months, though at first the change from a $300 to a $1,800 rental fee led him to re-evaluate. However, he said he’s out more than $10,000 on the costs he’s put into the outdoor patio he’s created called the Perch, and to be honest, he says he’s grateful for the opportunity to have his patio at all.

“Every year I invest a little bit more. I don’t want it to be a sunk cost,” he said.

Last year Peppers Mexican Grill had three spots, but under the new policy the maximum is two, which will require the business to change its patio. In addition, Peppers will end its rental season two months sooner this year, Meingasner said. Peppers did not return requests for comment.

Different perspectives

Rita Gordon, owner of Pink Shamrocks, joined the DDA Board in January. 

“I really like the parklets. I think they act like a third place in downtown Milan,” Gordon said. “I think they enhance our downtown business district because the patrons will get their meal or drink and go into all of the stores.”

Still, she likes that the increased fees benefit the DDA, and provide money for needed improvements like benches and recycling bins downtown.

“I know it’s a lot, but it’s not like it’s disappearing,” she said.

Joe Pusta, owner of Lavendar Lane, is also on the DDA Board. He too values the outside dining areas, though he said they are not an option for his business due to the handicapped parking out front. Still, he said raising the costs helps balance competing community voices.

“It forces the business to be more cost effective and months of the year when it’s not profitable it becomes a parking space,” Pusta said.

As for the Owl and Peppers, the city council approved their parklet permits at the higher rate at the April 15 city council meeting, and their patios should be up the beginning of May.