SNOHOMISH — A petition encouraging City Hall to find a palatable solution for Andy’s Fish House to keep its outdoor tent gained more than 2,700 signatures in less than 24 hours by Friday, and had more than 5,750 signatures at press time Monday.
In August, the city’s new building inspector told eight restaurants that put up temporary outdoor dining structures during the COVID-19 pandemic to promptly dismantle them and go through the permit process to make the structures legal.
The restaurant at First Street and Avenue D had its tent built by a professional engineering firm.
Its owners are asking for a compatible solution to inspect its tent to assess if it already meets code, and if it does then they ask to essentially retroactively produce a permit for it.
The alternative they’re facing is to take the tent down and start from scratch.
In November, the city gave the restaurants the possibility to start a six-month clock to keep the tents over winter on the stipulation their landlords sign a compliance agreement.
The six month deadline now is looming. Andy’s Fish House’s six-month window elapses July 5, the restaurant said.
City Council members have looked through the petition and have mixed feelings.
Council President Tom Merrill said he thinks a sit-down meeting between the restaurant’s owners, city administration and a representative or two from the City Council is in order to hash things out.
Councilwoman Lea Anne Burke essentially is not buying it that a request to give a permit should go through.
There are more issues than just the tent’s purported wind resistance or structural integrity at play, Burke said.
The restaurant’s tent was a temporary structure put up during COVID that now is being asked to be treated as a permanent structure, “and permanent structures in the shoreline fall in a whole other slew of regulations,” she said.
The city’s been conversing with all the remaining businesses affected by having unpermitted tents.
The city has to be fair-handed, she said. “Not enforcing codes on one business when we’ve done it on other businesses is highly inequitable,” Burke said.
Councilwoman Maygen Hetherington said by email that “it is no secret that I am an advocate for our small businesses, especially those in the downtown district. I am not at all surprised by the overwhelming support of the petition,” adding that everyone is looking for a solution.
The petition, at www.change.org/p/save-the-tent-at-andys-fishouse , came out in the early evening of Thursday, April 25.
“We are not trying to burn any bridges with the city,” the petition reads. “We just feel that the city has not considered what we have proposed.”
The outdoor seating is half the restaurant’s dining space, and the cover added during COVID-19 gives cover from rain and sun.
For a time, COVID-19 restrictions pushed all dining to outside. Snohomish gave restaurants with space on their premises the ability to set up tents to facilitate safe dining, and also carved out dining areas in the street to facilitate outdoor dining.
The city issued a statement Saturday that reiterated its position.
“The city issued a state of emergency in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This suspended code enforcement on outdoor seating areas for several years and allowed businesses to add temporary structures for outdoor seating and dining. Temporary structures like these were never intended to be used for commercial purposes, like dining or outdoor seating, because they violate the International Building Code.” The statement was written by city administrator Heather Thomas.
The city replied to a Tribune reporter’s inquiry after deadline about whether it has inspected Andy’s tent.
"The issue is more complex than whether or not the tent has been inspected," city spokeswoman Shari Ireton said by email Monday. "City staff have physically seen the tent on multiple occasions, but an inspection alone does not address outstanding items. Staff have provided the business owners with detailed information on what is needed. The tent as it stands today does not meet International Building Code standards. In fact, a tent of that size and increased occupancy beyond what is allowed with their current Certificate of Occupancy triggers a number of other building code requirements. This has also been shared with the business owners."
Its owners assert the tent already meets safety standards.
The petition’s written material is a copy of a Facebook post by Andy’s Fish House co-owner Bronn Journey. Petition maker Shila Stewart said she decided to take the initiate to make the initiative.
In November nearly six months ago, the city offered agreements to extend the tent removal timeline for six months during the winter. These held the stipulation that the restaurants’ landlords would have to sign a compliance agreement with the city acknowledging the landlord violated permit laws and promising to remedy the issue by a set six-month timeline. This forced one other restaurant owner to drop his tent because he couldn’t get his landlord’s OK.
Four of the eight removed their tents by a Oct. 13 deadline make-or-break to do so.
City gives timeline:
Ireton provided a timeline of the interactions between the city, Andy's Fish House, and Andy's site landlord the American Legion:
Timeline
Updated: A line in this story said the city is conversing with eight businesses. There were eight affected, but some already took their tent down.
