Alexandria's Alfresco Meal Ticket

Revenue-Hungry City Restores Sidewalk Dining

When the weather turns warm, urban planner Jeanette Studley, 29, and her office mates in Old Town love to head outside to dine.

"We do that for lunch as much as we can, to get out of the office and breathe some air," Studley said recently. Eating out "is so much more enjoyable," said Studley, who works for EDAW, an architectural and environmental consulting firm.

So Studley wondered late last year why tables and chairs at her favorite outdoor restaurants were tucked away inside and outdoor dining was discontinued, even on unseasonably warm days.

But now the curbside tables and chairs are back year-round on King Street.

The Alexandria City Council had decided in June to ban outdoor dining from Nov. 16 to March 31 because some restaurants had left their dining sets outside even in wintry conditions, making it hard to plow the streets. Some residents complained that the chairs and tables were obstructing the sidewalks, which are publicly owned, for too many months each year.

Last month, however, the council reversed itself and began permitting restaurants to offer outdoor dining year-round to bring them more business on those fall and spring days that feel more like summer. The council also decided to spend some extra money to brighten the urban landscape by letting the holiday lights strung along trees on King Street twinkle all year long.

City officials took these actions partly in response to findings by Alexandria's Economic Sustainability Work Group, which has been looking for ways to boost the city's revenue in the face of sagging real estate values and a declining economy. The city's meal tax receipts have risen to an estimated $10.7 million this fiscal year from $10.4 million the previous year, partly because of the popularity of outdoor dining, which officials say has drawn customers to the city. The fiscal year ends June 30.

The city's restaurant tax revenue "is one area that is doing better than we anticipated," said Kendel Taylor, a senior budget analyst with the city.

One advocate of year-round outdoor dining is Gregory Leisch, a member of the Economic Sustainability Work Group and chief executive of Delta Associates, an Alexandria-based real estate information firm. Leisch said that to prepare itself for uncertain economic times, the city must do all it can to accentuate its best features.

"You can't have a world-class waterfront without outdoor dining," Leisch said. "It only makes sense to have it year-round. We have 70-degree days in December. We have a climate that is good for it."

Alexandria isn't alone in benefiting from healthy meal tax revenue. Arlington County received $28.7 million in meal tax revenue in 2007, compared with about $22 million one year earlier. County officials expect this year's revenue to reach the 2007 level.

This year's revenue is "where we anticipated it would be," said Mark Schwartz, Arlington's director of management and finance. "We've had fairly healthy growth over three years."