Citing a nearly 50 per cent drop in business during the summer, the owner of MacLaren’s pub is asking the city to let him put in a patio along MacLaren Street.
Yesterday, the city’s transportation committee agreed to examine the request and asked for a complete review of Ottawa’s encroachment bylaw, based on the procedural and administrative confusion exemplified by MacLaren’s request.
This is not the first time MacLaren’s has asked to set up a patio.
Bar owner Brian Karam said he’s been trying to have it set up since the late 1980s.
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes said residents living in the area are reluctant to see another patio, since they already deal with a lot of noise made by bar patrons late at night.
Karam said patio noise would not be a concern as he said the patio would close nightly at 11 p.m. and there would be no amplified sound coming from the outdoor area.
