Fall River supported a few outdoor dining locations during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic but had no permanent ordinances or processes in place for long-term outdoor dining opportunities. Building on the positive reception of CivicMoxie’s Rapid Recovery Program Outdoor Dining/Retail Community Toolkit, Fall River hired CivicMoxie to help expand its outdoor dining program while simplifying the permitting processes and streamlining rules and requirements wherever possible.

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CivicMoxie worked with all the relevant City departments including the building department, public safety, health, transportation and parking, and others. Policies and best practices were discussed and site work helped identify ideal locations for outdoor dining and how these opportunities could serve larger goals centered on business recovery and commercial district health. The final deliverables included streamlining multiple permit applications into a new and more accessible single application, creating a program regulations and application guide to help businesses complete their application as easily as possible, maps of key corridors and potential locations for outdoor seating areas, and recommendations for streamlining the application and site review process.

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Project type:

Community revitalization, corridor / main streets, downtown / district plan, placemaking