Bedford Looks to Add Cafés to Diners' Choices

Bedford's bakeries, delis and other retailers of food normally sold for home consumption could soon be inviting customers to nosh on-premises as well.

Recommended revisions to town zoning regulations, approved by the planning board Tuesday and sent on to the town board, add a café classification to the town code's roster of permitted food uses.

"We want to be prepared for modern [eating-area] requests that have been coming in," the planning board chairman, Donald Coe, said Tuesday as members took up the café issue. 

Under the café classification, an ice cream retailer, let's say, could continue to sell those half-gallon containers, bound principally for home freezers. But the proposed changes would permit an enterprising entrepreneur to sell by the scoop as well, with sprinkles, and seat as many as 20 customers. The new rules would limit tables and chairs to a maximum area of 450 square feet, equivalent to the space of an 18 x 25-foot room. In addition to ice cream outlets, the new code would include delis, bakeries and coffee shops.

In addition to seating customers inside the retail outlet, cafés could also provide al fresco dining, with outdoor seating "permitted seasonally" by the planning board. The proposed revisions also provide the outdoor seating for restaurants, both regular and fast-food, all subject to planning board review.

The proposed code revision would tailor the parking requirements in Central Business and Neighborhood Business zoning districts to accommodate cafés. It would allow waivers for cafés, subject to strict conditions, of up to half the usual off-street parking requirements.

Among the conditions are possible studies to ensure "the adequacy of parking in the area," assurance that the waiver squares with Bedford's comprehensive plan and a determination that the waiver "will not significantly affect the use and availability of parking spaces in the immediate area [of the café]."

"In granting a parking waiver," another code provision spells out, "the planning board may restrict the hours of operation of the proposed use."

Under the revision, any "business enterprise" that sells food and beverages at retail, either as its primary pursuit or in relation to other merchandise, could qualify as a café. Its customer service area could not exceed the 450-square-foot limitation and it must derive a "substantial portion" of its sales revenue from stand-up service for on- and off-premises consumption.

As Bedford's legislative body, the town board must still consider the matter before approving any final language or adopting revisions to the town code.