North End Restaurant Owners Face Additional $7,500 Outdoor Dining Fee

BOSTON (CBS) -- North End restaurant owners are outraged by some expensive new changes coming to outdoor dining in their neighborhood this year.

The biggest will be a $7,500 fee they'll have to pay in order to opt-in for outdoor dining. This comes on top of parking fees they already have to pay.

The permit fee is set to go toward North End-specific needs like cleaning streets and sidewalks.

Modern Pastry owner John Picariello said he will be thinking twice before signing up this year.

"I've participated the last two years, we had beautiful stands, we did what the city wanted from us, this is sort of a surprise," Picariello said.

"My averages aren't like restaurants," he added. "I don't know if it'll work for me."

Other changes announced during Thursday's community meeting include a shorter outdoor dining season. North End customers won't be able to eat outside until May 1, which is a month later than the rest of the city. The season will end in September, instead of December with the other Boston neighborhoods.

Outdoor dining will also wrap up earlier, at 10 or 11 p.m. instead of 10:30 or 11:30 p.m..

Hanover Street between Cross and Richmond Street will only be open for one-way traffic.

"If we're going to do the cafes outside we should have one-ways," said North End resident Matthew Black. "It's a good trade off because hopefully there'll be extra police and cleanups are expensive."

"As long as the city and the neighborhood continue to be thoughtful about how it brings in tourism and also affects our residents I'm all for it," resident Valeria Filiberto said.

The city said 130 resident parking spots that will be knocked out by patios will be replaced through agreements with local garages.