Traverse City commissioners will consider approving a lease agreement with The Workshop Brewing Company for outdoor dining purposes at their 7pm meeting tonight (Monday) at the Governmental Center.

Workshop is hoping to use city-owned land directly north of its Garland Street property for additional outdoor dining tables, leaving a seven-foot pathway open for pedestrian travel. The lease would allow Workshop to place an additional seven tables on public space adjacent to an existing 20 twenty tables on its private property, accommodating close to 70 people total. The arrangement would be similar to that of other downtown establishments that have contracted to use vacant city land next to their businesses for dining, including Sparks BBQ and J&S Hamburg.

Workshop would pay $520 annually for access to approximately 628 square feet of city land and would have to follow the rules of the city's sidewalk cafe ordinance on the parcel. While Workshop owner Peter Kirkwood requested permission to serve alcoholic beverages until midnight on the parcel - as he can do on the brewery's private outdoor patio - city staff are recommending the lease agreement require a 11pm cutoff for serving on the city property. An 11pm cutoff is already required for other sidewalk cafe operators under the city's ordinance. "In speaking with the police chief, the later the dynamics of public alcohol consumption (occurring) adjacent to a public street continue, the more problematic it becomes," City Clerk Benjamin Marentette wrote in a memo to commissioners.

Commissioners tonight will also hear the 2016 annual report for the City Clerk and City Engineering offices, and consider establishing an ad hoc committee to make a recommendation for an appointment to the city's board of zoning appeals.