Council Loosens New Restrictions on Streateries, Extends but Limits Temporary Youth Curfew Timeline

Sometimes, history’s darkest moments can offer up a glimmer of hope, or a tiny silver lining. During the deadly Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, in an effort to reduce crowding (and therefore disease transmission) on public transit, DC Commissioner Louis Brownlow ordered federal government workers to work staggered shifts. Not only did this allow for more of what we would now call social distancing on transit, but it also reduced traffic. These pandemic-era staggered shifts were made permanent, and remain an incentive to join the federal workforce to this day.

Similarly, the curbside semi-enclosed dining structures known as streateries may have been created to throw a financial lifeline to District businesses during the COVID pandemic, but they have stood the test of time and provide ongoing economic stimulus to restaurants, quality-of-life improvements to diners, and vitality to surrounding neighborhoods. However, the streatery, born out of necessity and innovated with urgency, has proven complicated to provide regulatory structure for as a permanent urban amenity.

In its second-to-last Legislative Meeting of 2025, the Council took action to find a better balance regarding how this earlier innovation could be best integrated into the District’s long-term regulatory structure and business environment. Like any government regulatory or legislative action, setting the long-term standards for streateries is a complicated balancing act—taking into account factors such as customer comfort, traffic safety, driver visibility, restaurants’ budgets, comparative public space rental fees, lost parking spaces, foregone parking revenue, urban design, aesthetics, weather, quality of life, and even potential rodent harborage.

Permanent streatery guidelines detailing which businesses could apply for streateries, where they could go, and what they could look like were proposed by the District Department of Transportation and approved by the District’s Public Space Committee a year ago. But with the final rulemaking lagging, and all temporary streatery permits scheduled to expire on November 30, many restaurants responded by preemptively dismantling their existing streatery structures.

The emergency legislation passed by the Council at its most recent meeting attempted to retain the principles motivating the proposed streatery guidelines while softening any perceived negative impacts and facilitating their implementation by businesses. First, on a philosophical level, the bill states that is is the policy of the District government to support streateries as an institution. The bill instructs the Public Space Committee to use its discretion on issues such as the minimum distance between streateries and adjacent features such as curb cuts, trees, etc. Discretion is also urged regarding design issues such as a ban on enclosures or supports exceeding 42 inches in height. Via an amendment offered during the Legislative Meeting, any exceptions granted using the above discretion must be reapproved, via an application for renewal by the Public Space Committee every two years.

The bill sets a firm date of January 15, 2026 as the earliest any enforcement measures regarding streateries can begin. And in an effort at compromise, the bill splits the difference between the originally proposed $20/square foot public space rental fee in the earlier streatery guidelines and the current $10/square foot fee for enclosed sidewalk cafes.

Additionally, via amendment, the bill requires Adams Morgan’s 18^th Street corridor be included as one of the mandatory target areas where earlier Council legislation, the Public Life and Activity Zones Amendment Act, facilitates savvy activation of pedestrian zones in our roadways.

On a related front, the Council passed, on the first of two necessary votes, permanent legislation requiring any businesses seeking to serve beer, wine, or spirits in a streatery space to obtain a license endorsement from the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Board. An emergency version of the same legislation was also approved to ensure no gap in the bill’s applicability pending final enactment of the permanent legislation.

Juvenile Curfew

Finally, the Council passed on the second of two required votes temporary legislation that simultaneously extends and limits the youth curfew changes passed twice previously by the Council. That prior legislation extends the capacity to create short-term, geographically-defined curfew zones, for cause, that apply to groups of more than eight youth. It also expands the generalized youth curfew to apply to all youth under eighteen years old (previously it had been seventeen year-olds), and standardizes the curfew start time to 11PM, seven days a week, twelve months a year (previously, it was midnight on certain nights in certain months).

In a designed compromise, despite extending these curfew expansions, the bill also limits them in certain ways. While the temporary curfew extension bill passed at the prior Legislative Meeting limited cumulative short-term, geographically-defined youth group curfew zones declared by the chief of police to thirty total days, that prior bill placed no similar limit on cumulative such curfews when they are declared instead by the mayor. The second version of the temporary bill as passed at the most recent Legislative Meeting brings consistency to the cumulative limit, capping it at thirty days regardless of which official, the chief or the mayor, declares it.

An additional limit to the extended curfew came in the form of a deliberate sunset date. Generally, when the Council passes temporary legislation, once those bills go into effect (after mayoral review and Congressional layover), they remain in effect for 225 days. Those 225 days, combined with the time needed for mayoral review and Congressional layover, could arguably have extended the applicability of the curfew extensions until the end of calendar year 2026.

However, the revised language of the bill as passed on the second vote added a sunset date of April 15, 2026 to the measure. This was done to address criticisms that when government approaches to youth policy are limited to prescriptive measures such as curfews, rather than proactive investments and alternatives, they are less effective. By sunsetting the temporary legislation during the early days of the next budget cycle, this will provide the Council with an opportunity to await and evaluate the scope and quality of other youth strategies included in the mayor’s budget proposal prior to any determination regarding whether the expanded youth curfews should be further extended.

Porchfest

One further emergency and temporary measure passed at the most recent Legislative Meeting declares that during Porchfests or other “distributed neighborhood festivals,” block party permits should not be declined simply because they are seemingly filed to coincide with such celebrations. As long as the music itself is being played on private property, and as long as attendees are not charged admission, block party permits on the same date and in adjacent space cannot be declined simply because of the synchronicity of time and place with Porchfest. A permanent version of the Porchfest bill, as well as a public hearing on the measure, is anticipated, but given that permitting for spring Porchfest events is already underway, expedited action in the form of emergency and temporary legislation was required.

The Council’s next Legislative Meeting will be held on December 16.