The makeshift structures will be allowed to remain in place until July, according to Department of Transportation’s Open Restaurants Program director Julie Schipper, who said a more thorough application process would be enacted that would do away with “these full houses … in the street.”

The sheds have been hailed by some as a potential pathway to an Open Streets initiative proposed by the previous mayoral administration that would remake much of Manhattan’s grid-like layout into a car-free pedestrian zone. Others have been vehemently opposed to their existence, complaining that their presence in neighborhoods like the Lower East Side has led to increases in rodent infestation, street crime, and a lack of accessibility. 

“While we’ve created a program for restaurants, we haven’t created a program for the shoe store next door, for the bookstore next door to that, to the hardware store that have all lost sidewalk space, that have all lost parking spots, that have all lost the attraction of a block to people wanting to shop there because it is now chaotic and anarchist,” Councilman Kalman Yeger said at a hearing held last week, adding that their proprietors “have been able to increase the size of their space, not pay real property taxes on it, not pay rent on it, and have the ability to get free space courtesy of New York City.”

A vote on a new permanent bill is expected before the end of the year.