New Braunfels, TX Special Events & Permits: Outdoor Heater Rules (2026)

Heaters sit inside the furniture-and-fixtures design rules for downtown sidewalk cafes in Sec. 3. Most furniture beyond tables, chairs and umbrellas is banned outright there, listing serving stations, bar counters, shelves, racks, sofas, televisions and trash receptacles as examples of what cannot go in a permitted cafe area. B allows them only on a case-by-case basis, and only with the approval of both the fire marshal and the downtown development coordinator, folding a fire-safety review into what is otherwise a downtown-appearance permit. The same furniture rules that surround the heater provision require all cafe furniture to be free-standing, never secured to the sidewalk, trees, lamp posts or other street infrastructure, and ban extension cords running to or from the sidewalk area, a restriction that bears directly on how an approved heater can be powered.

Lights other than tabletop fixtures are barred in the same subsection, reinforcing that anything electrical or flame-related in the cafe footprint gets extra scrutiny. Any heater use rides on the underlying one-year sidewalk cafe permit issued by the planning and community development department under Sec. 114-10(a)-(b): an operator cannot seek heater approval independently of holding that permit, and the fire marshal's sign-off applies only within the defined downtown cafe area, not to seasonal heating on sidewalks generally. If a heater is added without the required approvals, it counts as an unapproved obstruction or furniture item under the cafe's general operating rules and exposes the operator to the same fine and revocation track as any other Sec. 114-10 violation.