Sheboygan, WI Special Events & Permits: Sidewalk Dining & Cafés (2026)

Chapter 110, Article IX of the Sheboygan Municipal Code governs sidewalk cafés. Section 110-500 defines a sidewalk café as any group of tables, chairs, benches, barriers or partitions, trash containers and suitable decorative devices maintained on any part of the public sidewalk for use by an establishment selling food, refreshments and beverages. Section 110-501(a) makes it unlawful to sell or serve food, refreshment or beverage on a public sidewalk except in an area holding a permit under § 110-502, subject to the separate street-use articles VI, VIII and X of the chapter. Section 110-501(b) bars selling or serving any alcoholic beverage on a public sidewalk unless that sidewalk is part of a premises licensed under chapter 10.

The fee is paid to the city treasurer. Annual licenses issue on April 15 and expire on April 14 of the following year. A reduced rate of the greater of $25.00 or $0.50 per square foot applied only to the license year running April 15, 2021 to April 14, 2022.

Applications go to the city clerk's office and must include a scale layout on eight and one-half-inch by 11-inch paper, photographs, drawings or brochures of every table, chair, umbrella and barrier, proof of insurance, and a statement of whether alcohol will be served, with proof that the café site is part of the licensed premises. The applicant also signs an encroachment agreement: it accepts primary liability for damage, agrees to remove the encroachment within ten days after notice from the State of Wisconsin or the City of Sheboygan, pays removal costs if it fails to do so, and waives damage claims from removal.

No permit is granted until the city attorney, the chief of police, the director of public works and the city planner (or designees) have reviewed the application and made a recommendation. The planner can hold that recommendation until the plan commission has considered the activity or structures.

Operating rules sit in § 110-503. The café stays inside its approved boundaries, carries commercial general liability insurance with minimum limits of $1,000,000.00 in the aggregate naming the city as additional insured, and closes immediately when a police officer or a public works representative asks. No alcohol container is allowed in the café between 10:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m., and drinkers must be seated at a table. Barriers and furniture can never reduce the travelable sidewalk to less than five feet. A permit unused for six months becomes null and void.