Written by Natalia Toliver
With indoor dining being prohibited for so long, many restaurants decided to spend their hard-earned money on outdoor dining areas. With restrictions loosening and indoor dining being allowed, the use for these outdoor spaces may no longer be needed according to the county.
Chelsea Coleman, owner of The Rose Wine Bar in South Park, stated that keeping these outdoor dining spaces will actually help them recover. The permits for the outdoor dining patio spaces for restaurants will expire on July 13, unless the county votes to expand its lifetime. If they do not, many outdoor seats will be not only a waste of money but also illegal.
The uncertainties of outdoor dining have been around since the beginning of the reopening process. Many restaurant owners including Chelsea Coleman saw an opportunity to invest in their future by providing a safe place for customers to eat. Many small businesses spent thousands of dollars constructing outdoor dining spaces throughout the pandemic. In fact, many of those businesses had no guidelines or plans from the city on how they were supposed to construct these areas, so they followed in the steps of other businesses and since no city official stepped in they continued to build these spaces. Shortly after however, a city engineer finally stepped in and provided a design for restaurants to follow despite many businesses already spending thousands on their outdoor dining areas.
It became simple for businesses to start using new spaces because the county was issuing permits via a quick and easy form. Additionally, many businesses had built their outdoor space on street parking which was unpermitted. These businesses did what they had to do to ensure their success and the county understood and did not intervene.
The question now is with all that has been changed and all the money that has been spent to ensure that safe outdoor dining could happen, what will the county do? Will they allow these structures to remain or require them taken down resulting in a huge loss of money for restaurant owners?
Photo via Bianca Bruno
