Greeley restaurants could soon expand outdoor dining options as city council looks for ways to help bolster local business

By Kelly Ragan

As Greeley restaurants begin to open their doors for business, city council is brainstorming ways to help.  

At a city council meeting Tuesday, officials discussed ways to support businesses in their efforts to serve people safely as they get back to work. One of the highlights include expanding outdoor dining options, which the state recommends.

And many local businesses are interested.

“We have about 100 qualified, (liquor) licensed establishments that could apply to modify their premises,” said Cheryl Aragon, interim city clerk. “The majority were not downtown businesses.”

Restaurants closed March 16 following Gov. Jared Polis’ stay-at-home order. On Wednesday, restaurants got the green light to allow in-person dining – with some restrictions.

Restaurants can operate at 50% of their indoor occupancy limit so long as they don’t have more than 50 customers inside at any given time.

The state encourages businesses to offer outdoor dine-in service when possible and to work with local authorities to expand those options.

You can check out the full list of guidelines here.

Bars are still closed. So are breweries and taprooms – unless they serve food on-site or partner with local restaurants or food trucks. Those guidelines will be re-evaluated by the state in June.

Doug Marek, Greeley city attorney, said at the meeting the distinction seems to have more to do with the license those businesses operate under than increased risk at those establishments.

What could that expansion look like in Greeley?

Some of the details still need to be hashed out. City council has not yet voted on its next move.

But the council did discuss the possibility of shutting down 8th and 9th street downtown – similar to what it does for Friday Fest – in order to allow restaurants to expand outdoor dining options.

Mayor John Gates and city councilmember Ed Clark met with a group of about 12-15 business owners this week to talk about options.

“They want our assistance in expanding their premises while complying with the governor’s orders,” Gates said at the meeting.

Gates said he told business owners he wanted some type of analysis of support to make sure the businesses that would be impacted by the street closure would be in favor of the move.

At this point, Clark said he knew of two businesses that opposed the street closure.

As it stands, the liquor licenses that allow businesses to take part in Friday Fest are very specific on the days and times those activities are allowed.

Outdoor dining wouldn’t necessarily carry over the same way.  

“Allowing businesses to expand their premise for dining and for common consumption present two very different animals to us,” said Mayor John Gates at the council meeting.  

The city could set it up so that the plazas closed for a couple specific hours to accommodate lunch or dinner times.

Councilmember Kristin Zasada said it made more sense to her to close the plazas for dinner rather than lunch to respect other non-restaurant businesses in the area. She also said there could be cool marketing opportunities to celebrate the novelty of it all.

“Let’s make an event out of it, let’s make it fun,” Zasada said.  

There’s still more research to do on what will ultimately be possible, but the council could vote in the next couple weeks on whether to close the plazas.  

Beyond downtown, Greeley businesses are looking at how they might expand outdoor dining options into existing parking lots.