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New program aims to help local restaurants with more outdoor seating

With some people still afraid to eat out, restaurants need to get creative to keep customers coming in.

DES MOINES, Iowa — We know how much restaurants have been hurting from the pandemic.

Now, Des Moines City Council has approved "Dine Out Des Moines" to help expand seating outdoors.

Restaurants can now operate at full capacity, however social distancing must still be applied. Resulting in about 50 percent capacity.

With a new program that will expand seating outdoors, the City of Des Moines is providing more help to restaurants to make up for lost business.

"Our hope is that this will help them and get them back on track because we know it's been tough for them," Suann Donovan with the City of Des Moines Zoning Enforcement said. 

City Council approved "Dine Out Des Moines" last week, which will allow expanding tables outside.

"They need an extra area so that they can get up to 100 percent or as close to a hundred percent capacity as possible," Donovan said. 

Restaurants that apply for the program will be able to put seating onto private parking lots, streets and sidewalks.

They will also have to implement makeshift fencing to keep patrons safe.

"If their closing the street down it's going to be more difficult because they're gonna have to put in jersey barriers with reflective tape on them. So each site is going to be unique and each site is going to be different. We're going to do our best to get these turned out as fast as we can," Donovan said. 

Donovan said she's had five or six applications pending and their working fast to get them approved and ready to operate.

"I'm hoping that before this weekend we can get,as many as we can, permits approved, so next weekend they can have more outside seating. Weather permitting," Donovan said. 

Restaurants will be able to continue the outside service for 30 days, after state and local governments lift all COVID-19 restrictions on restaurants.

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