To allow restaurants to seat more people, but also to operate within social distancing guidelines, Mesa City Council approved a measure June 1 that would allow restaurants to offer more outdoor seating.
The move suspends center city codes, allowing eating and drinking establishments to temporarily expand their services to outdoor areas on their property.
“These are extraordinary circumstances we are in and the temporary action will make life a little easier for some of our small businesses struggling financially due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” Mesa Mayor John Giles said in a statement. “Allowing our restaurants to expand their service areas, with appropriate controls, will benefit the restaurants, the community and the city.”
As Arizona restaurants started to reopen in May, many of them could only seat a fraction of what they used to seat so people were not too close together.
