[BoulderCouncilHotline] Outdoor Dining Pilot Program Update

[Jones, Cris]

Good morning Council and HOTLINE followers,

In advance of tonight's council meeting and the scheduled Outdoor Dining Pilot Program update, I want to reach out and make you all aware of some programmatic/timing challenges that have been percolating this week.

First, despite everyone's best efforts to provide enough time for businesses to apply to participate in the pilot program, none of the 31 applicants submitted a complete application by the August 1 deadline (a deadline which was extended from the original July 15 deadline). As of today, 18 businesses have completed their applications and are currently in review, with 6 of those having reached the final approval stages. 13 applications remain incomplete.

Thus, in short, 6 of the 31 applicants are currently in a position to proceed with the liquor licensing process. Given that it can take up to a month or longer for the state to process applications once they've been received from the city we are anticipating that most, if not all, participants who are seeking liquor licenses will experience a temporary gap in their ability to legally serve alcohol in the outdoor seating areas associated with the pilot program. Staff knows of no options available to mitigate this anticipated gap in alcohol service.

Secondly, one pilot program applicant desires to expand into an adjacent alley. While the applicant has been allowed to operate in the alley under the Covid related emergency orders, the long-term pilot program that has been developed by staff has not incorporated rules specific to alleys and, as such, this element of the application has been denied. Staff appreciates that this and other future applicants may wish to take advantage of alley space for outdoor dining and anticipates taking the time in advance of future application periods to consider adjustments to program rules to possibly include alley space in the future. Staff stresses that any such rule adjustments will need to carefully consider and balance access needs for services and vehicles, user safety, liquor compliance, etc.

Thank you for your attention to these challenges. I'll look forward to sharing more information tonight. In the meantime don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions in advance.

Best,

Cris


Cris Jones
Interim Director

[CommVitality_lockup_COB]

O: 303-413-7302
jonesc at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:bowden at bouldercolorado.gov>

Community Vitality
1500 Pearl Street, Suite 302 | Boulder, CO 80302
Bouldercolorado.gov<https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bouldercolorado.gov%2F&data=04%7C01%7CJonesC%40bouldercolorado.gov%7C873036d08c6c4af7ff3108da1cb7d655%7C0a7f94bb40af4edcafad2c1af27bc0f3%7C0%7C0%7C637853873143514228%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=b9E0toPs4kJsPgjCvQ0ZX8tUaqFKgUM1v3MN5UfeC1s%3D&reserved=0>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://webappsprod.bouldercolorado.gov/mailing-lists/mailman-archive/bouldercouncilhotline/attachments/20220818/ddf5057e/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 3730 bytes
Desc: image001.png
Url : https://webappsprod.bouldercolorado.gov/mailing-lists/mailman-archive/bouldercouncilhotline/attachments/20220818/ddf5057e/attachment.png