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Colorado Health Officials Share New Outdoor Dining Guidelines For Restaurants

By Rachel Smith, CBS4 Producer

(CBS4) - The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released guidance Thursday to help restaurants as they work around the latest obstacle to their business: Colorado winters.

Many Colorado restaurants have stayed in business through the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on outdoor dining. Restaurants have expanded existing patios, put out tents and in some cities expanded into the street.

It's an approach that public health officials say is much safer than dining indoors. Now that summer is over and the days are getting colder, restaurants are exploring new options to keep the customers coming.

CBS4 has reported on restaurants already tackling this issue, many of them opting for "bubble" structures that would isolate each dining party, preventing possible spread of coronavirus. The Aurora Restaurant Annette has started building greenhouses that would each seat 2 to 4 people.

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(credit: CBS)

"We are planning on building about 12 small greenhouses for outdoor dining in the winter that we are going to heat with small portable heaters and put one table in one greenhouse and have a winter wonderland village," Nelson Harvey, the owner of Annette restaurant, said.

That kind of structure is just one of several included in the state's new guidance.

The new guidance classifies different kinds of structures as indoor or outdoor depending on what kind of walls it has, and how much airflow the structure has.

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(credit: State of Colorado)

"If every couple of groups of four had their own little pod, we figured that they would be safer and make people feel safe and would be nice and intimate and kind of fun at the same time."

CDPHE says that the guidance is intended to "help restaurants safely accommodate customers outdoors in the upcoming months using temporary structures or pop-up structures."

The guidance for what will be allowed will vary from county to county depending on where they fall on the state's COVID Dial System, which is similar to the system Colorado already uses for fire danger.

All of the levels except for the most strict, Stay at Home, allow for unlimited outdoor capacity as long as parties can be seated six feet apart and restaurants follow their local zoning measures.

For communities in the Protect Our Neighbors phase, up to 500 people or 50% capacity would be allowed in indoor settings. Communities at the Cautious Stage will see that capacity decrease to 175 people or 50% capacity.  For the Concern Stage, 50 people or 50% capacity; and for the High Risk Stage restaurants will be limited to 50 people or 25% capacity. Delivery and take-out would be the only options for any counties forced to move back to the Stay at Home phase.

Outdoor Dining Guidance 1 copy
(credit: State of Colorado)
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