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St. Pete looks at options to expand outdoor seating for restaurants

Right now, restaurants can submit plans to the city to turn their own parking lots into outdoor seating, and the city is considering blocking off roads too.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — From parks to beaches, outdoor dining and malls, a lot of places are slowly getting back to business, while also continuing to follow CDC guidelines.
We've learned today that Pasco County will allow restaurants to expand outdoor seating in restaurant parking spaces.

St. Pete is doing the same and looking at possibly blocking off some public parking spaces and maybe even roads, as well.

"I like the idea, it’s forward thinking, it’s outside the box, Peter Veytia told 10News.

Veytia is the CEO of Red Mesa Restaurant Group, which is doing take-out and delivery for now.

He’s one of the many restaurant and business owners who responded to a survey from the city about how they should move forward to add additional outdoor seating.

Mayor Rick Kriseman explained why the city decided to start doing the survey.

"We have a survey that is out in the field right now, sent to businesses on central and beach drive, do you want this? Would you prefer to have parking spaces blocked, the whole street blocked?" he told 10News.

Mayor Kriseman tells 10News he knows not everyone is for it, but he wants to see if there’s “broad support.”

"I’ve heard some concerns - is we block off the parking spaces with their space for takeout service," he said.

And Veytia says, while he doesn’t feel this is a perfect solution, he’s glad St. Pete is talking about ways to help out local business.

"It’s in the right direction, there’s conversation on how to help local restaurants and this along with 5 or 6 other things could get us where we need to be," he said.

If you are a restaurant owner in St. Pete and want to turn your outdoor parking lot into more outdoor seating, you have to submit a plan to the city for approval.

COVID-19 UPDATE May 5, 2020 | St. Pete, FL

COVID-19 Update from Mayor Rick Kriseman

Posted by City of St. Petersburg, Florida USA on Tuesday, May 5, 2020

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