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City Council <br />Meeting Minutes <br />November 24, 2020 <br />Page 5 of 7 <br />around gatherings. He would support the City finding other ways to help the restaurants <br />and other businesses in town. <br />Mayor Pro Tern Maloney stated he hopes the Council can make the right decision that <br />supports businesses. We have to weigh all of these issues for the restaurants along with <br />health and safety issues to find what is the best way to support our community. We want <br />to discourage gatherings while at the same time encourage commerce for all of our <br />businesses across town. This would be an accommodation for downtown that may be <br />used as few as 20 days over the next hundred given the weather. We know we want to <br />make an impact that helps the restaurants but we don't know an easy way to do that. <br />Councilmember Lipton stated the proposal to have seating in the parking areas puts <br />people in a confined space and could be worse than using all of the street. He feels the <br />full closure is the best alternative to indoor dining. We need to be flexible to adapt to the <br />changes. The overwhelming number of comments we received were supportive of <br />keeping the closure. We should listen to the businesses to find out what they need to stay <br />alive. He supports the closure as a lifeline for a few months for the restaurants. <br />Mayor Stolzmann noted everyone needs to support each other and this is a very severe <br />situation. People should not be gathering with members outside their household and are <br />not adhering to this. If there was Federal funding right now it would be much easier <br />decision. She stated she walked through Main Street this afternoon and found none of the <br />restaurants had cleared the snow from their tables, there was no one dining or drinking <br />outside, and the entire street was in the shade by 4 pm. Utilization of the seating is a <br />concern. She stated only eight of the 24 restaurants in downtown have shown an interest <br />in having additional outdoor seating and four of those have significant outdoor seating on <br />their own property. She stated seven owners have said that closing the street has hurt <br />their business. <br />Mayor Stolzmann noted that both herself and staff have tried to get RTD to look at an <br />alternate route to LaFarge for the bus but have been unsuccessful. It is not an easy fix. <br />Mayor Stolzmann stated she supports the proposal to reopen the street with seating in <br />the parking areas and grab -and -go spaces for takeout. She feels this is the best <br />compromise for the restaurants, the other shops, the residents, and safety access. <br />Councilmember Brown stated his major concern with keeping the closure is having a <br />large space for groups to gather. Currently one in 49 Coloradans are contagious and <br />there are more than 49 seats in downtown. The virus can spread even in outdoor <br />environments. <br />Councilmember Dickinson stated he feels the dining set up on Main Street allows for <br />enough spacing for people to be safe and the restaurants are doing everything they can <br />to keep people safe. He feels the current set up can continue to work as it has over the <br />summer. He stated the residents and restaurants want this and we can do it responsibly. <br />