Mesa City Council, at its June 1 meeting, approved a resolution to allow restaurants and other eating and drinking establishments to temporarily expand their services to outdoor areas on their property. This is intended to promote individual restaurants and their services. The resolution also includes temporarily suspending enforcement of City codes regarding temporary signage.
"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," Mayor John Giles said. "Allowing our restaurants to expand their service areas, with appropriate controls, will benefit the restaurants, the community and the City."
Conformance with federal and state guidelines since the start of the pandemic has resulted in a greatly reduced customer service area for restaurants. Seating areas have been reduced up to 50 percent, and in some cases higher, to accommodate social distancing requirements.
City staff from numerous departments have been working to create a very streamlined process to approve expansion of premises requests. This will be accomplished through a consolidated, no-charge application and approval review process. The goal is to approve requests within two to four business days. The restaurant owners and operators will need to obtain landlord approvals to expand their facilities and ensure compliance with Americans for Disabilities Act (ADA), social distancing and other life/safety requirements to protect the public.
The Development Services Small Business Assistant will be the central point of contact to receive, review and document approval of expansion requests. For more information, contact Small Business Assistant Heather Omta at (480) 644-5600 or heather.omta@mesaaz.gov.
Public Information and Communications
Contact: Kevin Christopher
Tel. 480-644-4699
kevin.christopher@mesaaz.gov