Bump-outs – the seasonal outdoor seating areas outside restaurants and businesses – are back on Main Avenue for the summer. Some residents love them, said Durango Economic Opportunity Manager Tommy Crosby; others – not so much.
Eleven businesses applied for permits to install bump-outs this year, and construction began Monday, said city spokesman Tom Sluis. All bump-outs must be completed by end of day today, he said.
Bobby Middleton, owner of Chimayo Stone Fired Kitchen, was putting together a bump-out outside the restaurant with several staff members Tuesday morning. Without a professional crew helping, it takes him and his employees about two days to complete the install, he said.
Chimayo server Dave Bergeron likened putting together the bump-out – which comes with an instruction manual and all the bits and bobs needed for construction – to assembling an IKEA furniture set.
The bump-outs were originally a temporary solution to COVID-19-era safety restrictions, but ended up gaining enough popularity for City Council to approve a five‑year pilot program in 2022, Crosby said.
The bump-out program was free to businesses in 2020 and 2021 because it was necessary for businesses to have outdoor seating areas during the pandemic, Crosby said. The program shifted to a paid model in 2022.
Business are charged $6.30 per square foot to have a bump-out in front of their storefronts during the summer, he said, which is paid in a lump sum at the beginning of the summer season.
The average bump-out is 30 feet by 9 feet, he said, meaning most businesses pay about $1,700 total.
The payments from businesses helps to offset lost costs from parking meters blocked by the bump-outs, Crosby said. This year, the bump-outs are taking up 23 city parking spots.
Interest in the program has remained steady over the past three years, he said, with 10 to 12 businesses participating on average. When the program was free during COVID, closer to 20 businesses participated, he said.
Crosby said the city receives both positive and negative feedback on the program.
“Some people love it, some people don’t care for it,” he said. “You get a mixed bag of emotions whenever a citywide program is rolled out, especially any sort of programming that impacts Main Avenue.”
The most frequent complaints the city receives are related to blocked parking spaces, he said.
Middleton said he hasn’t heard many complaints about Chimayo bump-out taking up parking spaces.
Resident Hailee Horton, who has a long history working in food service downtown, said she’s in favor of the bump-outs.
“Many of our restaurants just don’t have the outdoor space to take advantage of, and this is the answer for them,” she said. “There’s arguments about tourism and (lack of) walking space on the sidewalk and all that jazz. But I think most of our restaurants and businesses and coffee shops, they do a good job of (mitigating) that.”
Of the 11 businesses taking part in the program this year, seven will feature traditional bump-outs and four will have expanded bistro table seating areas with an extended sidewalk or pedlet installed on the street, Sluis said.
Businesses installing traditional bump-outs include Nini’s Taqueria, Fuzziwigs Candy Factory, Chimayo Stone Fired Kitchen, Oye Oysters and Small Plates, Cream Bean Berry, Carver Brewing Co. and Rice Monkey.
Taco Libre, Maria’s Bookshop, FiredUp Pizzeria and Derailed Pour House will be extending their sidewalk areas using pedlets.
Concrete planters will be installed Thursday, Sluis said, and flowers will be planted May 26.
An employee at Fuzziwigs said the bump-out outside the shop increases business and provides a space for patrons to rest during the hot summer months.
“They sit out here and eat their candy, and then when it’s hot, the older folks that have been walking the streets appreciate it,” she said. “It makes things a little more festive. The kids like it, too.”
Roger Zalneraitis, CEO of MODSTREET, a company that builds and assembles pedlets, parklets and other outdoor seating and walking structures, said he and a construction crew had already assembled several bump-outs and pedlets for Main Avenue businesses by Tuesday morning.
He was working on one of the city’s biggest pedlets – one that spans 85 feet by 6 feet, according to Crosby – outside Fired Up Pizzeria on Tuesday.
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