Corvallis business owners speak out after being approved for parking lot seating

Corvallis business owners speak out after being approved for parking lot seating

With social distancing limitations... a lot of small businesses have been struggling.

But as kezi 9 news reporter emma withrow reports... the city of corvallis is giving owners --- and their customers... a little more elbow room.

Prior to this new measure... some corvallis businesses were struggling to make ends meet, a farm to table restaurant called 'castor' being one of them.

Danielle lewis, chef , castor: "to go at less than 50% we don't even meet that, so this helps us meet at 60-70% occupancy on a night, and i think that would be helpful."

But now that the measure has been approved by the city the gates of economic oppurtunity are opening.... well technically closing since businesses have to fence in their new seating areas on the street.

Dave seidel, treebeerds owner: "we basically just handdrew out a little site map showing the business here and the three parking spaces we wanted to take and then we had to explain what kind of barrier we would put around it and then we emailed it in and it basically took one day and we were approved."

Dave seidel isn't the only one benefitting from the parking spots in front of his taphouse though, his neighbors tried and true coffee will be sharing the spots as well.

And since they operate at basically oposite hours, seidel thinks it will work out perfect.

Emma withrow: "the benches in front of tried and true coffee are great but the issue is that they only seat 10 people max, but in just a few days they'll have all this space to host more customers."

"just because of how small our space is in here we haven't been able to open up our indoor seating, and we have very limited out door seating, so the fact that we're able to collaborate with treebeerds, who are friends of ours, is really really awesome" and with the new parking lot seating approved, businesses say they are now sleeping a little better at night.

Seidel: "it's going to greatly help, cause as you know the economy, because of covid-19, and every little bit helps."

Reporting in corvallis, emma withrow kezi 9