AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) – With indoor seating still limited due to COVID-19, Aurora City Council member Francoise Bergen is spearheading an effort to make it easier for restaurants to add additional patio seating.

Eldon Larson owns Wine Experience restaurant at Southlands in Aurora. He says he needs room to expand his outdoor seating in order to stay in business.

“This has to be run through the city and then through the state, the state is so bogged down,” said Larson.

Other establishments in the area would like to add additional outdoor seating.

“To be able to do that, you really had to go through a lot of regulation and make sure that they were followed and it was time consuming,” said Bergan, who represents Ward VI on City Council.

More tables outside an eatery requires applications, surveys, processing fees and time. In other words, more red tape.

“All those type of things would typically be a barrier for a business owner,” said Bergan.

But Bergan has helped reduce the time it takes to approve such requests.

“We do a checklist and go through and give them the variances that they needed to open up that normally would be a long, long process,” said Bergan.

Reducing that processing time from months to weeks and suspending the required fees is welcome news to restaurant owners like Larson.