City explorer options for outdoor seating

Suwanee is exploring options for permanent outdoor seating at its Town Center as COVID-19 wanes and more people feel comfortable gathering in public.

The Gwinnett city has found success with temporary tents at its social hub, placed in October 2020 to give visitors a place to safely socialize outdoors with family and friends during the pandemic. City Manager Marty Allen pitched a couple of ideas at a March meeting of the Suwanee City Council for permanent outdoor seating that could help restau- rants by attracting custom- ers with a new way to dine.

Allen discussed placing outdoor seating areas in parking spaces along side- walks with chairs, tables and greenery, borrowing the idea from European restaurants and social spots in Athens. These could include streat- eries, enclosed areas that give restaurants a place to serve customers, and parklets, more general seating areas for people to socialize.

“In our research of how we want to manage this outdoor tent experience, (we) believe that a combination of these efforts might be some- thing that’s worth exploring,” Allen said. “There are a lot of things to consider — needs, opportunities, costs, management, unintended

consequences and prece- dent — but we’ve seen them used successfully in other environments.”

City staff is still early in its research process, Allen said, but a few restaurants in Town Center have expressed an interest in the idea. He told city officials he could foresee adding about four or five permanent outdoor seating areas to the city if the council wants to entertain the idea, with standard designs costing about $1,000 and more elaborate designs costing more.

There’s no hard deadline for the end of the tent program, but the five tents along Town Center Avenue and the six in the park next to it were considered temporary.

COURTESY OF CITY OF SUWANEE Suwanee is considering ideas for permanent outdoor seating following the success of the temporary tents set up in the city’s Town Center.