The Rhode Island General Assembly on Thursday approved a bill that would make outdoor dining permanent, a practice that gained popularity during the pandemic.
The legislation would allow towns and cities to adopt ordinances that limit outdoor dining on public property, capacity or hours, but would not allow municipalities to prohibit outdoor dining or restrict when it is allowed.
“The success of the Take It Outside program was apparent from the very beginning, and that success will continue for our communities and small businesses by making outdoor dining permanent in Rhode Island,” said Sen. Alana DiMario, D-Narragansett, a co-sponsor of the bill with Rep. Carol McEntee, D-South Kingstown.
“Outdoor dining allowed so many of our beloved restaurants to stay open during the economic uncertainties we have faced over the past few years and it brought our communities back together after facing a terrifying public health crisis,” DiMario said.
McEntee said the Rhode Island outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the expansion of outdoor dining across the state, which allowed restaurants to “withstand and survive the struggles and uncertainties that COVID-19 brought to our state.”
“Without outdoor dining, our diverse and world-renowned restaurant scene would look far different today, and the state would have missed out on the millions of tax dollars that our tourism and hospitality industries generate yearly,” McEntee said.
The bill now goes to the governor’s desk for approval.
This article was reported with the assistance of generative artificial intelligence (AI).
