SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) — Sioux Falls appears poised to loosen restrictions on certain businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayor Paul TenHaken is putting forward a new ordinance to replace the current 10-person limit on business traffic in the city.
The ordinance has a special rule for food service businesses, like restaurants and bars, restricting seating arrangement rather than occupancy.
“They can now re-adjust the setup of their seating area to have seating areas in six-feet chunks,” TenHaken said.
Essentially, a restaurant is following the law if they make sure to put six feet of space between each group of people that comes in to eat.
For certain other businesses, like gyms and entertainment venues, the ordinance restricts the number of customers to half of the business’ fire capacity.
“If you’re a bowling alley and your [maximum] posted occupancy is 200 people at a time, you can have 100 people in there,” TenHaken said.
Businesses are allowed to have 10 customers on the premises regardless of capacity or seating arrangement, so the ordinance won’t put any new restrictions on businesses that weren’t in the previous ordinance.
The ordinance is enforceable; a violation would be a Class 2 Misdemeanor that comes with a fine and up to 30 days in jail. It does not have a specific expiration date, unlike previous emergency orders Sioux Falls has enacted. Rather, it simply says it will be effective until it’s repealed.
The Sioux Falls City Council will hear a first reading of the ordinance in a special meeting Friday at 2 p.m. If the ordinance passes it will be up for final adoption on Thursday, May 7.
Local governments in South Dakota are taking the lead in determining re-opening plans for their cities. Gov. Kristi Noem released a set of statewide guidelines Wednesday, but they aren’t enforceable.
(KELO.com News’ Todd Epp and Mark Russo contributed to this report.)
