Business owners and government officials push for rapid economic reopening.

At least one barrier to the reopening of the local economy came down this week.

On May 18, a rule that would have made it difficult for Monterey Peninsula restaurants to seat patrons outside on concrete and asphalt was suspended. By a unanimous vote, the board of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District removed the requirement that restaurants obtain a water permit for outdoor seating.

The decision was supported by all dozen or so public speakers who provided comments. “We love our restaurants and we love our employees,” one woman said. “It’s critical we shorten the time until we can get back to work.”

Outdoor dining was specifically mentioned on May 12 by Gov. Gavin Newsom when he released guidelines for allowing restaurants to reopen. Moving sit-down service outside would make it much easier to maintain physical distancing of six feet between patrons.

The reopening of restaurants still depends on the approval of the county health officer and on city authorities who would have to surrender public sidewalks, parking spots and street space for tables and chairs.

On May 19, at a meeting of the county Board of Supervisors, health officials outlined progress toward meeting new state pandemic control criteria. The county has already increased its testing, hospital and shelter capacity to satisfy the requirements, and the spread of coronavirus has been sufficiently slowed.

In other areas, however, the county has not yet delivered enough progress to soften the shutdown order, county epidemiologist Kristy Michie told the board. For example, there are 44 trained coronavirus contact tracers, while 65 are needed, and nursing homes do not have a large enough supply of personal protective equipment such as masks and disposable gloves. (Progress on public health milestones was detailed in a table that’s available atbit.ly/MoCoMilestones.)

By as soon as the next board meeting, on Tuesday, May 26, county staff expect to have prepared an application to state officials to allow businesses to reopen.

Meanwhile, in at least four Monterey Peninsula cities, officials are contemplating converting parts of their downtowns into pedestrian-only zones, and allowing restaurant dining to spill out onto the curbs and streets. After the idea was proposed in the Weekly, the city of Carmelquickly opened a formal discussion on the matter. Monterey and Pacific Grove officials are having internal discussions about the possibility, and several Seaside City Council members brought up the idea during a brainstorming session on May 14.

Temporarily closing Broadway to cars was one of several dozen creative ideas raised by Seaside council members on the path to economic recovery. According to Assistant City Manager Lesley Milton, Seaside is facing a budget deficit of $10 million, as car dealerships have closed and the hotel vacancy rate remains near 100 percent, choking off two of the main sources of tax revenue.

Nine Seaside city employees have been laid off and 60 furloughed. Labor associations representing most city workers have agreed to a 10-percent pay cut. The police and firefighters’ associations are still in negotiations with the city.