This summer Burlington will test a program that adds outdoor seating to some restaurants while taking away some public parking spaces.

The program, Street Seats, is a joint initiative between the Department of Public Works and the Community and Economic Development Office to enhance the city during the warm months, DPW spokesman Robert Goulding said.

Last year the city tried a similar project to install small parklets around the city. This year the focus is on business and public seating, Goulding said.

At four locations around the city this summer, rectangular boxes will be added next to the sidewalk in one or two public parking spaces in front of four selected local businesses, he said.

Three locations have been approved and are in the process of getting their street seats or have the seats including El Cortijo on Bank Street, Restaurant Poco on Main Street and Archives on College Street.A

A plan is in the works to bring the seats to Drifters on North Winooski Avenue, Goulding said.

Each business paid a fee assessed by the city to be involved, he said.

During business hours the seats are reserved for restaurant patrons, but outside of business hours the public is free to use the seats, Goulding said.

One of the locations, El Cortijo on Bank Street, is open every day from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. The seating over two parking spaces extends in front of its neighbor Tick Tock Jewelers.

Tick Tock owner Beth Garbo thinks the arrangement will help bring more customers to her store.

"I do think that those two parking spots often times, someone would just park and leave it for 5 hours, but with this, it seems they're changing tables quite often," Garbo said.

Brooke Bishop and Diane Collias took advantage of El Cortijo's new seating arrangement during the sunny afternoon of June 25.

The pair said on lovely sunny days in Burlington, this new seating arrangement is a great idea.

"It's perfect, it just feels more comfortable than if the seating was just on the sidewalk, they should do this for all the restaurants downtown," Bishop said. "It's lovely I love all the flowers the plants."

For some, the sight of the seating outside of El Cortijo was not received as warmly as others.

Attached to each seating arrangement there's a small square sign with a QR code you can scan with your phone to take a survey to tell the city how you feel about the program.

Contact Sawyer Loftus at 802-660-1860 or sloftus@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @sawyerloftus18.