City councilmembers will hold a hearing Tuesday to decide if outdoor dining will be permanent.

They will hear testimony virtually from community members and restauranteurs who will offer their suggestions for permanent outdoor dining -- from how to apply for permits, to where restaurants can set up outdoor structures, how big they can be and more.

The temporary program began back in June 2020, and advocates and lawmakers agree that the time has come to make outdoor dining a fixture in the city.

"Now we're going to go from this temporary emergency program that was set up quickly, that evolved, as the pandemic raged on to create a more standardized, sustained program, that works for restaurants, that works for the community they serve," said NYC Hospitality Alliance executive director Andrew Rigie.

"This anxiety of not knowing what to keep, if you're going to keep your structure or not, the investments that they've made, we owe it to them to make sure we've got this right and that we've got better clarity for them and we're going to do it early for them, I'm hoping before the summer," said Bronx Council Member Marjorie Velazquez, who sponsored the legislation and will be leading the public hearing.