Caddo Parish, LA Special Events & Permits: Sidewalk Dining & Cafés (2026)

Under UDC Sec. 6.1.V, an outdoor dining area is not just an amenity, it is treated as its own principal use that has to be paired with an existing bar or restaurant on the same site; a standalone patio with no indoor food-service use behind it does not qualify. The default rule keeps tables on private property, but the Parish Public Works department can approve seating in the public right-of-way, and when it does, it can require the operator to mark the boundary of that seating with paint or physical delineators so pedestrians and vehicles don't wander into an unauthorized encroachment.

Operators also cannot scatter tables across a frontage; the code requires the dining area to be as continuous as possible, concentrated in a single portion of the building's frontage rather than broken into separate pockets. Where a building is required to sit at a build-to line (the street-facing construction line many commercial districts impose), the code carves out room for dining in front of it: up to 50% of the front façade width or 60 linear feet, whichever is smaller, can be designated outdoor dining, but only within a maximum 25-foot setback measured from that build-to line.

Dining areas also cannot block pedestrian access routes, parking spaces, or drive aisles. Because outdoor dining is a listed use in Table 5-1, whether it is permitted, requires special-use approval, or is prohibited outright depends on the underlying zoning district of the restaurant or bar it serves, so an applicant has to check the district table before assuming approval.