The two pocket patio areas will take up four parking spaces.[/caption]

Four parking spaces at the northwest corner of Congress Avenue and Eighth Street will become a pocket patio by summer.

The pocket patio, also known as a parklet, set up is not unfamiliar to Congress Avenue. Royal Blue Grocery has a pocket park outside of its 609 N. Congress Ave. location that spawned from PARK(ing) Day in late 2012. David Khan will lease four parking spaces set to transform into an outdoor area. The spaces are located outside of his former restaurant Hickory Street at 804 Congress Ave., which is being renovated to become another concept under Kahn's leadership, said Daniel Woodroffe, lead design and landscape architect of the pocket patio project. The pocket patio will be able to hold 30 to 40 people and possibly as many as 50 people when the space is busy, Woodroffe said. Plans are still in the design phase, he said, but a permit will be requested at the end of this week to turn the parking spaces into the pedestrian space. The city of Austin has committed to a 30-day permit review process for these projects, so Woodroffe's team at dwg will know if they have been granted approval in about a month, he said. With construction occurring in various parts of downtown, many parking spaces are temporarily unavailable. These pocket patios can only be viewed as a temporary change of use because the city can revoke the permit at any time, Woodroffe said. The city ordinance that allows this change of use requires the leaser have support from neighboring tenants and owners, and Kahn does, according to Woodroffe. Fellow businesses felt those parking spaces were not necessary for their customers, he said.