Colorado officials will end the state’s top-down approach to COVID restrictions in the next three to four weeks, Gov. Jared Polis told restaurant owners Sunday, under a plan that would give authority to individual counties to determine what, if any, health care measures would be in place.

Two restaurant owners on the call described Polis’s comments. The governor organized a Sunday afternoon call with industry officials, who pressed him on capacity restrictions and future restrictions. He assured the restauranteurs, two said, that the dial would be going away shortly and that individual municipalities and entities would be given the reins.

In a brief email sent Monday afternoon, Denver officials said they were “providing feedback on the State’s proposal to make the Dial discretionary on April 16.” The dial is the state’s method of determining the severity of restrictions in various counties.

A spokesperson for the state wrote in an email that “by mid-April,” the state department of Public Health and Environment “intends to move to a more local model, allowing local public health agencies to assume more control over capacity restrictions that are currently determined by the dial.”

If the dial is indeed drawn down in the next month, it would signal the end of the state’s top-down COVID response model. It would shift away from the method officials have used throughout the pandemic to blunt COVID’s spread, at a time when COVID cases have plateaued at a level far below the fall surge. Such a shift would be further evidence that Polis considers the state’s front-line role in fighting the pandemic to be nearing its end, with vaccines flowing.

The change would also come on the heels of another change to the dial, which is expected to be finalized in the next two days. 

“I think (the state) is really looking to get themselves out of the decision-making and handing everything off to the local municipalities to be making decisions, so it goes back to the mayors and Mayor (Michael) Hancock in our place,” said Ryan Fletter, the owner of the Barolo Grill. “Up to this point, Mayor Hancock has stepped in line with Governor Polis. Now, it’ll be left in his hands.”

Polis has repeatedly indicated that he is eyeing an end to the mask mandate, and under the proposed changes to the dial, most counties would largely have the authority to change that policy themselves. But that would be decentralized even further should Polis’s plan to minimize the dial in the next month come to fruition. The governor said he’s expecting a summer that’s mostly back to normal. 

His optimism is buoyed by the state’s vaccination rollout, which should be completed weeks ahead of schedule. By the end of May, Polis has said that every Coloradan who wants a dose should be able to get one. 

Still, variants represent landmines that could detonate Polis’s path to a drawn-down COVID response. Though they remain a relatively minor threat right now, two variants represent as much as 30% of total cases here. But hospitalizations have continued to plateau, as have new case counts. State officials have said that Colorado’s in a race against the variants to vaccinate as many residents as possible before the strains can cause significant damage.

The restaurant owners, led by Blake Street Tavern owner Chris Fuselier, had sought a meeting with Polis to raise concerns about the imminent changes to the dial, which were announced early Friday evening. The change will make it easier for counties to enter the lowest level of COVID restrictions, while adjusting capacity limits and ceding mask orders to local authorities. The dial change was the first indication that Polis planned to decentralize the state’s COVID response.

Restaurants had largely been left out of that change, which included a slight capacity bump for restaurants that have qualified to be in the Five Star program. But 60% capacity for restaurants isn’t enough, particularly when taking into account social distancing rules.

“They said they’d change it to a 60% capacity for 5 Star,” Fletter said. “Immediately we all say, ‘That means nothing, that doesn’t change anything because you can’t get to 60 (percent capacity) with a 6 foot distance. There was a little bit of gesticulating and dancing around that piece.”

“We spent a lot of time and money setting up our respective businesses to be 5 Star certified,” said Andrew Feinstein, who owns the Tracks nightclub. “What we asked for is, for those of us who took time, there should be an additional benefit. So, for example, 5 Star, why couldn’t we be at 100% capacity with 6 feet? If max capacity is 275, why can’t it be 500? If we went through all the trouble of get certified, why don’t we get an extra level. I would argue we should.”

Fuselier asked about the possibility of opening up booths or using plexiglass panes to separate seats at the bar. Dancing, allowed for special events but not in clubs, was also raised.

Despite the concerns that precipitated the call, Feinstein and Fuselier were complimentary of Polis’s willingness to talk to industry leaders, especially on a Sunday. Feinstein, who called Polis a personal friend, was particularly effusive of the governor’s engagement and attention to restaurant owners’ concerns.

But it’s unclear if those concerns will change state policy. Restaurant owners, along with everyone else in the state, could provide public comment on the proposed dial change until noon Monday, a window of fewer than 72 hours from the Friday night announcement. Whether Polis took any of the concerns and turned them into a different policy remains to be seen, but the final details of the new plan should be announced in the next two days, the restaurant owners said.