St. Charles may close downtown street for outdoor dining
A downtown St. Charles street will likely be closed this spring and summer for outdoor dining, despite the objections of several aldermen.
The city council’s planning and development committee on Monday voted 5-4 in favor of closing Walnut Avenue east of Riverside Drive to Second Avenue, behind the Arcada Theater and the Flagship on the Fox sports bar.
Aldermen Bryan Wirball, Ron Silkaitis, Steve Weber and David Pietryla voted “no.”
The four also voted against a licensing agreement with Flagship on the Fox that would let it use the street as a kind of patio.
But the committee agreed with giving a license to the Arcada for parking buses on the easternmost half of the blocked street. Silkaitis voted against the bus license.
The matters will now be up for a vote at a future council meeting, probably April 15, committee chairman Paul Lencioni said. If the council approves, the block would be closed from then until Oct. 31.
The matter was first brought up at last month’s committee meeting, and tabled after several business owners protested the idea, because it will eliminate at least 10 parking spaces.
The committee also discussed whether to create other public outdoor dining or recreational plazas in the downtown, such as the First Street Plaza, which is south of Main Street.
Weber had suggested the discussion. “I have always been in favor of outdoor dining. I just wasn’t a fan of using Walnut (Avenue),” he said. Weber said he could see perhaps developing something on Cedar Street.
“I don’t think we should be talking about any plaza until we see how successful it (First Street Plaza) is,” Wirball said. He said construction fencing is still up around it, and that it is not open.
“We should not be arbitrarily closing public streets with no traffic studies or public engagement,” he said, or without consulting with nearby residents and businesses.
He said the city should consider incentivizing businesses to invest in their own outdoor dining spaces. He also said the site of the former police department on State Avenue, north of the city hall, would be a “prime” public place for a small amphitheater, a farmers market, or something similar to the Batavia Riverwalk.