As Glencoe emerges from COVID-19 safety mitigations, the village’s newly-created outdoor dining policies are being reexamined.
On June 17, village trustees met as the Committee of the Whole to deliberate the current outdoor dining policies and their impact on downtown parking. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the village permitted outdoor dining from April 1 through Nov. 30.
Last year, as restaurants faced indoor dining capacity limits, the village allowed restaurants to have seating outside past Nov. 30. Three restaurants installed weather-resistant structures such as temporary igloos, greenhouses or tents.
While the state now permitting businesses to operate without indoor capacity limits, there is interest from the ownership group of Guildhall to continue with the dining structures on village streets.
Jeff Shapack, a representative of the Guildhall ownership group, told trustees the outdoor structures in coordination with a carry out service were instrumental in keeping the restaurant open last year.
“We believe that by making this investment, it allowed us to continue to serve the community both indoor and outdoor,” Shapack said.
Shapack requested a continuation of an existing licensing agreement that now runs through Nov. 30 for outdoor dining, sensing collective customer attitudes changed during the pandemic regarding outdoor dining, even in the cold weather months based on what he has seen in other communities.
“I believe people are going to continue to want to do this even six months or a year from now,” he said.
Currently, seven Glencoe restaurants, including Guildhall, are using outdoor seating, with three installing weather-resistant structures adjacent to their business.
In addition, True Juice, a restaurant that recently opened, has expressed interest in use of the public right of way, as has Poppy’s Social, a proposed restaurant at 668 Vernon, according to village documents.
The use of the structures lead into a question of parking availability.
“Glencoe famously has had a parking problem in the downtown for 100 years,” Village President Howard Roin said. “This may exacerbate that.”
Guildhall and Valor are occupying nine spaces, plus using other spaces designated for carryout service in limited parts of the day, according to village documents.
Outdoor structures also affect parking availability as Guildhall’s greenhouse and Valor’s tent are in spaces outside the respective restaurants.
Village staff believes parking may get tighter once the nearby Writers Theatre reopens.
Kevin Campbell, a downtown property owner, expressed concern about the parking situation.
“If the village agrees to make accommodations for outdoor seating on the sidewalks in the business district during cold weather season, I would have no issue with that,” Campbell said after the meeting. “I just don’t want to see the parking lot spaces utilized for outdoor seating beyond the current permit period because our parking in the downtown area and this has been a subject of discussion for many decades, not years.”
Campbell is currently the president of the Glencoe Chamber of Commerce but said his comments were independent of the chamber. The chamber’s executive director, Sally Sprowl, said she did not see the meeting and had no comment.
Resident Adrienne Gallagher spoke out against the continued use of the structures during the virtual meeting.
“Had I wanted to live in a visually cluttered downtown, I would not have come to Glencoe,” Gallagher wrote. “Furthermore, it’s unfair to businesses other than restaurants to allow the restaurant exterior structures to take parking spaces and clutter the streetscape.”
Village Manager Phil Kiraly acknowledged the balancing act.
“One of the complex components to all of this is finding a way to maintain the general excitement that is out there with outdoor dining options and balancing that against the needs of service-based businesses that are finding to be a struggle to get parking spaces available,” he said.
At the conclusion of the discussion, trustees asked staff to report back with an analysis on how additional outdoor dining could be organized, including the possible implementation of a fee for the restaurants.
It was not clear when the Village Board would discuss the issue again.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter.
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