St. Charles officials consider closing Walnut Avenue for outdoor dining this summer

St. Charles’ Planning and Development Committee considered the temporary closure of a portion of Walnut Avenue for the summer at its March 11 meeting, but were met with pushback from downtown residents and business owners, who were are at odds over the closure.

As proposed, a section of Walnut Avenue between Riverside and Second Avenues would be closed to traffic from April 15 through Oct. 31. The sidewalk would be converted into an outdoor patio for Flagship on the Fox and the street would become a public space for outdoor dining.

The committee also considered temporary license agreements with the Arcada Theatre, to use a portion of the closed section for bus parking, and with Flagship on the Fox, to use a portion of the closed section to build a temporary patio for outdoor dining.

Public comment discussion over the proposed closure turned into a battle between business owners on the east side of the Fox River versus those on the west side of the river, with over an hour of comment from more than a dozen residents, business owners and lawyers representing west side business owners.

Business owners east of the river, including the Christopher Curren, owner of The Graceful Ordinary, and Curtis Hurst of Frontier Development spoke in favor of the closure.

East side residents and attorneys Joseph McMahon and Patrick Turner, representing Hotel Baker, McNally’s Irish Pub and several other businesses west of the river were against the closure.

Those in favor of the closure said it will provide an improved public space on the east side where community members can congregate, similar to the new First Street Plaza on the west side, and improve safety and walkability for pedestrians, which would benefit all east side businesses.

Those against the closure argued that it would benefit a single business, Flagship on the Fox, and that it would take away needed parking spaces and cause traffic problems for east side residents. Several members of the public said closing a public street for a business would set a bad precedent for the city, and were unhappy that west side business owners’ opinions were not considered prior to the meeting.

After the public comment, committee members also discussed the proposed closure at length before moving to table the discussion to their next Planning and Development Committee meeting on April 8. The motion to table was approved in a split 5-4 vote. Alderpersons Mark Foulkes, Ryan Bongard, Jayme Muenz and Ed Bessner voted against tabling the motion.

In separate votes, the committee also tabled the discussion on temporary license agreements with the Arcada Theatre and Flagship on the Fox. All three items will return before the committee for the April 8 meeting, and committee members agreed to hear the opinions from west side business owners in the meantime.