Roberto's Opposed To Elmhurst's Rules For Project

ELMHURST, IL — Roberto's Ristorante and Pizzeria says it is happy with a key city panel's approval of its plan for parking lots, but it objects to a number of conditions on the project.

In mid-May, the Zoning and Planning Commission voted 5-2 to recommend the parking lots for the Spring Road restaurant, which neighbors opposed. It is unclear when the City Council will take up the matter.

Among the conditions, the commission voted to limit the hours of the parking lots to 11 p.m. and require the lot's lights be turned off at that time.

Attorney Scott Day is representing Roberto's Ristorante and Pizzeria. (David Giuliani/Patch)

In a June 23 statement to the city, attorney Scott Day, who is representing Roberto's, said the city's nearby parking lot, which is next to houses, is open until 2 a.m. And other Spring Road restaurants and bars operate parking lots that are open until after midnight and yet are next to homes, he said. Because of this, he said, the condition for Roberto's is "arguably arbitrary."

Day said Roberto's closes at midnight, but the restaurant's website says it shuts down at 11 p.m. during the weekends. In an email to Patch, Day clarified the situation with a statement from Roberto's Pasquale Moreci: “The closing time has been temporarily adjusted during Covid (in-restaurant dining is significantly reduced) with the restaurant currently closing at 11 p.m. and staff leaving by midnight. As soon as the dining population returns to pre-Covid levels, the midnight closing hour we have operated for decades will return 7 days per week, with staff departing by 1 a.m.”

The Moreci family, which owns Roberto's, accepts that its requested 1 p.m. closing time for the parking lots may be seen as too late, but it would be willing to accept midnight as middle ground, Day said.

Another issue is the required landscaping between the proposed parking lots and neighboring houses. The commission mandated the restaurant provide landscaping on the neighbors' side of a required fence.

"The Moreci family has spent well over nine months soliciting input from the neighbors as to what type of landscaping they would like, but the neighbors nevertheless uniformly refused to discuss landscaping or fencing," Day said. "Notwithstanding, the ZPC elected to require the installation of the fence, and also require that the landscaping be installed on the objecting residents' private property. We believe this is an unprecedented request."

Day contended the Moreci family cannot go on private property to plant the landscaping. And he said the city has no right to compel private property owners to allow landscaping on their land without paying the owners just compensation. If anything, he said, the landscaping should be on the restaurant's side of the fence.

Roberto's said it has an estimate of $58,000 for landscaping, above the cost of the 8-foot fence. If the city feel it is good policy to require Roberto's to install landscaping on private property that only the private property owners can see, Day said, it should be paid only to residents who consent to the planting.

In his letter to the city, Day said he expected the City Council's Development, Planning and Zoning Commission would take up the matter at its meeting last week. The committee met, but Roberto's project was not on the agenda.

In an email to Patch, Otis Dungan, one of the residents next to Roberto's, said the neighbors disagree with Roberto's requests for changes to the conditions. Experts in planning and zoning, he said, would prohibit almost all of what the Zoning and Planning Commission approved.

The commission's decision in May followed 15 hours of public hearings over several months. Many neighbors accused the restaurant of being a poor neighbor. The lawyer for the residents argued it was a "real disaster" behind the restaurant, with plenty of code violations.

Roberto's, however, contended the parking lots would be better for the congested Spring Road business district.