Plainfield Plans To Help Restaurants With Winter Outdoor Dining

PLAINFIELD, IL — As winter approaches and outdoor dining becomes exceedingly difficult, the Plainfield Village Board tried to come up with ways, during its Sept. 14 meeting, on how restaurants could continue to operate.

The restrictions imposed by the state that prohibited restaurants and bars from offering indoor service were lifted on Sept. 18. However, that does not negate other issues that businesses will be facing.

"Even if Region 7 is successful in transitioning back to Phase 4, indoor capacity is limited by the need to provide adequate social distancing between tables," said Jonathan Proulx, director of planning for Plainfield. "The additional capacity offered by outdoor dining will continue to be an important factor in restaurants' ability to generate revenue."

For outdoor dining in the public right-of-way in the downtown area, the village's policy is to allow outdoor dining seasonally from April 1 to Nov. 30, the village documents state. There are also limitations on the types of furnishings that may be placed in the right-of-way. During the meeting, village staff asked the board for direction on whether to extend or eliminate the Nov. 30 deadline for downtown outdoor dining, and for ways to protect patrons from inclement weather with improvements such as heat lamps and awnings.

The additions, according to Proulx, will also be beneficial for restaurants outside the downtown area that are operating outdoor dining areas on private property.

"This last go-around of being restricted for indoor dining was a real shot in the head," said Trustee Margie Bonuchi.

She said everything must be done to support the struggling restaurants, not just in the "lucrative" downtown area of the village, but also the surrounding areas. However, she said she thinks something like heat lamps will not be possible, given the finances and the "liability" to manage them.

Trustee Cally Larson said businesses have been asking who will pay the electric bill and the purchase of propane to warm the outdoor dining tents during winter. She said she does not know if the village can pay for that with some grant money or not. Her suggestion was to shut down streets in the downtown area so restaurants could make up for lost sales revenue.

Majority of trustees, including Brian Wojowski, said they are in favor of closing downtown streets.

Village Administrator Brian Murphy said he and Mayor Michael Collins, who is not in favor of closing streets, have heard from non-restaurant establishments and nearby residents who complained about the parking situation in downtown when weekend closures were imposed.

As a solution to that, Trustee Kevin M. Calkins said streets could be closed at night so other businesses in the area are not impacted by it during the day.

"We should do what we can to help businesses regardless of what the state says," he said, "because if you asked Pritzker to find Plainfield on a map, he wouldn't be able to find it."

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