Riverside is budgeting to chip in and cover the costs for two businesses in town that may have to replace the barriers around their outdoor dining areas by the end of 2027.
The village board decided on Thursday, Sept. 3, to budget $8,000 for the two potential replacements as part of Riverside’s facade improvement grant program, through which the village helps fund signage or other visual work for businesses in town.
The discussion comes after officials decided in April to regulate outdoor dining throughout Riverside, limiting exterior fences to a height of 42 inches and requiring a minimum measure of transparency, achievable through gaps in the fence or similar measures.
Anne Cyran, Riverside’s director of community development, said only two barriers demarcating outdoor dining areas deviate from the new standards: the one at Breakfast Hacienda and Cafe is two inches too tall, she said, while the one at La Estancia is seven inches too tall and does not meet the transparency requirement.
Cyran said village staff estimated each fence would cost $4,000 in total to replace, though she noted that the need to replace them is ultimately up to the village board. Trustees would also have the option to grandfather these existing fences into the code if they don’t want to force the business owners to replace them by the end of 2027, as the new policy dictates.
$12,600 is dedicated to the other portion of the facade improvement grant for 2027 for any businesses seeking financial aid on improving their signage or making changes to the street-facing portion of their business.
Some members of the board voiced support for only reimbursing half of the cost of the fence replacements, which would have entailed budgeting only $4,000 between the two businesses, until Village President Doug Pollock made a case for offering to cover the full cost.
“There is something unique here in that, with the outdoor dining, we’ve passed an ordinance requiring them to fix it,” Pollock said. “Traditionally, it’s been totally voluntary on the part of the business whether they improve their facade.”
Trustees Elizabeth Kos and Jill Mateo also vocalized support before the board reached a consensus to budget the full $8,000.
“We’re requiring them to make this change. [The fences] were built prior to our ordinances regulating them,” Mateo said.
In total, the facade improvement grant program has $20,600 budgeted toward it for 2027.
Other budgeted items
Village Manager Jessica Frances at the Sept. 3 village board meeting updated trustees on other items that had newly been budgeted since the most recent discussion of Riverside’s capital improvement plan for 2027 on Aug. 20.
The priciest items include $45,000 for the parks and recreation department’s park planning from the parks and recreation fund for 2027 and $25,000 for a triangle restoration program starting in 2027 and continuing into future years, with village staff and volunteers working to maintain restored triangles.
$13,856 is budgeted as Riverside’s one-quarter portion of the cost to enable cross-community fire station alerting through West Central Consolidated Communications, a regional emergency dispatch group to which Riverside belongs. The village of McCook is working to construct a new facility for WC3 to benefit all four of its member communities, which also include Brookfield and North Riverside.
Smaller items include $3,000 budgeted for emergency equipment repairs completed by the parks and recreation department and $2,000 budgeted for a native landscaping program to be designed and administered by the village’s landscape advisory commission.
