Village trustees killed a proposal to substantially increase fees restaurants pay to rent sidewalk space for outdoor seating, but approved fee hikes for vehicle stickers, parking tickets and garbage collection.
In fiscal year 2016, which begins Jan. 1, the fees for parking tickets will increase $10 for tickets that now cost $20 or $30. Tickets that currently cost $50 will increase to $75. The increase is expected to generate roughly $350,000 in new revenue for the village.
Drivers also will pay $20 more for vehicle sticker fees. The stickers for passenger cars will jump from $50 to $70. The fee increase will not be applied to senior citizens.
The village board also increased the fees for garbage collection by 3.5 percent to help pay the cost of alley repairs. The increase is expected to generate $120,000 in revenue.
A fee increase proposal killed at the Monday night meeting would have more than doubled the fee paid by restaurant owners for outdoor cafes. That increase would have doubled the application fee to $100 and increased the square footage charged for sidewalk seating from 50 cents per square foot to $3. That proposal would have raised about $25,000 annually in additional revenue.
Village Trustee Colette Lueck said the sidewalk cafe fee hike should be considered again next year because the proposal was shut down because of opposition from a few business owners.
“We didn’t hear from the majority [of business owners with outdoor cafes],” Lueck said, adding that everybody should share in the pain of fee increases.
Trustee Peter Barber, who in earlier meetings voiced concerns over the proposed fee increase, said Monday that it is reasonable to look at fee increases for restaurants with sidewalk cafes.
He said the problem with the fee increase was that it was never discussed with the business community.
CONTACT: tim@oakpark.com