At its June 14 meeting the Belleville Planning Commission granted a café permit for the Belleville Charhouse to have outdoor café seating along its frontage on Main Street.
Owners John and Cindy Dakis were on hand to answer questions about their plans to make outdoor eating more visible in the downtown area.
The outdoor layout will feature seven bistro-sized tables with two chairs each. Three will be located on one side of the front entrance and four to the opposite side. The smaller tables were proposed to allow the 10-foot ordinance requirement for pedestrians on the sidewalk. The distance between the restaurant building and Main Street is 13 feet, 6 inches.
In other business, the commission discussed amendments to the ordinance that controls outdoor café seating and definitions aimed at simplifying the process of getting a permit for its commercial and central business district.
Currently, the ordinance requires all applicants to have special-use approval. A prior approval the city granted to another business did not require the special-use approval.
Thus there have been two ordinances on the books that have been conflicting with one another. One requires planning commission recommendation as well as city council approval while the other did not. The new ordinance would combine both into one.
New language will be introduced at a public hearing before the commission on Aug. 9. The amendments will better define outdoor café into a Minor Outdoor Café License and a Major Outdoor Café License. The Minor Outdoor Café License would be issued by the City Clerk and City Manager while the Major Outdoor would be issued by the Clerk, and have to go before the City Council.
The commission also learned that it will soon be receiving an update on the city’s sign ordinance. A subcommittee has been working on it for many months and updating the list of conforming and non-conforming signs within the city.