The Municipal Services Committee met 06/24/2024. One of the items they took up was a request for a street occupancy permit for Lil Taco to place picnic tables on the sidewalk outside of their restaurant on State Street near the corner of College Avenue.
This was first discussed at the 06/10/2024 Municipal Services Committee meeting at which Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) expressed concern that area of downtown was a problem area at bar close time and the picnic tables, if left out, would result in people congregating there. The item ended up being held for two weeks to give the Police Department an opportunity to comment on the matter and provide staff the time to investigate whether it was possible under the Municipal Code to require the restaurant to bring the tables in outside of business hours.
After reviewing the memo provided by staff answering their questions, the committee ended up voting 4-1 to recommend the street occupancy permit be approved. Alderperson Siebers cast the lone dissenting vote.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
Of perhaps some interest, Lil Taco is run by Julia Nino Gomez, the same individual who owns Mr. Frogs and who just appeared before the Safety and Licensing Committee to plead her case for an alcohol license, an effort that was unsuccessful.
Per the memo submitted by staff, Lil Taco used to operate under different management and under the name Mr. Taco. At that time, the owner applied for a street occupancy permit yearly from 2017 through 2021. In 2021, Julia took over the business and did not renew the street occupancy permit although the picnic tables remained in place uninterrupted up through the present time.
Not noted in the memo, perhaps because it was not relevant to the specifics of whether or not to approve the street occupancy permit, the change in management at Mr. Taco/Lil Taco happened after the arrest of the previous owner on drug trafficking charges, after which his mother took over the business.
Per the memo, the Police department believed that if concerning behaviors were to occur in that area “such behaviors would likely occur during operational hours of the establishment, not after close. Therefore, a theoretical requirement that tables and chairs be removed from the right-of[1]way after business hours is unlikely to significantly impact behaviors of concern, positively or negatively.” The Police Department did, however, have the authority via the Municipal Code to “close a sidewalk café at any time the health, safety, welfare, or good order of the City is threatened.”
Additionally, staff “did not identify instances of a permit for which DPW had placed a time-of-day restriction on the placement of tables and chairs, although some permittees appear to voluntarily remove tables and chairs at certain times and days.”
In light of the information provided in the staff memo, the committee voted 4-1 to recommend the street occupancy permit for approval with Alderperson Siebers voting against.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1206376&GUID=04F4DDBF-540F-45FA-8308-0F8EE047FDDE
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