Non-festival food vendors appear to be out for St. Charles’ Main Street
A vote this week by the St. Charles City Council may have shut the door on any mobile food vending carts in the North Main Street bar-restaurant area for the foreseeable future - except during special festivals.
Veit
Amid continued opposition from nearby business owners, the council voted 8-2 on Tuesday against the proposed code. The bill, sponsored by 1st Ward Councilman Richard Veit, would have restricted where such carts could be located and spelled out their size and other issues.
Non-festival carts can still can be approved on an individual basis by the City Council without the special code but Veit said he thinks that’s unlikely to occur.
“I think we should keep trying different things, encouraging more and more business and activity,” Veit told the council before the vote. Only Erv Ermeling of the 10th Ward joined Veit in voting for the bill.
Veit got involved with the issue last spring when a Franklin County resident applied to operate a cart selling items such as hot dogs, bratwurst, bottled water and juice at the Washington Street walkway and Main up to six days a week.
Among opponents to vendors are Marc Rousseau, who owns R.T. Weiler’s - a bar-restaurant on the street. Rousseau said in a memo to the council that ”hot dog carts will take a piece of the pie” without contributing to the size of the pie through capital investment and advertising dollars.
The city Planning and Zoning Commission endorsed the hot dog cart application but recommended that the cart’s hours be limited to 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
The applicant told city officials he wanted to offer food that may sober people up as they leave the bar area for home. He later withdrew the application, though; Veit said he did so after Veit determined there weren’t enough votes for passage.
Veit then worked with city development staffers to come up with a detailed code laying out rules and restrictions for carts in general on North Main; that’s what was defeated this week.
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the RT Weiler’s guy should worry about his crappy service instead
Marc Rousseau should be more concerned about controlling his customers than trying to prevent other business owners from operating on Main St. RT’s is nothing but a fight-club for the college-age kids that go there. We stopped going because three times in a row this summer fights broke out INSIDE the bar that later spilled to Main St. What a joke of an operation and a circus that is being run down on Main St.
Whew - that was close. For a minute we almost had something a little different on Main St.
Nice forward thinking, guys.
Just another reminder of the “good ole boy” system in St Charles. No one is allowed to compete with them. Main St has turned into an out of control bar district…and they have the nerve to disallow anyone else from the outside to run a business there. Who says that a food business has to have brick and mortar? Has anyone on the council ever been to Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, etc??? A few food vendors would be a great addition to the downtown area. People wanting to grab something quick and then spend time in the park. This has always been a problem for St Charles. A handful of people have control over a majority of the Council. If this city really wants to flourish, the leaders are going to have to quit being so closed minded. The voters should wipe the slate clean and start over with a mayor and council members who truly represent the people and not just the “people”.
That’s the American way…screw the little guy!