Restaurant Owners Weigh in on Delivery Ordinance

After attempts to encourage downtown restaurant owners to limit delivery times, the Libertyville Parking Commission now considers proposing an ordinance.  The ordinance, which would allow police to ticket delivery trucks who make deliveries between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. in the parking lot behind village hall, has brought mixed feelings from the affected restaurant owners.

“I’d like to put all the pressure we can on all the companies before they start writing tickets to people,” says Firken and Tavern owner Rick Jansen. “Not only is it mean spirited, but it’s limiting.”

Jansen’s opinion and personal approach is to notify his own vendors to not deliver during lunch hours, and work hard at enforcing it with the semis and larger delivery trucks. He believes, though, that completely restricting deliveries could cause problems.

“When soft shell crabs hit the airport. They’re here. They’re alive. They can’t wait for times,” Jansen says. “Are we trying to stop that?”

“I’d like to take pressure off of the people who can only get to us at certain times,” he explains. “If all of the semis and the big guys are here when they want them here, aren’t we taking care of it? You don’t want to make it so difficult that business can’t get done.”

Jansen says that he has already started notifying his vendors and threatening them with a possible ordinance, but believes that if it is absolutely prohibited during lunch hours, more problems will arise in the parking lot.

“Do you realize what you’ve just done to 10 to 11 a.m. and 2 to 3 p.m.?” he asks. “You won’t be able to move.”

Another concern Jansen has is the possibility of two new restaurants opening up in vacant spaces inside the block which will add more traffic and delivery trucks.

Restaurant owner Larry Bonk, of Bonkers on Main, has strong concerns about the delivery situation in the adjacent parking lot.

“What I’d like to see is to not have three or four beer trucks from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  out there when it’s blocking the whole back entrance to my restaurant,” Bonk says and explains that he singles out the beer trucks because they are usually the largest delivery trucks in the parking lot.

“And I’m concerned with public safety,” he says. “People are walking in and out of restaurants, there’s the corner over there. It’s an accident waiting to happen.”

Bonk says that his fellow restaurant owners have already been asked to notify their vendors, but the current situation has not changed. He claims he notified his vendors and will not accept deliveries during lunch hours. His vendors, he says, have complied.

“If you enforce it, they want business just like we do. They’ll accommodate you,” Bonk says.

Like Bonk, the owners of The Picnic Basket have also worked on solving their delivery issues.

“We started taking a proactive approach three or four years ago,” says Picnic Basket owner Cathie Amin. “Our supplier drops are here at 6 a.m. and we love it because they aren’t blocking anything.”

Amin says she’s in full support of not having trucks in the parking lot during lunch hours and that their delivery schedule has made business and traffic run smoothly.  

“I’m in support of an ordinance,” she says. “There’s 24 hours in a day. It doesn’t have to be during those key hours.”

Amin does admit that everyone’s business is different and what works for one business owner might not work for another.

The village has not moved on the issue yet. According to village officials, they are still waiting for sufficient input from the Parking Commission regarding the matter.