Burr Ridge Restaurants Breaking Rules: Official

BURR RIDGE, IL – Some restaurants in Burr Ridge's County Line Square are violating the village's regulations, an official said this week.

At Monday's Village Board meeting, Trustee Guy Franzese responded to Mayor Gary Grasso's statements criticizing how the owners are taking care of the shopping center.

The village said it has sued the Garber family, which owns the center, over a leaky roof.

Franzese said the leaky roof bothered him, especially with water potentially dropping where customers sit and where food is prepared. He said the village shouldn't bully the owner or the tenants.

"But I do ask that there be equal and fair enforcement with the restaurants that have violated their special use agreements, their outdoor dining agreements and such by putting up unauthorized enclosures," Franzese said.

He said three restaurants put up the enclosures in the past and now there are two.

Franzese also objected to the winter storage of outdoor dining furniture in front of restaurants when the eateries were supposed to move the items off-site.

"The outdoor fencing isn't complete on one of these restaurants. It's been incomplete for at least three years," the trustee said. "The outdoor dining has more tables and chairs than what this board approved. The number was limited for a safety reason, and those restaurants need to adhere to that."

He said the outside storage of propane tanks was particularly troublesome.

"I'm talking about propane tanks. It was never approved by this board. And if an errant car were to run into these propane tanks, there'd be catastrophic devastation to County Line Square. That needs to be removed," Franzese said.

In response, Grasso said he had been speaking with Village Administrator Evan Walter about the issues at the restaurants. He said he would add propane tanks to the list.

The mayor has expressed his unhappiness with County Line Square before. On Monday, he asked the board to delay consideration of an outdoor dining request for County Line Square's Patti's Sunrise Café, now run by Michael Garber, a member of the family that owns the shopping center.

Grasso said he remained dissatisfied with the way the Garbers were running the center.

A staffer reported to Grasso that at a recent administrative hearing, the Garbers said they had hired someone to repair the roof. But the work had yet to be done, the staffer said. (Patch has filed a public records request for the documents.)

Grasso said that wasn't unusual.

"That's the continuing monologue that comes from the Garbers," the mayor said. "They're going to get it fixed. They're going to hire someone. Give us more time. This village has been more than reasonable with them, and they continue to keep (the center) in what I consider to be substandard conditions for the village of Burr Ridge."

Michael Garber declined to comment Wednesday.