Inconsistent Burr Ridge Enforcement Of Fire Lanes?

BURR RIDGE, IL — Six years ago, Burr Ridge arranged for one local restaurant to use its fire lane for valet parking service.

On Monday, however, the Village Board rejected the request for an awning by another restaurant in the same shopping center, saying the restaurant's delivery drivers were using the fire lane.

Trustees said the village would reconsider the awning for Capri Express in October as long as the restaurant complied with fire lane regulations. The restaurant's co-owner, Vito Salamone, said he would have his restaurant's delivery drivers stop using the fire lane, but it would be harder to get Uber and DoorDash drivers to do the same.

"I will do my best to comply," Salamone said in an interview.

The board's latest action appears quite different from how it addressed an issue at Capri Ristorante in 2015 (The two Capris have different owners, but are both in County Line Square.). At the time, Doug Pollock, the village's then-community development director, said in an email to village officials that he had contacted the Pleasantview Fire Protection District and that the fire marshal was fine with Capri Ristorante's valet plan.

"That plan would allow up to four cars parked in the fire lane for staging of the valet parking service with each car limited to 15 minutes maximum," Pollock said in the 2015 email.

In an interview last week, Pleasantview Fire Chief Steve Norvilas said Burr Ridge had authority over fire lanes, but the towns in the fire district often seek its feedback.

Norvilas said he was not the chief when the district handled the Capri Ristorante issue, but he said firefighters typically have no problem with valets and delivery drivers using fire lanes for short times.

"If a valet has keys to cars, they can rapidly move them," Norvilas said. "A delivery driver is going to move a car if there's an emergency."

Businesses often have things they need to drop off as part of their operations, he said.

"We understand that," he said. "I see cars stopped in the fire lane. It goes on day in, day out. We don't enforce that. If someone's is going to dine for an hour and leave their car there, we would have a problem."

At the July 26 Village Board meeting, Trustee Guy Franzese raised the issue of the use of the fire lane by Capri Express' delivery drivers. In response, Salamone said he would address the issue with his drivers and make it a priority. Franzese and his colleagues then voted unanimously to approve the awning, which is for outdoor diners.

At the board's meeting two weeks later, the board was set to take the next step and approve an ordinance to make the board's previous decision effective. The village staff recommended that trustees do so.

But Franzese asked the board to delay the vote, which his colleagues agreed to do. He did not mention the fire lane issue. Rather, he spoke of some incident the previous week that he said involved Capri Express and an unidentified business. He did not give any details, but he said he wanted a report at the next meeting before the board acted on the Capri Express request.

Patch received information that the police were called to an incident involving a zoning complaint at County Line Square, but it was unclear whether that incident was the one to which Franzese was referring. Phil Salamone, the other co-owner of Capri Express, told Patch the day after the meeting that he did not know about any incident involving his restaurant.

The village declined to provide Patch the police report for the incident in question, saying it was still under investigation.

Franzese has not returned messages for comment.

Another trustee, Russell Smith, said the police department has not finished its report on the incident, but officials have learned Capri Express had no involvement.

As for the fire lane, he said the board's concern was that Capri Express said it would take care of the issue, but photos showed it had not.

"For us on the board, if we give the special request for outdoor space and we don't resolve (the fire lane) issue, that issue would fall back to the police force," Smith said in an interview. "As a board member, I don't want to put more strain on police resources."

Smith, who became a trustee in May, said Capri Express is a good business and that he believes it would take care of the fire lane issue.

Earlier this year, the Salamones were among the neighbors who opposed Capri Ristorante owner Filippo "Gigi" Rovito's proposal for the Are We Live lounge in County Line Square. After heated public hearings on the matter, the Village Board unanimously approved the request.

Mayor Gary Grasso served as Rovito's attorney in zoning matters before he became mayor in 2019. And a plate was named in the mayor's honor at Capri Ristorante. In an opinion piece on Patch earlier this year, Grasso promoted the concept behind Are We Live.

Capri Ristorante's valet service, Blu Valet, is owned by the mayor's son, Michael Grasso.