McHenry open-container entertainment district for downtown rejected by City Council

With only Mayor Wayne Jett and 7th Ward Alderwoman Sue Miller voicing support, the McHenry City Council has shot down the idea of allowing open alcohol in the downtown area.

Jett said he accepted the loss after an informal vote, but he wants to see more events resembling McHenry’s ShamROCKS the Fox, where open containers can be part of the festivities.

“I am disappointed,” Jett said of the council’s decision Monday night, noting that the town’s willingness to try different things to attract people “separates us from other municipalities.”

First proposed in October, the entertainment district plan called for allowing open alcohol from noon to 9 p.m. seven days a week from May 1 through Nov. 1. The ordinance would allow people to walk – with branded cups – on designated sidewalks and the riverwalk, as well as Main Street from Route 31 to the railroad tracks.

Tweaking it? Are we going to keep bringing this back until ... enough people flip over, or what?”

—  Andrew Glab, 2nd Ward alderman

Parks and Recreation Director Bill Hobson and police Chief John Birk presented the plan as a one-year trial that would need council reapproval each year.

With six of the eight council members, including Jett, showing support in October, Hobson and Birk continued to work on an entertainment district ordinance but with limited days and hours.

Since October, Hobson said he’s met with bar and restaurant owners, surveyed nonfood service businesses and gotten responses from residents in the Riverwalk Place Homeowners Association.

A “mandatory” meeting was held at City Hall with restaurant managers in the Green Street-Riverside Drive area, and those businesses gave unanimous support for the entertainment district, Hobson said.

Riverwalk Place residents were split on the idea, and nonrestaurant owners had only four in favor but with few overall responses.

Tavern owners on Main Street were not in favor of the entertainment district but “did express interest in a trolley ... for better connectivity through the streets,” Hobson said.

Council members, however, said they had not heard the same level of support from restaurant owners.

Of those he spoke to, one was a strong no and another was an “I am not really for it but will participate if it is here,” 5th Ward Alderman Shawn Strach said. “I was looking for a stronger yes.”

Two downtown residents – one from the Riverwalk Place townhomes and one from the River Place Residences – also spoke against the idea. Both cited public behavior – including people urinating at the Riverwalk gazebo, public intoxication, litter and harassment – as reasons they were not in favor of open containers.

McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce President Molly Ostap spoke in favor of an entertainment district.

“Looking at an ordinance like this in a measured way can be a very positive thing,” Ostap said.

What the business organization, which also hosts wine walks downtown, sees in an open-container ordinance is “a glass of wine and wanting to enjoy the water” while leaving one restaurant after dinner and going to another for dessert.

As the discussion wound down and without a scheduled ordinance vote, Jett asked Hobson and Birk to continue “tweaking” the proposal, but that was shot down.

“Tweaking it? Are we going to keep bringing this back until ... enough people flip over, or what?” 2nd Ward Alderman Andrew Glab said.

“So this item is dead,” Jett said after six council members said they would vote against it.