Committee approves People's Park sidewalk café permit; Joey's Diner application held for questions

The Waukesha City Ordinance and Licensing Committee on Feb. 24 unanimously approved a sidewalk café permit for People's Park and held over a separate sidewalk café application from Joey's Diner until the diner can answer committee questions and address engineering concerns.

The committee approved the People's Park permit after a motion recorded as made by Alderson Helvinsleben and seconded by Alderson Manion. "I'll make the motion to approve the sidewalk cafe permit for People's Park," Manion said during the discussion; a subsequent roll call was recorded as unanimous.

Committee members said they preferred having applicants present for new café applications. Alderson Manion told the committee he "would not be in favor of moving this forward without somebody present" when the Joey's Diner application was called, and later said, "I'll make the motion to hold this over until our next meeting and hopefully they can be in attendance for that." The item was held for a future meeting so the diner can respond to questions.

Staff flagged engineering concerns related to structures in the public right-of-way, specifically "the flags that they have and the fencing" placed by the diner, and the committee expressed a desire to have the applicant explain how those items would be addressed before a permit is approved. The committee did not record a vote on Joey's Diner at the Feb. 24 meeting.

By holding the Joey's Diner application, the committee left open next steps for the applicant to provide answers to the engineering department and appear at a future meeting. The People's Park permit will proceed from the committee record; no further timeline was stated at the meeting.

Meeting-level procedural items: the committee said minutes from the previous meeting were not available for approval and will be considered at the next meeting.