Janesville Council Votes Down Change to Outdoor Seating Ordinance

The Janesville city council voted down a change to an ordinance which would have not allowed restaurants to use city owned land for out seating. The council voted down the change 5-2 and of the four restaurants downtown only one had outdoor seating set up on city property. The change to the ordinance was due to concerns about the city’s liability with people drinking alcohol on city property. If the ordinance had passed the restaurant would’ve lost half of it’s seating because the other half is on a grass terrace that is part of the Janesville senior center property. The ordinance was passed to allow restaurants a streamlined way to quickly expand outdoor seating capacity to offset the losses with no indoor dining. The temporary ordinance only allows the extra outdoor seating to remain until late October.