Wayne County Officials to Speak on Businesses

A popular Italian eatery on Mack Avenue, , has tried for more than a year to create an outdoor dining patio. However, due to roadblock after roadblock by Wayne County officials, the patio does not exist.

The plan was originally to open it last summer. Now the restaurant, whose owners have been working closely with building and planning commission officials, is going to try again for this summer.

The experience is not isolated, according to the Woods Building Official Gene Tutag, who .

As a result, Wayne County Commissioner Tim Killeen and Deputy Director of Engineering for Wayne County Ronald Agacinski will both be at this month's meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. tonight.

The hope of having Wayne County officials at the meeting is to address the difficulties the Woods business owners have encountered and to figure out if there is a resolution that can be reached between the two.

Tutag said one of the issues seems to be changes in staff that sometimes then lead to different decisions on projects that have begun under different supervision and then are not meeting requirements of the new supervisor.

Other times, it seems the requirements by Wayne County differ a great deal from the objectives of the Woods, he said, giving an example related to landscaping.

Wayne County prefers that the area between the sidewalk and the street, which is techinically the county's responsibility to maintain, be kept plain and free from bushes, shrubbery or other decoration. However, in the Woods, business owners are encouraged to enhance their business properties to the extent they wish while still meeting zoning requirements and ordinances.

Tutag said many business owners are prevented from improving the look of their store front because of Wayne County decisions. Those decisions are appropriate for business districts in which less care is given to the outside area by owners or where maybe there are a lot of vacancies, Tutag said, because keeping it plain means the county will have to do less to maintain it thus saving money. 

The committee, which was only recently re-started after several years of being dormant, meets once a month and has representatives from Mack Avenue businesses, city council and city officials.