Downtown Naperville bars and restaurants will be allowed to offer discounted afternoon drinks for the first time in more than a decade.

The Naperville City Council voted 8-0 on Tuesday, Sept. 1, to lift the city's ban on happy hour drink specials, the Chicago Tribune reported. The vote adopts state-level happy hour guidelines with three local guardrails: specials must end by 7 p.m., no drink can be discounted more than 50%, and no more than two alcoholic beverages may be served to one person at a time, with limited exceptions.

The decision reverses a policy rooted in a string of serious alcohol-related incidents downtown. A 2012 stabbing on Chicago Avenue killed an elementary school teacher. In 2014, two young men drowned in a water-filled Naperville Park District quarry after a drunken-driving crash. Those events prompted the city to tighten alcohol rules, banning happy hours, prohibiting late-night shot sales and barring patrons from entering or re-entering bars in the hour before closing.

"Obviously, those (alcohol-related incidents) have not continued," Mayor Scott Wehrli said at the Sept. 1 meeting. "The city's made great strides of improvement to guarantee the safety of our patrons in downtown."

Business owners pushed for the change

The repeal followed months of advocacy from restaurant operators who said the ban put Naperville at a competitive disadvantage.

Kevin Reed, vice president of operations for Biaggi's Ristorante Italiano and Ancho & Agave, first raised the issue at the Naperville Liquor Commission's July 9 meeting, according to commission records. The commission then unanimously recommended lifting the ban on Aug. 10, with the 7 p.m. cutoff as its sole local modification.

The vote was unanimous.

At that Aug. 10 hearing, Davanti Enoteca general manager John Zydowicz told commissioners that customers who ask about happy hour specials leave disappointed and spend nothing, as NCTV17 reported. Monica Conners, president of the Naperville Development Partnership, told commissioners that national chain restaurants have struggled with Naperville's rules because the city is one of the few communities in the country that did not allow happy hour.

When the matter reached the full council on Sept. 1, Conners said the ban forced restaurant groups with multiple locations to build Naperville-specific menus and modify their websites. She said owners have told the partnership the restriction hurts their competitiveness, their bottom line and their employees.

Christina Caton Kitchel of Caton Commercial Real Estate Group also spoke at the Sept. 1 meeting. She said successful restaurants fill seats on weekend evenings without trouble but that happy hour helps draw families and residents on fixed incomes during slower weekday hours.

What changed since 2017

Illinois lifted its statewide happy hour ban in 2015 after a prohibition dating to 1989. Naperville's Liquor Commission voted in 2017 to keep the local ban, citing safety concerns tied to the downtown incidents.

Commissioner Steve Chirico said at the Aug. 10 meeting that rideshare services and improved ID-checking technology have since reduced those risks. Commissioner Jason Dy suggested the commission revisit the policy in one year to assess the impact on businesses and the community.

Under state rules, bars and restaurants can offer happy hour specials for up to four hours per day and 15 hours per week. Volume deals like two-for-one drinks remain banned.

The city has not announced when the new rules take effect. Residents can track Liquor Commission and City Council agendas at naperville.il.us.