Comprehensive Plan Subcommittee

Village of Arlington Heights Comprehensive Plan Subcommittee Planning Department Conference Room, 2nd Floor Arlington Heights Village Hall 33 S. Arlington Heights Road Arlington Heights, IL 60005 March 24, 2015 6:30 PM I. CALL TO ORDER II. ROLL CALL III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Minutes - 2/24/15 IV. OLD BUSINESS A. Comprehensive Plan Update - PC#14-020 V. NEW BUSINESS VI. OTHER BUSINESS VII. ADJOURNMENT Persons with disabilities requiring auxiliary aids or services, such as an American Sign Language interpreter or written materials in accessible formats, should contact David Robb, Disability Services Coordinator, at 33 S. Arlington Heights Road, Arlington Heights, Illinois 60005, (847)368-5793 (Voice), (847) 368-5980 (Fax) or drobb@vah.com.  Item: Minutes 2/24/15 Department: Planning & Community Development ATTACHMENTS: Description Type Minutes 2/24/15_DRAFT Minutes  COMPREHENSIVE PLAN SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE VILLAGE OF ARLINGTON HEIGHTS PLAN COMMISSION HELD AT VILLAGE HALL ON: February 24, 2015 Project Title: Comprehensive Plan Update Petitioner: Village Of Arlington Heights Attendees: George Drost, Chairman Jim Tinaglia, Village Board Trustee Mary Jo Warskow, Plan Commissioner John Sigalos, Plan Commissioner Joe Lorenzini, Plan Commissioner Terry Ennes, Plan Commissioner Bill Enright, Deputy Director Planning and Community Development Chairman Drost convened the meeting and asked for approval of the January, 2015 meeting minutes. Those present at the January meeting approved the minutes. Meeting Discussion: B. Enright began discussions on corridors by presenting six corridors with aerial images, maps, and street view photos. Commissioner Ennes asked how we define a corridor? B. Enright replied that corridors are linear areas that run along major streets that typically are showing some signs of age, lack of cohesive development, lack of landscaping. These areas developed many years ago. Commissioner Lorenzini added that properties that have redeveloped in certain corridors look very nice, but that other areas that look tired have a lack of space to implement much change. Chairman Drost mentioned that these areas all have an element of fatigue, and that redevelop should be considered as part of any future studies. Commissioner Ennes asked if Dundee Road would be looked at as a corridor? B. Enright indicated that Dundee Road is not contemplated as it is relatively newer to the other corridors and does not exhibit the same characteristics. Commissioner Sigalos asked what could be done for instance with the Arlington Heights Road corridor from Central to White Oak? B. Enright indicated that one possibility is a Special Service Area or Special Assessment to fund improvements. Improvements could include signage, lighting, landscaping. Chairman Drost commented that the newer Peoples Bank site looks very nice and could serve as an example of good development for this corridor. Commissioner Warskow added that there are new vacancies every so often in this corridor as businesses change over. B. Enright displayed the aerials for the S. Arlington Heights Road corridor from I90 to Noyes Street. He mentioned that Scholl District 59 bought the former Wellington site and has been looking at options to develop that site. In addition, there is a new owner of the former Yannis who is looking to possibly redevelop that corner property. C:\Program Files (x86)\neevia.com\docConverterPro\temp\NVDC\3588DAD9-9242-46EF-9A95-90048380239D\Arlington Heights.2869.1.MinutesFeb2015.doc  COMPREHENSIVE PLAN SUBCOMMITTEE Trustee Tinalgia asked if IDOT would work with the Village on the overhead power lines along the west side of Arlington Heights Road that are poor visually. Maybe the Village could establish a fund long term to bury the power lines to improve the aesthetics, have less power outages. Increased landscaping is needed as well similar to Oak Brook which has intense development but significant landscaping. Chairman Drost added that there are underutilized office space at the southern end of the corridor. B. Enright indicated that the office vacancy rate has decreased a lot from past years but still higher than desirable. B. Enright then introduced the east Northwest Highway corridor from Arlington Heights Road to Waterman. The first portion east of Arlington Heights Road is older development on very shallow lots, tight parking and little or no landscaping. A future corridor plan may want to look at redevelopment of the properties fronting Northwest Highway and add properties which are at the rear (north) to provide better depth. Commissioner Sigalos asked redevelopment would include some of the single family properties to the north? B. Enright indicated that those issues would need to be part of a more detailed Corridor Plan. The next segment is adjacent to Rec Park and the Park District has plans to expend the park to Northwest Highway. Moving east this segment is part of the Hickory Kensington Area Plan, which calls for redevelopment of the area including along Northwest Highway. Further east the corridor has redeveloped such as Marianos and Walgreens and the new shopping center where Culvers is located. All these newer redeveloped areas provide a good example of cohesive, well landscaped and designed sites which greatly enhance the corridor. The Subcommittee agreed that we really only need to focus on the first three blocks east of Arlington Heights Road as the remainder has either redeveloped or is part of an existing redevelopment plan. B. Enright then presented the west Northwest Highway corridor from Chestnut Avenue to Wilke Road. The corridor is a combination of residential and commercial, with commercial primarily auto repair related. Trustee Tinaglia raised concern over the very poor aesthetics along the railroad tracks east of Euclid. This is property owned by the UP Railroad and used for storage, but is often a vacant gravel lot that seems to be rarely used. As a key intersection in this corridor the Village should work with UP to improve this site. Maybe find other property along the south side of the tracks for the storage so that this more visible piece can be landscaped. B. Enright added that we worked with UPRR several years ago to try and landscape a larger strip but UP only agreed to about 5 feet, which has been implemented but is minimal in its impact. Commissioner Lorenzini mentioned that the sidetrack for UPRR is on the north side of the tracks so moving storage to the south side would require the sidetrack to be moved as well which is not as easy to accomplish. He suggested starting the conversation with UPRR Community Affairs division. Commissioner Ennes added that the railroad companies have a lot of power via the Federal Railroad Act so it is difficult for the Village to require much from the RR. Commissioner Warskow suggested evaluating a decorative brick wall to screen the area as that won’t take much space to construct. All agreed that it is something to explore with UP. The Subcommittee agreed that there should be one Northwest Highway corridor study area from Belmont on the east to Wilke Road and the west. C:\Program Files (x86)\neevia.com\docConverterPro\temp\NVDC\3588DAD9-9242-46EF-9A95-90048380239D\Arlington Heights.2869.1.MinutesFeb2015.doc  COMPREHENSIVE PLAN SUBCOMMITTEE B. Enright presented the Rand Road corridor which at the east end is characterized by commercial uses but also intermixed municipal limits between Arlington Heights and Prospect Heights. In the past we have attempted to rework the borders so that they are more rational, but were unable to agree on which land to exchange. The circuitous border makes it difficult to land plan and to enhance the corridor, but any future effort will need to include discussions with Prospect Heights. Further the Village is currently developing a corridor enhancement plan with consultant Teska Associates which will offer ideas to improve the corridor and give it an identity as a major shopping district. Commissioner Ennes indicated that this area also has overhead utilities that are an issue. The Subcommittee did not think there were any pressing issues with the Rand corridor. B. Enright then presented the last corridor along Arlington Heights Road from Sigwalt to Park Street. This is an important corridor entering into the downtown area and has developed incrementally. The area is primarily commercial with shallow lot depths on the west side but more depth on the east. Trustee Tinaglia suggested that this corridor is vastly different from the downtown in its appearance. Commissioner Warskow added that although she doesn’t frequent the businesses there, it appears that one of the issues is that this corridor is difficult to walk to with very narrow sidewalk along Arlington Heights Road. Commissioner Lorenzini thinks that this is a high priority corridor. Commissioner Warskow agreed that this area if improved would provide a high degree of benefit to the Village. The Subcommittee members agreed to prioritize the corridors as either a 1, 2 or 3 (with 1 being highest): Arlington Heights Road: Sigwalt to Park as 1 Northwest Highway: Belmont to Wilke as 1 Arlington Heights Road: Central to White Oak as 2 Arlington Heights Road: I90 to Noyes as 3 Rand Road: Oakton to Hintz as 3 The Subcommittee agreed to meet again on March 24, 2015 at 6:30pm.to discuss the community survey. RECOMMENDATION None at this time. The meeting adjourned at 7:45 PM. George Drost, Chairman Comprehensive Plan Subcommittee Bill Enright, Recorder C:\Program Files (x86)\neevia.com\docConverterPro\temp\NVDC\3588DAD9-9242-46EF-9A95-90048380239D\Arlington Heights.2869.1.MinutesFeb2015.doc  Item: Comprehensive Plan Update - PC#14-020 Department: Planning & Community Development Survey I have drafted possible questions to survey the community (attached). The purpose of the survey is to obtain some general feedback from the community on growth, impacts of development, type of development, and how persons rate the Village in terms of land uses. It is 16 questions long and takes about 3 to 4 minutes to complete. If there are additional areas you would like to probe, we should certainly do so at our meeting. The Village will use social media as one form of getting the word out regarding the Plan update and to elicit input from residents and the business community. The Village currently has a Facebook account by which we can post links to obtain information on the Plan. To date, the Village has 2,431 “fans” on our Discover Arlington account who live in the Village, and 864 “fans” on our Planning Department account who live in the Village (there is likely overlap of these two accounts in terms of “fans”). None the less, through Facebook we can reach a lot of residents (the Facebook accounts also have significant reach beyond Village residents). Also, the Village has residents who have signed up for our E-Blast notifications as well as the Village’s Twitter account. In addition, the Village can issue a press release to inform the public of the survey. The media typically will cover a project of this nature. Some of the tools we can use are the Survey Monkey, which the Village subscribes to. This tool provides an easy to use format for generating questions in order to obtain feedback, and will generate reports or summaries of any feedback received. Next Steps / Meeting Discuss and modify the draft survey as necessary. April 28, 2015 is the next scheduled meeting date. The focus of the Aprils meeting will be how to incorporate historic preservation into the Comprehensive Plan. Also, depending on the survey timing, we may have results coming in to begin discussing. ATTACHMENTS: Description Type Survey Exhibits Survey: 2015 Comprehensive Plan Update 1. What is your age category? Under 18; 18-24; 25-31; 32-38; 39-45; 46-52; 53-59; 60-65; 66-72; 73 or older 2. What is your gender? Female Male 3. Are you a resident of Arlington Heights? Yes No 4. If yes, do you own home or rent? Own Rent 5. If yes, how long have you lived in your current residence? 6. If not a resident of Arlington Heights, do you work in Arlington Heights? Yes No 7. Including yourself, how many people currently live in your household? ____ 8. The Village’s current population is 75,101. Please select one of the following desired populations for the community 15 years from now in Year 2030: 70,000-75,000 (0% to 7% decline in population) ____ 75,000- 80,000 (0% to 7% increase in population) ____ 80,000- 85,000 (7% to 13% increase in population) ____ 85,000- 90,000 (13% to 20% increase in population) ____ 9. How strongly would you support or oppose policies regarding growth in the Village of Arlington Heights? Strongly Support Oppose Strongly No Support Oppose Opinion Policies that restrict growth. Policies that pace growth in targeted areas. No policies, unlimited growth 10. Which of the following types of development would you like to see more of in the Village Of Arlington Heights? More Same Fewer No Opinion Office Buildings Retail Shopping Centers Mixed Use developments with retail on first floor and residential above (4 or 5 floors total height) Restaurants Entertainment/attractions Grocery stores Hotels Industry Apartments Rental Condominiums Ownership Townhomes Senior Housing Apartments 11. Presently how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the following aspects of the Village Of Arlington Heights (check one for each aspect listed below): Strongly Satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Strongly Dissatisifed No Opinion The number of retail businesses in the Village. The overall appearance of your neighborhood. The overall appearance of the Village. The quality of parks in the Village. The distribution of commercial and residential property in the Village. 12. Please indicate how you feel about the following statements: Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree No Opinion The Village should encourage sustainable (green) development for new construction by encouraging energy efficient buildings that have less impact on the environment. Older historic buildings in the Village should be preserved. Future growth in the Village should be in targeted areas pursuant to an approved redevelopment plan. A decline in Village population is good for the community. The Village should improve the appearance of certain “corridors” along major roadways that are showing signs of age. My neighborhood has storm water drainage problems. Commercial areas along some major streets lack landscaping. Overhead utility lines along certain major streets are an eyesore. 13. Please indicate the level of importance for each issue described below as it relates to Arlington Heights: Very Somewhat Not Important Important Important No Opinion Providing More Open Space Improving Transportation Options Development that has less impact on the environment Improving the appearance of the Village Redevelopment of older commercial areas Increase the tax base with new, compact mixed use development Increase the number of jobs located in the Village. 14. Please rate the quality of each of the following in the Village on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being highest) Parks ___ Downtown ___ Residential Areas ___ Commercial Shopping Centers ___ Schools ___ 15. Visual / Photo Survey: a. Reviewing photos A and B below, do you prefer buildings closer to the street with parking at the side as shown in Photo A, or do you prefer buildings setback with parking in front as shown in Photo B? Photo A_____ Photo B _____ No preference _____ b. In Photo C below (Arlington Heights Road south of Downtown), please rate the importance for each of the following: Very Important Somewhat Important Not Important No Opinion Need for wider sidewalks along Arlington Heights Road? Replace existing tall street lights with more decorative streetlights similar to downtown? Work with commercial property owners to provide landscape screening of their parking areas? c. In Photo D below (Arlington Heights Road north of Algonquin Road and south of Golf Road), please rate the following: Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree Disagree No Opinion The overhead utility lines to the left along Arlington Heights Road are a visual blight. The Village should work with the Illinois Department of Transportation to provide medians with landscaping in the center of the road where possible. Photo A Photo B Photo C Photo D 16. Please provide any additional comments about the Village with respect to land use and development that you you would like to see improved: