Planning & Zoning Commission

MINUTES CITY OF DEKALB PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING May 13, 2015 The City of DeKalb Planning & Zoning Commission held a regular meeting on May 13th, 2015 in the City Council Chambers of the DeKalb Municipal Building, 200 South Fourth Street, DeKalb, Illinois. Chair Welsh called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Planning & Zoning Commission members present: Christina Atherton, Roger Ruehling, Matthew Crull, David Castro, Deborah Nier and Chairman Michael Welsh. Planning & Zoning Commission member absent: Adam Katz. Also present: Derek Hiland, Principal Planner, Dean Frieders, City Attorney, Jared Heyn, Planning and Zoning Intern, Pat Klein, Administrative Associate, Ellen Divita, Community Development Director, and Anne Marie Gaura, City Manager. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chairman Welsh called for an approval of the agenda. David Castro made a motion to amend the agenda to consider Item #2 in old business and #1 in new business prior to #1 in old business. The motion was seconded by Matthew Crull and approved by voice vote. APPROVAL OF MINUTES There were three sets of minutes for approval. Deborah Nier made a motion to correct her name in the minutes of March 25th. The motion was seconded by Matthew Crull and approved by voice vote. Chris Atherton made a motion to accept the April 22nd minutes. The motion was seconded by David Castro and approved by voice vote. Chris Atherton made a motion to accept the April 29th minutes. Roger Ruehling seconded the motion. Chair Welsh pointed out an error on the second to last page where Adam Katz made a motion to deny the density waiver which was seconded by Chair Welsh but the minutes duplicated the motion being made again by Adam Katz when, in fact, Adam Katz restated the motion, calling for a vote. Deborah Nier pointed out the misspelling of her name throughout the minutes. Deborah Nier made a motion to accept the corrected minutes of April 29th. Matthew Crull seconded the motion. It was approved by voice vote. CITIZEN COMMENTS Bessie Chronopoulos, 423 Gayle Avenue, DeKalb thanked the Planning and Zoning Commission for their work and said it involved difficult decisions. She spoke of the role of the Commission to advise the City Council on the rules and regulations of projects and said the Council depends on their knowledge. Bessie Chronopoulos spoke on several issues including: • Positive and negative motions and said positive motions added more clarity to the motion. • Joint meetings between City Council and the Plan Commission are beneficial and should occur once or twice a year. • The Plan Commission minutes should be available to the City Council when they are looking at a particular item, not later. • She felt Chair Welsh should have made a more formal recusal from the issue with the cell phone tower on South Seventh Street. • The Human Relations Commission’s interactions with each other and suggested more interaction between members of the Plan Commission. Chris Atherton apologized for forgetting Bessie Chronopoulos’ question regarding joint meetings between the City Council and the Plan Commission at the last meeting. Chair Welsh spoke regarding meeting with the Council and said that, in this case, there was no more advice available for the Council. Chair Welsh closed the Citizen Comment portion of the meeting. OLD BUSINESS #2 Continued Consideration on rezoning request by Dan Sears on behalf of D-N-J Properties, in order to convert the existing rooming house on 534 College Avenue into single and double occupancy apartments. Chair Welsh stated it’s been asked to continue this request to the meeting of May 27th, 2015. Chris Atherton moved to continue this request to the next meeting. The motion was seconded by David Castro and approved by voice vote. NEW BUSINESS Public Hearing on a proposal by JLAR, LLC c/o James Mason for a Special Use Permit to create a vehicle storage and junkyard at 1888 State Street, DeKalb, Illinois Chair Welsh said that staff has recommended moving this to the next meeting May 27th for further details. 051315 Planning and Zoning Commission Regular Meeting Minutes/p.2 051315 PZC Minutes Roger Ruehling made a motion to continue this to May 27th. The motion was seconded by Matthew Crull and approved by voice vote. OLD BUSINESS Continued consideration on a rezoning request from “MFR" Multi-Family Residential, to “PD-R” Planned Development Residential, and approval of preliminary and final development plans for University Village PUD, 722 North Annie Glidden Road, DeKalb. Chair Welsh spoke of voting on the individual waivers at the last meeting on April 27th and the creation of the “Facts of Findings” for review. Attorney Frieders spoke of page one of the “Facts of Findings” saying that surrounding properties within 1,000’ were notified of the Public Hearing. This is partially misleading. The surrounding properties were notified of the original Community meeting at the church where the timeline was discussed. The actual mailed notices of the Public Hearing were sent to property owners within 250’ as per State statute and City code. Attorney Frieders restated that the current rezoning request approval or denial will not affect current density. There will be no change to the current density and no displacement of residents. It does not affect the current use of the property as affordable housing. Chair Welsh clarified the initial mailings being sent to surrounding property owners within 1,000’ feet and further mailings being sent to surrounding properties within 250’ of the property per code. Attorney Frieders said yes, and that this will be changed in the final documents prior to signature. Chair Welsh questioned page 2 that states that at the April 29th meeting no parties or petitioners requested the ability to address the Commission and asked if the Public Hearing had been closed. Attorney Frieders said that yes, it had been closed, but the Commission can accept comments following the closure of the Public Hearing. In this case, there were no further questions. David Castro made note that the list of dates on the first page should include the April 29th meeting. Attorney Frieders said this will be added to the final document. Chair Welsh asked for questions on pages 1 through 12 of the “Facts of Finding”. There were none. Chair Welsh than discussed VIII, Determination and Recommendation, recording the Commission’s votes on each individual waiver in reverse order and noted their approval of waivers #2 through #7 with minor changes. The Commission could not approve waiver #1, Lot Size. It was voted to deny this waiver 4-3. David Castro commented on 2), Parking Ratio/waiver of parking requirements, and said that the first sentence, “The Commission cannot recommend approval of a waiver of the applicable parking requirements,” should be eliminated because this waiver was approved with some amendment. 051315 Planning and Zoning Commission Regular Meeting Minutes/p.3 051315 PZC Minutes Chris Atherton agreed with making this change. Attorney Frieders suggested a change in language to say the Commission cannot recommend complete approval of the waiver of applicable parking requirements but recommends the waiver with the condition of land banking for future parking needs. Chris Atherton spoke of their discussion regarding parking requirements hinging on the density. Attorney Frieders said that bedrooms or units determine parking requirements, not density. He restated the change to the waiver for parking requirements to read that the Commission cannot recommend approval of the complete waiver of the applicable parking requirement waiver but approved of the waiver with the added condition of land banking for future parking needs. The changes to the “Facts of Findings” were approved by voice vote. David Castro said that at the last meeting there was a vote on each of the 7 waivers individually and Council recommended a vote on the request as a whole. He asked if voting on the “Finds of Fact” was different than voting on the rezoning request. Attorney Frieders said that the “Findings of Facts” was a record and summary of the votes at the last meeting concluding with a resolution to deny the request for rezoning. If these “Findings of Facts” are accurate, then the Commission can adopt these “Findings of Facts,” with the changes discussed, and forward this to the City Council with the recommendation to deny the request. David Castro said that while he would vote yes on accepting the “Findings of Facts” as an accurate record of what has transpired, he would vote yes to allow the rezoning request. Attorney Frieders said staff struggled with the different composition of the Commission. A tie vote on the “Findings of Facts” would present the records of the votes of the last meeting and the votes of this meeting to the City Council with no recommendation. Mr. Castro stated he only wanted clarification and did not want to take advantage of the different composition of the Commission. Attorney Frieders said this comment would be included in the staff memo to the Council. Deborah Nier asked if they could make a motion to accept the “Finding of Facts” without the last paragraph. Attorney Frieders said yes, that’s correct. It may cause confusion to delete the last paragraph, but the first sentence of item 1) Density Requirements on page 11 says, “The Commission cannot recommend approval of this request.” This clarifies the intent of the Commission. Chair Welsh said the density was always the problem with the request for rezoning. Chris Atherton asked for clarity regarding if the request would proceed to City Council regardless of their vote. 051315 Planning and Zoning Commission Regular Meeting Minutes/p.4 051315 PZC Minutes Attorney Frieders said staff would encapsulate the record showing the votes of last meeting and the votes of this meeting along with the “Findings of Facts”. He recommended adopting the “Findings of Facts” with whatever changes necessary. Chair Welsh questioned the result of a tie vote. Attorney Frieders said that a tie vote on a motion would result in a failure of the motion. The motion requires a majority vote. Chair Welsh spoke of a positive motion vs. a negative motion. Attorney Frieders said for clarity, he recommends that the motion should reflect its intent. David Castro said that he would vote yes on the “Findings of Facts” reflecting an accurate depiction of the record, but he would still vote to approve the rezoning request. Chair Welsh spoke of the difficulty of being absent from a meeting and missing voting on major changes. The record does show the votes and it’s not unanimous. David Castro moved to accept the “Findings of Facts” and approve Chair Welsh’s signature on it with the three corrections as discussed. The motion was seconded by Deborah Nier. Chris Atherton said she did not realize that voting on the “Findings of Facts” would be the Commission’s final decision. Matthew Crull clarified that the “Findings of Facts” accurately summarized the discussion and their votes on the seven separate waivers. Adopting the “Findings of Facts” denied the rezoning request. Attorney Frieders said yes, denying approval of the first issue, density requirements, denied the request for rezoning from “MFR" Multi-Family Residential, to “PD-R” Planned Development Residential. Chair Welsh discussed that denying one piece of the seven waivers results in denying the entire request. Deborah Nier called the question. The motion to accept the “Findings of Fact”, including the denial of the request for rezoning, was approved 5-1 by voice vote with Chris Atherton voting no. CONSIDERATIONS None FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS None REPORTS/ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING 051315 Planning and Zoning Commission Regular Meeting Minutes/p.5 051315 PZC Minutes The next meeting will be May 27th at 6:00 p.m. Matthew Crull made a motion to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Chris Atherton and approved by voice vote. The meeting was adjourned at 6:51 p.m. Pat Klein, Recorder Administrative Associate 051315 Planning and Zoning Commission Regular Meeting Minutes/p.6 051315 PZC Minutes