Building & Zoning Committee

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 The Niles Building and Zoning Committee meeting was called to order at 8:00 A.M. Present along with Chuck Ostman, Director of Community Development, was Zoning Chairman Tom Kanelos, Steve Vinezeano, Assistant Director of Community Development Rich Wlodarski and Mayor Robert Callero. Also present was part of the Sub-Committee: Harry Major, Mike Shields and Fred Kudert. Chuck Ostman moved to approve the minutes of September 20, 2012. Someone moved to approve the minutes and another person seconded the motion. The minutes were unanimously approved. Bob Callero proposed to let the gun club make their presentation first. The following people were in attendance on behalf of the range and gun club: Adam Firsel Sportsmans afirsel@coreequities.com Chris Papioannou Chicago PD chris1@papaioannou.com Nick Zakula Niles PD and Sportsmans nkza33@wowway.com James Oraha Sportsmans james@levelbuilders.com Nick Zodo Chicago PD nicola.zodo@chicagopolice.org Jesal Patel Patel Realty jp@patelrealty.com Myles Cunningham Level Builder myles@levelbuilders.com This item on the agenda is for the proposed use of a range and gun club at 7787 Caldwell Ave. Mr. Firsel said they are looking for direction from this committee on the likelihood of taking the next steps and going through the process. They want to spend time on things that have the likelihood of succeeding. They are here to answer any questions and be as open and honest as possible. It is a controversial issue but something they have given a lot of thought to and put together a good team of police officers and hobbyists. They look at this as a business and a venture that would benefit the community. They are trying to take a building on Caldwell which is currently in foreclosure. It is a dilapidated, problem building. They would like to convert it to a state of the art, recreational facility for firearm training, practice and sale of handguns, rifles, shotguns and ammunition. There will be a retail section to this Page 1 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 building with equipment, accessories, and soft goods. They expect law enforcement to buy their equipment and gear from them. They will offer competitive prices. They will sell firearms as well. The building will have a state-of-the-art trap system, ballistics steel range. They have not fine-tuned the number of lanes but it will probably be sixteen lanes. Basically it will be a structure within a structure. It will be completely self-enclosed. They are working with Action Target out of Provo, UT. They build the majority of municipal ranges around the country. They are the number one range builder in the United States. The steel is ballistic grade steel that comes from Sweden. The ventilation system is very complex. The company that does that is from Tinley Park, IL. They make sure the lead in the air and the cycle of the air meets all the standards. As far as lead disposal recycling, there is a system that filters all the casings and shells. You don’t touch it – it is all automated and goes into barrels that are recycled. The noise and air pollution is minimal. They have studies and can go into detail on the when necessary. There will be a lot of law enforcement training. The feedback so far is that a lot of law enforcement municipalities don’t have the training or a facility. The other partners will go into detail as to why this facility would be different than what is currently available. They expect to have law enforcement as customers as well as employees i.e. sales managers overseeing the sales. There will be an intricate data base and computer system that will track every customer, every sale matching up serial numbers to customers creating a profile for everyone that comes through the door. This whole thing is about safety and training. Guns are available. You can buy them in most neighboring municipalities. There is no good place available for training. When you buy a piece of equipment like this you want to know how to lock it, store it, clean it and use it properly. They are going for the responsible consumer that enjoys marksmanship and wants an outlet and facility to do this. Myles Cunningham added they passed out booklets [to the Committee] that detailed what the research shows would be the most significant concerns and things the Village of Niles might want to address. Beyond this booklet they have additional information. They feel the facility is two-fold. It is a recreational facility for the general public. He is a shooting enthusiast and grew up knowing how to handle weapons properly. His son is a Cub Scout and the only (closest) place he can go to learn how to shoot properly is in Bristol, WI. There are others that are closer but he doesn’t feel they are safe enough to take his son for shooting. He feels there is a gap in the market for this sport. Shooting has been an Olympic sport for 200 years. People train and get medals for this. Page 2 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 Because there are people who use guns irresponsibly, there’s a negative light cast over the sport. It is not their goal to change anyone’s mind or position on firearms. They just want to provide a facility where people who enjoy recreational shooting have a place to learn and shop and have educational opportunities. They would like to provide a state-of-the-art educational training facility. After talking with law enforcement from several communities, there are no adequate training facilities for law enforcement in the metropolitan Chicago area. There are bad people out there with guns and law enforcement needs to be trained properly to handle these situations. A section of this facility will be devoted to training through systems that no municipality could afford to buy on their own. Their goal is to provide the funding for the facility; let Niles and other neighborhoods share the facility so there is time to get training locally. A simulator, like the one we intend to buy for this place, is $250,000 to $400,000. It’s tough to get a municipality to buy something like this. The live fire (simunition rounds) is a tactical training bay where they can create different scenarios. So the two roles are recreation and training. Chris Papaioannou said he was excited to be asked to take part in this venture. Before he was on the current team, he was on the SWAT team. In order to train they had to go to North Chicago or Marseilles. If they were at a facility far away and had a situation come up, they had to drive quite a distance wasting valuable time to get to the site. The team he is on now [for the past four months] has been involved in two shootings. The problem with the department is they don’t have the proper facilities to train. Another gentleman said the Chicago Police Department has six ranges. He has been a police officer for seventeen years; a sergeant for nine. There haven’t been more than three ranges functional at any given time. The main range at the academy is always up and running. They have to cycle through 13,000 police officers and 6 or 7,000 retirees every year that have to qualify in order to maintain their weapon legally. If they want to go practice or train they have to call the ranges; but only two are usually open at any given time. 90% of the time they aren’t available. There are classes going in and out. If they want to practice some type of scenario, they can’t do it. There is a high demand for a training facility near the metropolitan area. If this opens there will be police officers in there all the time, either for recreational purposes or for training. Mr. Papaioannou said the ranges Chicago has are mostly static. Unless you’re on a SWAT team and are allowed to move, there is no realism when it Page 3 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 comes to shooting. This venue would allow the officers to move through different scenarios. He feels if this opens it could be one of the best training facilities in the country. Another gentleman said they anticipate groups that have to go north to the FBI Academy, which is FBI, Homeland Security, all local law enforcement in the metropolitan Chicago area will want to take advantage of what is offered here. It would be run like any other business: you book time and schedule it. There is nowhere else that can provide this and make it available to all groups that need it in this area. A speaker said when he became a policeman and got married, his wife said guns are terrible. But he taught her about how to take care of a gun, how to shoot it, maintain it, lock it up, etc. she loves to shoot now. A lot people that have no idea how to use a gun and have no access to get to places – they won’t go out of their way to do it. Because of the resources here, they can bring a lot of people in to teach them about it. Knowing they can make a difference is one of the reasons he is on board here. Jesal Patel said the location would be 7847 Caldwell, just south of Oakton on the east side of the street. The property has been abandoned for several years. It is in a state of disrepair. It is just over 70,000 sq. ft. and capable to support the use they are looking for. There is adequate parking and there is a plan to take some parking indoors. The zoning is M-1 (manufacturing and industrial district). Nationwide they are seeing alternative type uses occupy space within manufacturing/industrial buildings as the manufacturing/ industrial uses are moving elsewhere – more rural areas, out of state, out of country. You can see in Niles facilities built for warehouse or distribution centers are now filled with recreational users. There is volleyball, Jump Zone, Flying High, golf training facility, soccer – these are all recreational uses. People don’t ordinarily look at guns as recreational. As far as the neighbors to the north, the industrial area to the south, or Barnaby’s across the street, this would fit in quite well. As long as the noise levels of the building are kept within the current ordinance in the Village, he wouldn’t expect any issue to be raised. Certainly there will be trepidation in the beginning as they start the education process so neighbors will understand what is going on. But he feels it will be managed easily. Bob Callero said you addressed the apartments to the north because of noise levels; traffic should not be that bad because of the Caldwell area; you covered parking and Chuck [Ostman] would be looking closely at that. The Page 4 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 problem would be the apartments north and apartments across the street on the west side a little bit south. Chuck Ostman clarified that to the north are condos and across the street are apartments and more condos. [In Lincolnwood, Shore Galleries was recently turned down – that was a completely different group.] In Lincolnwood they tried to go into an industrial area also. A gentleman answered in Lincolnwood they had eight onsite parking places and were looking for massive variances in parking and other things just to make the facility work. A speaker said he is a Trustee in the Village of Lincolnwood and was part of the process and deliberations. This is a very different scenario than Lincolnwood. It is a smaller village than Niles. The area proposed was different in its makeup. Lincolnwood Town Center was within several hundred feet. Lowe’s, a new Wal Mart, Dominick’s, the school, public works facility, the parking concerns plus a variety of different issues in Lincolnwood that don’t exist here. He was asked how he voted on that. The speaker said what was presented was a denial of the Plan Commission. They voted twice – 5 to 1 for approval to relocate the firearms dealer and adding a gun range. It came to the Village Board and was sent back to the Plan Commission. Again they voted 5 to 1. It came back to the Village Board and ended up going 5 to 1 the other way. A motion was made by a Trustee against and he was the only dissenting vote against. This was not because of his relationship with this group. He did not feel the reason they were denying was just and within their purview. Chairman Kanelos asked if there used to be a gun range in the basement of what used to be Gabby Hartnett’s. The speaker said they raised all those issues in the deliberations. What ended up happening was the opposition. Understanding the opposition is the important thing for the Village. If the Village decides this is something they can have and it won’t be detrimental, there are going to be people who are adamantly against guns. If they could, they would take them out of the police officers’ hands. Page 5 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 Another speaker said he thinks 99% of the people think the police officers are there to protect them. The speaker there will be a vocal minority of people who will come out when you have a deliberation of this type. There is a gun range within the Village of Niles right now. Ranges exist throughout the country in retail areas, manufacturing areas and commercial areas. It is a matter of getting through the issues – making it safe and done right. This group wants to show how it should be done. It is a benefit not only to the residents and police departments in the area but also to all the citizens in the area if they want it to be. What he finds puzzling is that no one would care if this was already here. There will be people who say “no, we don’t want it” and there will be a lot of support for it too. There are thousands of guns registered in the Village and no place to shoot them. Mayor Callero said he doesn’t see this as being a sales tax advantage. A speaker said they would disagree with that. He thinks it will bring in major sales tax. The retail component will be also a state-of-the-art retail facility. Their plan is to sell uniforms for all the law enforcement and fire departments. A couple of locations that currently supply uniforms at a fair price are overburdened and can’t keep up with the current need. They project revenue on the retail side to be above $10 million a year. If they can do what they intend to with the uniform sales it will exceed that number. From a business perspective, even though it is a controversial issue, it is a market that is underserved and creates issues for individuals wanting to buy the things they need, especially law enforcement. Most get a stipend every year and many places overcharge. The places that are fairly priced are swamped. Another speaker said he needed a shirt for the NATO summit a few months ago. He walked into a store - BCG around 4200 W Irving Park and took a number and waiter for an hour and a half just for a shirt. He also paid what he didn’t think was a fair price. Another speaker said there is a large market – Blackhawk, 511 Tactical are two of many – that sell tactical clothing and it is sturdy and a lot of consumers are buying it. They think regular consumers will come in and like the clothing that is available – sweaters, jackets, pants, shirts. They see the retail store in this location being between 5 and 10,000 sq. ft. Mayor Callero thanked them for the information but the Village would be Page 6 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 very concerned with security on who it is sold to so that items that are sold out of this store do not show up in the gangs in Chicago or somewhere else. The speaker said they want guns to stay out of the hands of gang-bangers too. One of the main things at this facility is there will be off duty police officers working there. They will oversee every single sale of firearms and ammunition. No one can touch anything without an FOID card. They will insure no one walks out of that facility with anything they bought that should not have been sold to them. However, they are constrained by the law as to who they can turn down. But if they feel when someone walks in with an FOID card legally and wants to purchase a firearm, and think something isn’t right with this person, they will deny the sale. And if the person has to sue the owner, then he has to do what he has to do. But they will simply deny the sale if they don’t feel right about the party who wants to purchase it. Someone asked if legitimate gun owners buy guns and sell them to people who should not have them. The speaker said he doesn’t know of any who do. The person asked where do they buy the guns. Chairman Kanelos asked if they had any idea of the percentage of guns used in crime that are obtained legally. The person said it is a very low number. He said the guns used in Chicago come in from Indiana and Mississippi. There used to be suburban gun shops ten or fifteen years ago. It was a bigger problem then than it is now. One in particular was Gun World on Mannheim Road just south of Belmont Avenue. There were notorious for getting guns into the wrong hands. They’d have a straw purchaser go in and buy five to seven guns and turn around and sell them to Latin Kings or Gangster Disciples or whoever. That gun shop is closed. It is not the case anymore. They have never traced a gun to Shore Galleries in connection with a gang crime. The next speaker said there was a Sun Times article about a month ago saying there were thirteen guns listed in crimes that had been purchased at Shore. Mitch Shore is a police officer and owner of the business and he did some research. He found out one of them was a DUI where the gun was in the trunk. So some of those statistics can get overblown. Adam would be Page 7 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 able to help with the data when it comes to a straw purchaser – someone who comes in and buys a gun for someone else. But another reason they won’t do that at this new store is because there will be police officers there. That’s why they don’t do it at Shore Galleries. And a gangbanger is not going to go into Shore Galleries or this facility because there’s police there. There are on duty police and off duty police working there. Another speaker asked if they just ran the range and didn’t sell guns would this venture be viable. The next speaker said they don’t think so. They need to go hand in hand. They want people to purchase the right firearm and try it out. They want to have all this under one roof. The speaker said during training you learn what works and what doesn’t. If everything is right there you can fix whatever problems come up. The speaker [from three paragraphs above] said it gets complicated. People understand the recreational need and the police officers’ need but then it gets messy. Then with gun sales mixed in with this – it is a leap. There may be people out there who have no problem with the training aspect but have huge problems with the sale of guns. The way this is being presented, it’s all or nothing. You need both of them. Chairman Kanelos said if location is not here in Niles, where is the next closest location for citizens to buy guns. The answer was Dick’s Sporting Goods. Chairman Kanelos then asked where is the closest place for training for a responsible citizen who wants a gun and know how to use it properly. The answer is Gap Guns in Elgin. They offer training classes once a month. Another speaker said that is a problem in Chicago now. It was found unconstitutional when people weren’t allowed to own handguns. Then they said ok, you can own a handgun but you need a license and go through a forty hour class. Chairman Kanelos said therefore he can buy a handgun less than a mile from Niles but he can’t be trained how to use it unless he goes to Elgin. But they Page 8 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 don’t offer forty hour classes. The speaker said this would be more than just gun training; there will be CPR classes, self-defense and other safety training. Mayor Callero asked if there would be a membership. The answer was yes. Every person using the range must sign up for it and sign a waiver. Everything will be electronic with storage backed up at an offsite facility. They will take a picture of the FOID card and after registering you will become a member. After you register there are different levels of membership. The highest level will offer discount on the clothing, discount on the equipment; preferred reservations on the lanes, etc. The type of database will profile people, i.e. who has a Berretta. Then if there is a trunk show and a Berretta rep is coming in, they can email those people who favor Berrettas and they can come in to look at the equipment. The biggest impact is point of sale. Sales managers [most likely law enforcement] will be approving each sale of a firearm. These are big purchases, typically $1,000, and so the sales rep selling will have to get approval by the sales manager. The sales manager will go over the safety with the purchaser; make sure they understand the laws; register the weapon in their database and sign the proper waivers. And they can deny sale to anyone they want. The system in use here would be like walking into an Apple store. Everyone on the floor has a hand held computer system. They ask your name, punch it into the computer and immediately everything that person has ever purchased in the store pops up including the serial numbers of the guns. If people don’t want to be in the database, they can’t buy anything in the store or access the range. We feel that’s part of the responsibility of running this. We will know everything about everybody. They talked to the Chief [Strzelecki] a couple of times. There is a constant flow of information between this group and the police department. They are interested in advance marketing style that collects information. They can set things to red flag issues. If someone comes in and buys three handguns within two months, that’s a red flag. The next speaker said you can’t just walk in and walk out. There is a 72 hour waiting period for the name to be cleared through the state of Illinois. The only ones who can walk out with a gun right away are law enforcement and they must have permission from their chief. Another speaker wanted to clarify the difference between selling guns and Page 9 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 not selling guns. They are not hiding from the fact that some people will have issues with this. The plan is if this committee thinks this is a possibility there could be several pre-meeting get togethers with coffee and donuts wherever they can in the Village to talk to the people about this. There is no plan to try and push this through. They want everyone to know about it, be comfortable with it and ask as many questions as they want. Mayor Callero asked if there would be lockers to keep guns on premises. The answer was yes. Mayor Callero then asked what type of security would there be for the building and what would the hours of operation be. How many instructors or supervisors would there be? The speaker said every square inch of the building will have surveillance cameras on it. Cars pulling in and out of the lot will have their license plate photographed. The security would also be worked out with the police department every step of the way. They do not yet have the hours of operation exactly. His guess is they would be open past 9:00 p.m. The only exception to that would be law enforcement training. The instructor ratio is usually 1 to 4 or 1 to 5. Mayor Callero asked if communities themselves pay for training. Also can non-law enforcement people pay for training too? The speaker said yes to both inquiries. Another speaker said the general public would be offered the same types of training classes as the police. Yet another speaker said he has spent more of his own money on training than any he has received from the department. Even being on the SWAT team, he has gone all around the country on his own time and money. Mayor Callero had one last question. What would be the approximate investment in the total project? Also, what is the timeline? The answer was over $10,000,000. They are eager to get this going somewhere. They have been working on this a long time. They’d like to be in Niles and move forward as quickly as meetings and the process allows. Page 10 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 Mr. Patel said the build out is probably nine months because the range is so involved. Another speaker said he started shooting a couple of years ago. Before then he had a totally negative attitude. Now he has become very positive. He has been shooting at Mac’s and they do provide instructors. You can buy guns on line or out of state. You can get them anywhere. The fact guns would be sold at this location isn’t going to bring any more danger to the public. When you go around the country these types of facilities are prevalent. The next speaker said they stressed the aspect of specialized training for law enforcement at this facility. If it is that critical why doesn’t a range exist in Cook County region? The answer was the city has been trying to get a range for at least as long as he has been on the force [13 years]. They also got a range a few years back bordering Chicago and Indiana. It would be an indoor/outdoor facility. It was just turned down because of some native bird that has to be protected. The city has been trying but don’t want to put the money out. Mr. Shields doesn’t understand why law enforcement doesn’t get together to do this. It should be a public responsibility; not a private one. The next speaker said they’ve been amazed when they talk to the various bodies about this that ranges as a rule aren’t specialized with certain features. As they have looked into it, they feel it will be a good return on their investment. They changed their original business plans. They weren’t going to have that much law enforcement at all. It was going to be a range and retail. Based on the feedback, other ranges don’t have a lot of features that they are going to be putting in the location. They feel it is a good return on their investment. It will provide law enforcement better training to protect the citizens. Another speaker asked how big they expect the law enforcement part of the business to be. And do you require the municipalities require their officers to train here? The answer was 70 to 75% of the business. There will be police officers in there all day. They don’t think the municipality will require it but once they see the type of establishment it is, they will realize it will cost them less to Page 11 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 send the officers here as opposed to South Chicago and Marseilles. He thinks they will come to them. One of the gentlemen spoke of the simunition aspect. Instead of a real bullet it is a bullet made out of paint or soap. For instance, the Niles Police use glock pistols. For that training they use a glock pistol that fires blue or red soap. The force on force training is shown through military and law enforcement to get stress inoculation. It’s the best that can be provided and it is so hard to find a place that will allow you to do that. He doesn’t think departments require it but once they find out it is available at this new facility they will be lined up. Mr. Shields said he is a long time resident of Niles and does not own a firearm. He is looking at this from a public safety aspect. If this is so critical then why isn’t this done for the public? The next person said there is a firing range in Highland Park that different departments use. He isn’t sure if it is open to the public. It is a private sector solution for a public sector need that the public sector will not fulfill. However if several municipalities pooled together and spent $10 million on a firearms facility, you would hear the public say no. They would say spend $10 million on parks or on a recreational facility. The funding isn’t there for it. If you are familiar with Red Center, that is a public collaboration. Mr. Shields asked if the police would pay out of their own pockets to use the facility. The next speaker said he spoke to Chief Strzelecki of Niles and he said he would have his officers train there. They would put together programs to advance the training of the Niles Police Department. That would be funded out of the Niles training budget. It is the Chief’s feeling [along with other chiefs he has spoken with in the area] that they are all lacking in training space. Another speaker said with all the money floating around since 9/11, there is a lot of money at Homeland Security and security in general. Why doesn’t Congress step in? He said he is a business man and this seems to be a great opportunity. Why don’t municipalities get together and say we need a training facility? They could go to their congressional delegation and ask for the money. Page 12 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 Chairman Kanelos said he didn’t think they could answer the question but he bets they are probably glad Congress is not stepping in. Mr. Shields said people are going to ask what they are spending their public dollars on. He feels the police have received a lot more money over the past ten years for a lot of various reasons. He isn’t saying that is bad but police departments in general have gotten a lot more money. One of the police officers answered the government farms out as much business as they can. In 2007 he was a Department of Defense contractor and before he was shipped to Iraq he was in Washington D.C. for a couple of weeks. Then he was sent to Virginia to a private company to do munitions training. If the government wanted to open a simunition range they could do it overnight but they don’t. Another officer said a lot of the Homeland Security money is only allowed to certain SWAT teams. The Chicago department doesn’t get much money for this. The team he is on now is federally funded unit started in 1995. Every year they are allotted a certain amount of money to get the guns off the street. Yet the funds have not been replenished since last year. Chairman Kanelos said the private industry pumps money into the economy so it has additional benefits. Another gentleman said he feels the police training is an important aspect but the mission is just as important to make a facility available for the public too. You want people to be adequately trained. A police officer who lives in Chicago said he wants citizens trained in how to store, use, clean and maintain firearms. He lives less than a mile from Niles. He is in Niles all the time and wants to train people in Niles. Another officer said they are at robbery and home invasion scenes all the time. Things occur where people cannot protect themselves. It’s a terrible feeling and they see it all the time. Mr. Shields said the police do this all the time but most people just don’t get it. He said the police have a different perspective but most people don’t see it the same way. Niles is considered middle class, family friendly. It is a consideration that with Niles, IL all over the advertising of this gun club, not everyone is going to be happy with that. People think of Niles when the Page 13 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 Leaning Tower is brought up. But if they start thinking about gun clubs and a gun sale, that’s a whole different ballgame. As important as this may be, it may not work in a place like Niles that has that DNA. Mr. Patel said it wasn’t a fluke they are presenting this to Niles. The first step when the gun committee approached him to find a site where it would seem to be acceptable. The perception of guns and gun uses is a big hurdle to get over. They were drawn to Niles because they permit gun sales within the Village. That doesn’t change anything but the fact remains. Sales of guns are within a Special Use in B-2 throughout the Village. Mr. Shields said to advertise for Dick‘s or Cabellas is a totally different thing than advertising for a single use for a gun store. Chairman Kanavos said that presupposes that would be perceived as negative by most people but it wouldn’t be by a lot of people. Mr. Patel said they understand where the people in this room are coming from but his group respectfully disagrees. The way they are presenting this is something the Village should be very proud of. It will be a world class facility that would be located in the Village of Niles. This will be a model for how to safely be trained and purchase firearms which are already allowed. Mr. Shields said he has lived in Niles 40 years and knows all his neighbors up and down the block and feels they would agree with him. Another gentleman on the gun committee said he agrees and that would be one of the challenges in getting the message out. Mayor Caller asked if there could be a stipulation. Chairman Kanavossaid he feels there will be some knee jerk reaction and some legitimate reaction; but it will be their job [the gun committee] to satisfy the Zoning Board first of all that is necessary for the public convenience and how it would impact the surrounding area. If you can do that, the Board has shown itself to be remarkably impartial. He asked Mr. Postman if this would be a Special Use. Mr. Postman replied it requires text amendments. Someone else added it would be text amendments concurrent with Special Page 14 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 Use and sales and changing from B-1 to that. The Building and Zoning Committee thanked all gentlemen from the gun committee for coming and presenting their case. Those seven gentlemen left and the Committee resumed discussions. Mr. Postman said the members here today are actually four of six of the subcommittee on the Comprehensive Implementation Committee. This is part of the presentation the Committee thought it was very important to bring to the Building & Zoning Committee because they report to the Building & Zoning Committee and then to the Village Board and then the public. He then asked Mr. Shields to speak. Mr. Shields said his job today is to go through the slides and answer questions. The first one is implementation. That‘s what this committee is about. There is also recommendation. These are recommendations. The idea is to send these recommendations to the Mayor and the Trustees for their approval, change, whatever. Implementation – very action oriented recommendations. The next slide has some history to it. In October 2010 the first meeting of 2030 Plan Development Committee occurred. It was chaired by Trustee Przybylo. A year later in October 2011 the plan was unanimously approved by the Trustees. He quoted “accepted as the Village’s policy framework for guiding growth and change in Niles over the next 10 to 15 years.” It doesn’t mean they have to do everything exactly the way the plan says because it is a framework. On February 17, 2012 Mayor Callero announced the formation of a Plan Implementation Committee. The idea there was the Mayor wanted some recommendations from the Committee on how to actually move forward. The Committee was from outside the Village Hall: residents and business owners. It was formed and the first meeting was June 19, 2012. They have six members: Pat Dallesandro has lived in Niles since the early Fifties. He owns Coachlight Realty and is local national leader in the real estate industry. Steve Gorski has lived in Niles for 24 years and a public accountant by trade. He is a senior auditor for the federal government. Fred Kudert has lived in Niles for 30 years. He is an engineer by trade; has worked 40 years in engineering and R & D in the packaging industry. He holds 21 patents and was a project manager for 20 of those 40 years managing projects between 20 and 25 million. He was also a member of the Storm Water Committee and a member of the 2030 Plan Development Committee. Harry Major is a public accountant by trade but moved into retail development in the Eighties. He has owned and improved Oak Mill Mall since 1994. Harry may have more developments in Chicago than Fred Page 15 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 has patents. Chuck Ostman, the Community Development Director for over a decade. Himself [Mr. Shields] lives in Niles for over 40 years and has a background for 25 years as a Senior Manager at Abbott Laboratories. That included a number of years on the International Division. He was also on the Milwaukee Avenue Streetscape Committee, the Plan Development Committee and this committee. The next slide is their approach: there were six meetings between June and September. The idea was to take 183 objectives in the Plan that was approved by the Trustees. They didn’t change anything but went through each of the objectives and established the priority when each of the objectives should be implemented. This is very straightforward and project oriented. Another speaker said that was the heart of the plan. The pyramid is the vision and the simple paragraphs that are the executive summary run it altogether and this is the foundation underneath. That is why they focused on the objectives. But it always came back with how they fit with key aspects of the vision. Mr. Shields said their backgrounds are real world stuff. They want realistic timing; they want to blend in the Village’s capability and also blend in the community’s desires too. They developed a numeric rating system where 10 would be implementation immediately = 2013. #9 would be 2014, #8 would be 2015, #7 – 2016, #6 – 2017, #5 – 2018 and beyond. Some of these things may not happen until the 2020s. A number of things have gone on as they went through this. Storm Water Relief Plan was approved; approval of the rewrite of Zoning Ordinances; an approval of hiring a new planner and economic coordinator in Chuck’s department; there is an Environmental Action Plan going on to be rolled out in early 2013. They are basically prioritizing these objectives and a lot of these items recognize what is going on now. They reviewed, assessed, discussed, argued about and finally voted on each of the objectives and came up with an average. Fred did some great minutes and if you read those minutes you will see not everyone agreed. There was a lot of discussion. In the end they came pretty close on a lot of these items. There was a general consensus of where they should be. A gentleman spoke and said he agreed with Mike’s perspective. The result does reflect they used the word unaniminity. There were diverse opinions but as a committee of six they support what is here. Mr. Shields asked for the next slide. This is a summary of the ratings. All this in on an overhead and he goes on to explain the Plan’s 11 vision elements Page 16 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 - everything from residential down to arts and culture. 183 objectives. They recommend in the first 2 years that 83 of the 183 objectives should be implemented. 21 and 22 in 2013. 61 in 2014. There were 3 areas that popped out during voting. The commercial, the image identity and economic objectives are essentially economic boosters to Niles. It is moving Niles to another level even though they are doing well right now. They can do better by bringing in more sales tax revenue and creating more vitality in the economic area. He went on to discuss more objectives. Facilities and services are not necessarily going to boost the economic situation in Niles. Someone else spoke of how this chart was drawn and how it fits in the community. Mr. Shields asked for the next slide. He feels this very do-able. There are 4 areas that will drive the implementation: the rewrite of the ordinance will happen in 2013; the new planner and economic coordinator; the existing public services department and the Village Manager’s office. Now on to slide 6. He detailed the numerics of what he was talking about. The objectives are well written but there has to be a department responsible for implementing those along with accountability. They are not talking about breaking the bank. They talked about all this as a committee. Next slide shows examples of 2013/2014 examples. He went on to explain just one – to review and update the Village’s landscape ordinance. It will be enhanced when they write the ordinance. They will update the Village’s website as well. These are more a matter of assignment as opposed to adding staff. Next slide is about the bike path plan. A big thing is to make sure there are sidewalks on both sides of Milwaukee Avenue. The keyword to all of these things is do- ability. Next slide shows 13 of 83 objectives for 2013/2014. He feels there are 70 that don’t require funding. The 13 will need some funding. Sometimes there is a misconception this will break the bank when in fact it won’t. The key is assigning a responsible department and paying attention to funding. Next slide shows the community feedback. He went on to explain that. One thing is the sales tax keeps growing but they always need more. The pension expenses are starting to hit the general fund now. That was something they didn’t have to deal with 10 years ago. There are infrastructure maintenance needs and the cost for those is increasing. They don’t want to cut services but they may be forced to if they don’t get more revenue. Next slide shows how the employees of the Village need to buy in to the plan and do their part also. There should be an orientation with the department head giving it and explaining to employees what their part is in this plan. There should be a formal tracking system possibly meeting Page 17 of 18  MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE VILLAGE OF NILES COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS October 31, 2012 quarterly to see how progress is moving and to make course corrections. Another gentleman said they need to build on the leadership and efforts of the Trustees. They need to work in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce, the park district and the library. Mr. Shields said they want Niles to continue to think big. Next slide are development photos that got a lot of attention. This is framework for forward thinking. Last slide is a summary of the whole presentation. This is a cultural commitment. He thanked everyone for their attention. Mayor Callero feels this is very do-able. They need people like Mr. Shields on this sub-committee to give the plan to go forward some credibility. He told them they have done a great job and to please compliment the rest of the people on this committee. Mr. Ostman said Mike and Fred were the driving force on making this presentation. They did an awesome job on this. Mayor Callero said a good portion of this needs to be assigned to the new person coming into the development department and if they keep the sub- committee in existence this will be a great success. It has done more than he envisioned when it was set up. This will be driven by economics. Mr. Wlodarski said it was a committee of complete disagreement at times but it was handled professionally and they came to a consensus. This program is to be brought to the Board during the November meeting. Mr. Shields said he can get through his part in 25 minutes, so with questions 45 minutes total. The meeting disbursed at approximately 10:15 a.m. Kathleen Janessa, Recording Secretary Page 18 of 18