Building & Zoning Committee

“Where People Count” Community Development 1000 Civic Center Drive, Niles, Illinois 60714 Mayor Telephone (847) 588-8040 ● Fax (847) 588-8050 ● TDD (847) 588-8059 Andrew Przybylo Trustees August 8, 2013 George D. Alpogianis Chris Hanusiak John C. Jekot Building and Zoning committee meeting Joe LoVerde Danette O’Donovan John Jekot- Trustee Matyas Ross Klicker- Economic Development Rosemary R. Palicki Steve Vinezeano - Acting Village Manager Acting Village Rich Wlodarski - Community Development Assistant Director Manager Bruce Sylvester - Senior Planner Steven C. Vinezeano Tom Kanelos - Chairman Planning and Zoning Board Absent - Chuck Ostman - Community Development Director Village Clerk Marlene J. Victorine Joe Annunzio - Village Attorney ______________ Community Development Rich Wlodarski called the Building & Zoning committee meeting to order at 8:00 am, he Director Charles Ostman welcomed trustee John Jekot and discussed future dates to set a permanent schedule for the committee to meet every other month was discussed and it would be finalized next week when Chuck Ostman was back in the office. Rich Wlodarski explained the need for the new language for fence variations in the P and M zoning districts being added to the building code the upcoming projects the will be in need of a variation are the new FEDX site at the Grainger property along with the park district wanting to expand their fence in a couple of locations around the oasis water park, and then also the police station as part of the new front entrance renovation they are looking to enclose the employee parking lot with a new fence. Tom Kanelos asked if these request now and in the future would need to appear in front of the zoning board. Rich Wlodarski said not they would go straight to the village board as this was in the building code and not the zoning code very similar to the sign ordinance. Tom Kanelos then asked if there was any options for the other districts should there be unique situations that would warrant a variation. Rich Wlodarski answered that there was not but as we work with Camiros we can discuss some language that we can possibly have some administrative decision making authority for situations like this and other possible situations. Rich Wlodarski then explained the reasons for the changes to the fire prevention code and www.vniles.com explained that the community development department had taken over the Fire inspection services at the beginning of the year. The that the text in front of everyone will remain the same but will be switched back to chapter 46 prior to being presented in front of the village board and asked if anyone had any questions concerning any of the language. Also let trustee Jekot know that between now and the board meeting if any questions came up feel free to contact me. Steve Vinezeano explained to everyone the budgetary reasons why the fire prevention/inspections were given to the community development department. Bruce Sylvester then gave an update on the rewrite of the zoning code explaining that staff had met with Camiros a few weeks ago as a kick off meeting and toured the town and we are now in the process of gathering stakeholder information for both the Milwaukee ave, corridor study along with the rest of the town. He also explained the two separate projects and the need for the Milwaukee ave. study in conjunction with the zoning rewrite, also that this project included a new sub-division ordinance as part of the whole project. Bruce also explained as a directive from the mayor that we were going to do a separate land use plan for the area between Caldwell and Lehigh and Gross Point and Touhy to be conducted by Houseseal and Levine who had also done our comprehensive plan a couple years ago. There is a lot of activity in this area Costco wanting gas pumps to the vacant Ford site to the old Days Inn motel that is in need of major redevelopment. Bruce Sylvester then gave an update on the Bike-Ped module project and that they have been working on it for a few months and just had an event the day before that was attended by Rich Wlodarski and then Rich explained that we did a walking tour for about a dozen staff members from Howard to Oakton and back and then had a group discussion back at the library. Information was gathered by the consultants to be included in the final report. Then at night there was a scheduled event for the public to attend to get their input also but only 2 residents showed up so it was decided to reschedule for some time in September as we can hopefully get the word out and also include it in the focus newsletter. Steve Vinezeano spoke and explained how all of this came to light with grants from CMAP and how all of this is tied in with the Comprehensive Plan. He also gave a quick explanation of the upcoming event for the Bike-Ped promotion on September 14th at Culver School and encouraged everyone to participate and spread the word. It was discussed that Rich Wlodarski and John Jekot that John would be in the Community Development department on Thursday mornings for an hour and a half and then we would also discuss with Chuck Ostman as to getting a regular scheduled Building and Zoning meeting on the calendar for the future. The meeting was adjourned at 9:10