Building & Zoning Committee

“Where People Count” Community Development 1000 Civic Center Drive, Niles, Illinois 60714 Telephone (847) 588-8040 ● Fax (847) 588-8050 ● TDD (847) 588-8059 Meeting Minutes March 5, 2015 Building and Zoning Committee Meeting John Jekot - Trustee Rich Wlodarski - Community Development Assistant Director Bruce Sylvester - Senior Planner Tom Kanelos - Chairman Planning and Zoning Chuck Ostman - Community Development Director Hadley Skeffington-Voss – Assistant Village Manager Kathy Thake – Legal Assistant Louella Preston - Resident John Jekot called the meeting to order at 8:00 am and called for a vote to approve the minutes of December 4, 2014, they were unanimously approved. Chuck Ostman discussed the approval of the sign for Aldi from the last Village board meeting. He explained that our consultants said most communities allow the same size sign if they have two walls to place signage on and not have a second wall that is half the size. Pictures were shown and everyone agreed that this made sense to allow the same size sign as long as it met the requirements for the overall amount of signage permitted. Discussion took place concerning the variation for Tony’s sign and how and what could be done differently with the sign code because the village board already approved it. Chuck said he would work on some other language and propose it at the next Building and Zoning meeting. A discussion was brought up on the differences between a special use and variations. There was a discussion on neon borders and when the sign code would be adopted. It was given until the end of 2015 to remove all neon borders. Chuck wanted to have a discussion with the business community first but everyone agreed that the committee www.vniles.com should move forward in contacting the businesses and remind them they have until the end of the year to remove all neon borders per the code. There was brief discussion concerning a fee for anyone wanting to appeal a decision to this committee and Chuck suggested $75.00 which everyone agreed was a fair amount. Bruce Sylvester gave an update on the rewrite of the new zoning code and mentioned it could be finished in the next few months. Louella asked if Steve Lenets comments were going to be incorporated into the zoning code and Chuck said they were in the process of reviewing his report and that they would be incorporated if the staff agreed with his suggestions