Building & Zoning Committee

VILLAGE OF NILES 1000 Civic Center Drive Niles, IL 60714 www.vniles.com Meeting Minutes Thursday, April 27, 2017 8:20 AM Village Hall BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE MEETING Chairman Denise McCreery - Trustee Members Charles Ostman – Community Development Director Rich Wlodarski – Community Development Assistant Director Tom Kanelos – Chairman Planning and Zoning Hadley Skeffington–Vos – Assistant Village Manager Danielle Grcic – Legal Rich Mangold – Resident Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes April 27, 2017 Committee Meeting CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL The Niles Building and Zoning Committee Meeting was called to order at 8:20 AM. Present: 7 - Chairman McCreery, Ostman, Wlodarski, Kanelos, Skeffington-Vos, Grcic, Mangold Absent: 0 APPROVAL OF MINUTES Chairman McCreery asked if the meeting minutes for March 16, 2017 can now be approved. Rich Mangold approved the minutes and Chuck Ostman seconded it. AYES: 7 – Chairman McCreery, Ostman, Wlodarski, Kanelos, Skeffington-Vos, Grcic, Mangold NAYS: 0 NEW BUSINESS III. Discussion and recommendation on ordinances concerning hours of construction for Costco IV. Permit Bonds – Proposed Amendments to current requirements V. Townhome Areas – Further discussion on common sidewalk repair/replacement VI. Discussion on Air B& B regulations VII. Software update VIII. Discussion on mobile vendors IX. Next Meeting date May 18, 2017 X. Adjournment Village of Niles Page 2 of 7 Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes April 27, 2017 Committee Meeting NEW BUSINESS III. Discussion and recommendation on ordinances concerning hours of construction for Costco Chuck Ostman mentioned Costco is planning on adding a 10,000 square foot addition to the rear of the existing building and at the same time planning on raising about a third of the existing roof, approximately three (3) feet, to accommodate more interior storage. They would like to keep the store open during construction and would need to work outside the normal working hours allowed by the ordinance. Costco requests, on behalf of the general contractor, relief from the City Code Section 18-54 hours of construction work. Chuck Ostman said he would sit down with Costco and come up with an agreement on hours. The following is what Danielle Grcic recommends the language of Ordinance, Section 18-54 should read with and without Board approval: NEWLY PROPOSED LANGUAGE (without Board Approval) Sec. 18-54 Hours for construction work. (a) It shall be unlawful to engage in or conduct any activity in the construction of any building or structure, including but not limited to the making of an excavation, and loading or unloading material, equipment or supplies, anywhere in the village except between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on weekdays, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, and it shall be unlawful to engage in any such work or activity on a Sunday. (b) A permit may be granted for relief of subsection (a) provided however an application for such approval shall be made in writing to the Director of Community Development and shall state the name of the applicant, and the location of the proposed work, and the reason for seeking an approval to do such work, as well as the estimated time of the proposed operations. No such special approval shall be issued excepting where the public welfare will be enhanced by such issuance, or will be harmed by failure to perform the work at the time indicated. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any work necessary to prevent injury to persons or property at any time. Village of Niles Page 3 of 7 Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes April 27, 2017 Committee Meeting NEWLY PROPOSED LANGUAGE (with Board Approval) Sec. 18-54 Hours for construction work. (a) It shall be unlawful to engage in or conduct any activity in the construction of any building or structure, including but not limited to the making of an excavation, and loading or unloading material, equipment or supplies, anywhere in the village except between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on weekdays, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, and it shall be unlawful to engage in any such work or activity on a Sunday. (b) A permit may be granted with Village Board approval for relief of subsection (a) provided however an application for such approval shall be made in writing to the Director of Community Development and shall state the name of the applicant, and the location of the proposed work, and the reason for seeking an approval to do such work, as well as the estimated time of the proposed operations. The Director of Community Development shall make a recommendation to the Village Board for approval or denial of such relief. No such special approval shall be issued, excepting where the public welfare will be enhanced by such issuance, or will be harmed by failure to perform the work at the time indicated. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any work necessary to prevent injury to persons or property at any time. Chuck mentioned that the only thing he would like to change from the language Danielle Grcic recommended is that instead of the Director of Community Development it would read: “The appropriate department shall make a recommendation to the Village Board for approval or denial of such relief”. After much discussion, Chuck Ostman made a motion to amend Ordinance, Section 18-54 which is related to hours of construction to allow relief to the construction hours with the approval of the Village Board. Rich Mangold seconded it and all agreed except for Tom Kanelos who abstained. IV. Permit Bonds – Proposed Amendments to current requirements Chuck Ostman said with implementing the new software, we are looking at all the processes in the Community Development Department. There is a lot of work to collect bonds and it is expensive for the general contractor to obtain them. The Village of Niles has a $25,000. bond and the cost for the contractor to obtain it is $125. Village of Niles Page 4 of 7 Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes April 27, 2017 Committee Meeting Chuck O. also said very rarely are there any claims on bonds. The new software covers tracking bonds not the liability cost. To obtain a bond you have to have liability insurance which is an extra cost. Tom Kanellos said we should not require the bond but we should require proof of liability insurance. Chairman McCreery said there should be a level of protection for our residents. Do we have a handout we can give them? After much discussion, it was agreed the contractor should be giving the homeowner information but we will look into handouts for them. Rich Wlodarski made a motion to amend the language to eliminate bond requirements in the Building Department. Chuck seconded it and all agreed except for Tom Kanellos who abstained. V. Townhome Areas – Further discussion on common sidewalk repair/replacement Rich Wlodarski mentioned that Danielle Grcic has made changes to the bid language. Public Services are waiting for bids right now to come in for replacing sidewalks at the Chesterfield townhome area. The decision should be made by the end of this week with a per square foot price to give these residents options for cheaper prices. This is just a pilot program to see how this works out and if it goes well it could become available to all homeowners. We hope the residents will be motivated and get the work done at a good price. This should go into effect this summer and if they take advantage of it all they will have to do is fill out a form and send it in. VI. Discussion on Air B& B regulations Chuck Ostman mentioned that because Air B&B is so popular now, with this area and other towns, he thought it would be good to discuss the regulations within the Village of Niles. Chuck introduced Bruce Sylvester, Senior Planning Director, who attended this meeting today to tell us about these regulations. Bruce S. mentioned you can rent out a house in the Village of Niles but cannot rent out rooms. He proceeded to go thru the list mentioned below: As the name suggests, ‘short-term rentals’ are rentals for periods of time of a weekend or a week. These types of rentals have become more popular and common with the advent of on-line resources that connect property owners with potential short-term renters—the most famous such resource being the web-site ‘Air B&B’. At the moment, the Village has not had problems or complaints about ‘short-term rentals’, but some of our neighboring communities have had concerns and are adopting regulations. Village of Niles Page 5 of 7 Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes April 27, 2017 Committee Meeting 1. Issues related to ‘Short-Term Rentals’ a. May be a source of revenue for the Village—impose a tax on them b. Require a license? c. Require landlord training? d. Require inspections? 2. Examples of Limitations: a. Set a minimum allowed rental period—such as 3 months (Lincolnshire) b. Set a limit of no more than 2 rentals per year (Lincolnshire) c. Prohibit structures or vehicles other than the principle structure from being rented (…no renting of garages, sheds, tree houses, recreational vehicles, tents, etc…) (Lincolnshire) d. Prohibit rental of units within a multi-unit building such as a condominium building e. Set a minimum age for renter (21 years) (Schaumburg) f. Require a Rental License (Schaumburg, Evanston) g. Prohibit the owner from serving any food or beverage (Evanston) h. Require owner to attend ‘Crime Free Housing’ Seminar (Schaumburg) i. Require inspections between renters (Evanston) j. Require owner to maintain ‘Hotel Records’ for each renter/guest (Schaumburg) k. Require ‘renter’ to complete and submit an ‘Acknowledgement Form’ (Schaumburg) l. Require owner to pay a fee (Schaumburg) m. Prohibit short-term rentals in single-family neighborhoods but allow in multi- family neighborhoods (Chicago n. Prohibit short-term rentals entirely (Lincolnwood) o. Specify in ordinance that a ‘short term rental’ is not a ‘home occupation’ (Lincolnwood) p. Prohibit renting of individual rooms within a dwelling (Niles currently considers such an arrangement a ‘Boarding House’ and prohibits it…) 3. Possible Zoning Changes a. Add a definition for ‘Short Term Rental’—a dwelling that is rented in its entirety for a period of less than one-year. b. Add a definition for ‘Boarding House’—a dwelling in which individual rooms are rented to non-family members (currently prohibited in Niles). i. Is a definition for ‘Bed and Breakfast’ needed that would be different from a ‘Boarding House’ but which would be allowed?? The committee agreed this information was informative and will keep it in mind for any further discussions. Village of Niles Page 6 of 7 Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes April 27, 2017 Committee Meeting VII. Software update Chuck Ostman said everything is moving along with the new software. As you know, our City View program is changing to Energov by Tyler Technologies. Last week we had a four day training session and we are working with the IT department and four key people in our departments. The people running the training are very knowledgeable and we are learning a lot. The new program is very powerful and we will be able to implement important information into it and this information will be available to all departments. Within two weeks the people who were in the training will have access to the program to familiarize themselves again with how it works. Hopefully this program will be up and running in November of this year or early next year. VIII. Discussion on mobile vendors Chuck Ostman mentioned the Village has been approached by a company who has a food truck/cart who wants to sell Mexican snacks on public property here in Niles starting in June, 2017. According to the letter they sent to the Village, it sounds like it is more of a cart then a food truck and the question is do we want this in Niles? There are no regulations on food trucks or carts as yet. Many other towns have this sort of thing but it is usually in big cities. After much discussion, everyone on the committee agreed we should look into it. Chuck said he would research it and there will be an approval process which would include regulations. IX. Next Meeting date May 18, 2017 Rich Wlodarski mentioned the next meeting would be the third week of May, 2017. Chairman McCreery said she thought we could wait until the 3rd week in June, 2017 because there will have more to discuss at that time and everyone agreed. Rich W. will send out invites to the committee. X. Adjournment Chairman McCreery entertained a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:40 am. Rich Mangold made the motion to adjourn the meeting and Hadley Skeffington-Vos seconded it. Village of Niles Page 7 of 7