Building & Zoning Committee

VILLAGE OF NILES 1000 Civic Center Drive Niles, IL 60714 www.vniles.com Meeting Minutes Thursday, October 25, 2018 8:15 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 – Deputy Village Manager Danielle Grcic – Village Attorney Rich Mangold – Resident Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes October 25, 2018 Committee Meeting CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL The Niles Building and Zoning Committee meeting was called to order at 8:29 AM. Present: 7 - Chairman McCreery, Ostman, Wlodarski, Kanelos, Grcic, Mangold and Skeffington-Vos Guests: 0 Absent: 0 APPROVAL OF MINUTES Chairman McCreery asked if there were any additions, clarifications or corrections to the minutes of June 28, 2018 meeting. Tom Kanelos approved the minutes and Chuck Ostman seconded it. AYES: 7 - Chairman McCreery, Ostman, Wlodarski, Kanelos, Grcic, Mangold, Skeffington- Vos. NAYS: 0 ABSENT: 0 OLD BUSINESS I. Discussion on Section Chapter 22-590, rental licenses and fees. Chuck Ostman mentioned that the chart he had included in the handouts regarding rental licenses and fees is not entirely complete. He is waiting to hear from our IT department regarding information for the Village of Niles. Chuck said we are actually sitting better according to other communities regarding the percentages of homes being rented in our Village. Next month we will have the complete report and it will show we are not drowning in rentals. Our percentage of non-owner occupied is about 24% and it is typically between 20% and 30% of what you find in other communities and there are some that are higher than us from outside data sources. Chuck will also try to get information from Morton Grove and Park Ridge but not all communities have a licensing program. Tom Kanelos mentioned he thought the bigger problem in the area is un-kept up townhomes and he feels that most people coming from the city would move into them. Village of Niles Page 2 of 4 Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes October 25, 2018 Committee Meeting Chuck Ostman talked about the fees and state law limits what you can charge for licensing fees. The amount of these fees that can be charged has to be directly related to the cost to the municipality to enable to enforce them and we cannot just hand out large license fees. According to the article that was also handed out at the meeting, there are four municipalities in Minnesota that are limiting the rentals of single family homes and others in the United States are also trying to do the same. Chuck also mentioned that the he met with the Police Chief and his team and he prepared a memo to the Mayor with suggestions to strengthen up the oversite of single family homes and we will go over the memo next month. Some suggestions were to beef up inspections, do away with the real estate inspections and concentrate more with the property maintenance aspect for the Village of Niles. One other thing mentioned was that nobody would obtain a license until they go through a crime free training at the Police Department. They would have three months to get that training and then we would issue them a license. Danielle Grcic said the penalty for someone who does not get a license can vary. If someone complies and is a first time offender the fee can be $100. but if someone does not comply it can be up to one month’s rent. Chairman McCreery mentioned that we should review our fees and make sure we are covering our costs. II. Discussion on outdoor yard decorations/furniture. Chuck Ostman said we will continue with this discussion at our next month’s meeting because our Sr. Planner, Bruce Sylvester resigned from his position and we have not had time to do some additional research and make some proposed language changes. After much discussion on decorations seen in the community we will talk about this again at our next meeting. III. Proposal on regulations related to outdoor seating. Chuck Ostman included in the handouts a list of proposed regulations. A license is required right now for a $50. fee and there are no regulations. Chuck said what we want to do for next year is add a site plan along with the fee and in order to do this we would take a look at all the businesses that have outdoor seating, identify them on a site plan generated from GIS and anything out of the norm we would adjust accordingly. After much discussion we will look at this again at our next meeting. Village of Niles Page 3 of 4 Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes October 25, 2018 Committee Meeting IV. EnerGov software update. Chuck mentioned that there is a meeting today regarding the EnerGov software. By our next Building and Zoning meeting the data conversions will be done. Before the software goes live everything needs to be put in the system and like anything else it takes a while for everyone to get used to it which can take up to a month. V. NEXT MEETING DATE – Thursday, November 29, 2018. VI. ADJOURNMENT Chairman McCreery made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:30am. Tom Kanelos moved to adjourn. Seconded by Richard Mangold, on roll call was: AYES: 7 - Chairman McCreery, Ostman, Wlodarski, Kanelos, Grcic, Mangold, Skeffington-Vos. NAYS: 0 ABSENT: 0 Village of Niles Page 4 of 4