Building & Zoning Committee

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT MAYOR TRUSTEES Andrew Przybylo George D. Alpogianis John C. Jekot VILLAGE MANAGER Danette O’Donovan Matyas Steven C. Vinezeano Denise M. McCreery Craig Niedermaier VILLAGE CLERK Dean Strzelecki Marlene J. Victorine BUILDING AND ZONING COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES September 17, 2020 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 I. Call To Order/Roll Call The Niles Building and Zoning Committee meeting was called to order at 8:17 AM. Present: 9 – Chairperson McCreery, Kanelos, Ostman, Wlodarski, Mangold, Thake, Skeffington-Vos, Wlodarski, Grcic, and Elizarraga. Absent: 1 – Mayor Andrew Przybylo II. Approval of Building & Zoning Committee minutes from the meeting on July 23, 2020. Kanelos motioned to postpone approval of meeting minutes for the next Building and Zoning Committee meeting. Rich Mangold seconded. AYES: 8 – Chairperson McCreery, Kanelos, Ostman, Wlodarski, Mangold, Thake, Skeffington- Vos, Wlodarski, Grcic NAYS: 0 ABSTAIN: 0 Motion passed. WWW.VNILES.COM III. Old Business a. General discussion on unimproved alleys/fences i. Ostman explained that Fred Braun did not see the need to attend the B&Z Committee meeting, Braun stated he just wants the ordinance to be enforced. ii. Grcic stated that there might be a instance in the future where someone might want to vacate their property and that it would be idea to maintain a License Agreement it provides an opportunity to gain the right to use the area for a fence, but ownership is maintained by the Village. Both vacating the property and the License Agreement achieve Public Work’s end to eliminate Village liability of the properties. iii. Mangold asked if either possibility would box in certain areas of the alley. If a middle property of three does not want to vacate and both sides of the adjacent do, there’s a middle section that nobody would maintained. iv. Ostman stated there is a text amendment from 2017 that requires adjacent property owners maintained the unimproved alley. v. Kanelos asked if the Village has taken an alley and developed it. vi. Ostman stated no, previous Village Managers have refrained from doing so. Historically, all property owners that abutted an alley would have to be in favor of vacating the alley. The petition would then go to Engineering, be sent to Legal and then to the Village Board for approval to vacate the alley. Ostman gave examples of property owners who do not want increase in property tax that this causes. vii. Mangold stated one of the negatives would be the tax issue. viii. Grcic stated that property owners are able to acquire the neighbor’s property should one property owner not want the extra land. ix. Kanelos asked what would be the easiest process for a homeowner. x. Ostman stated the easiest process would be a License Agreement. xi. Chairperson McCreery does not want to open this up for no good reason. And would like to clarify Braun’s request. xii. Wlodarski stated that Braun just want people to follow the ordinance. xiii. Ostman stated that up-to-date there haven’t seen any issues for unimproved alleys. xiv. Grcic recommends that a process is codified. Residents would need to fill out an application, submit a plan and get approval as best practice. xv. Ostman stated he would get Nathan to get the number of unimproved alleys in the Village. Ostman made a motion to continue to next meeting and provide an update at that time. Rich Mangold seconded. AYES: 8 – Chairperson McCreery, Kanelos, Ostman, Wlodarski, Mangold, Thake, Skeffington- Vos, Wlodarski, Grcic NAYS: 0 ABSTAIN: 0 Motion passed. Item continued to next meeting. b. Proposed changes to fence ordinance i. Ostman stated the request was to reevaluate to allow fences to be installed in a corner- side-yard. Ostman explained diagrams explaining corner-side yards in meeting packet. He stated front yards have no relation to where the door is located in the building. Currently we allow fences to encroach in the corner-side yard not in front of a building. The request is to find language to allow corner-side yards to in front to buildings. Other municipalities allow it but not more than 4 ft. high. ii. Mangold asked if there are easements in most of the streets. iii. Ostman stated that in the Village of Niles in most cases there’s a green parkway, sidewalk, and then property line. iv. Kanelos asked how many instances there are of a person with a side door and no rear- yard. v. Ostman stated no. vi. Kanelos asked if due to the rarity if this could be handled with a variance. vii. Ostman stated no, to avoid variation on fences.  viii. Kanelos would like to word it in such a way to avoid residents ‘feeling like a long canyon’ while walking to their back yard. ix. Chairperson McCreery stated that it would be a disservice to attracting young families if they can’t access their back yard from their home. x. Ostman stated that putting these types of cases through the Planning and Zoning Board creates more cumbersome red tape for the residents. Ostman proposed to find language to allow fencing in side-yards. xi. Chairperson McCreery, Kanelos and Mangold agreed. Ostman motioned to do research, find language and continue this item to the next meeting. Kanelos seconded. AYES: 8 – Chairperson McCreery, Kanelos, Ostman, Wlodarski, Mangold, Thake, Skeffington- Vos, Wlodarski, Grcic NAYS: 0 ABSTAIN: 0 Motion passed. Item continued to next meeting. c. Further discussion on new members and staff voting (next steps) i. Chairperson McCreery stated in the last meeting it was agreed that additional committee members were needed to avoid staff-member voting. ii. Ostman stated he has not had an opportunity to look for new members. He further explained that by ordinance all staff are voting members. iii. Chairperson McCreery stated she knows that this would need an ordinance change. iv. Mangold reached out to a couple of people to join the committee, one passed and the other could not make it due to time of meeting. v. Ostman asked if there’s a possibility to change the meeting to a different time of day. vi. Kanelos fully supports changing the meeting time. The person Kanelos approached to join the committee could not make it due to the time of meeting. vii. Chairperson McCreery stated to not let the time of the meeting dictate who should be part of the committee. viii. Rich Mangold stated he is very flexible. ix. Kanelos stated morning meetings are the worst possible time in the day for him in his industry. x. This item will be kept on the agenda. IV. New Business a. Part-time plumbing inspector position i. Ostman stated we are utilizing an outside service B&F to perform plumbing inspectors. Ostman stated it is difficult to find certified plumbing inspectors in the state of Illinois. ii. Mangold inquired as to how many hours a week the B&F inspector works. iii. Wlodarski stated 80 for inspections plus residential plan reviews. iv. Ostman went on to say that commercial backflow devises also need to be inspected per state law. b. Department updates i. Software (EnerGov) a. Property Maintenance Inspectors now have mobile printers in their cars b. Rental Licensing is now online, staff is working with Tyler to iron out glitches and make the license available to print. c. Department’s goal to go paperless is going great and staff continues to streamline processes. ii. Grow Your Home a. Twelve (12) people have applied and qualified, three (3) have received their rebate. Two (2) did not qualify because they are not adding square footage to their property. Staff has had a decent amount of inquiries. Program is picking up speed. b. Kanelos stated the application process is very simple and gives Kudos to Community Development for a good program.  c. Chairperson McCreery would like to get better press for the program and possibly involve Mitch to produce a video testimonial. iii. New fire inspector a. The new fire inspector will be starting employment at the end of September. iv. Rose Pest Control a. Since the departure or community development’s health inspector, the Village has contracted Rose Pest Control. b. Staff is utilizing a live spreadsheet to ease communication between Community Development and Rose Pest Control. c. In the previous year Nordica was a hotspot, this year Nordica is under control. Staff is working with Groot to manage garbage. d. Isolated pockets of rodent problems in residential areas are due to wildlife feeding. Staff politely asks residents to not feed wildlife to prevent rodent infestations. e. Mangold suggested a newsletter article on garbage etiquette. v. Nordica town-home parking a. Ostman stated there has always been a parking issue in the Nordica area. A Special Service Area added more parking spaces. Recently Nordica Apartments chose not to allow non-apartment residents to park in their private property. He went on to explain that this sparked many complaints from Townhome residents. Residents having multiple cars and cars not registered to the Nordica homes contribute to the shortage of parking. b. Residents will bring a petition to the Village Board to resolve the issue. vi. Non-conforming structures a. Ostman explained the Engineering department identified a property that has a detached garage and behind the garage they have an add-on structure that encroaches on the last five (5) feet of their property and prevents the flow of storm water. Ostman inquires if the Village should require the property owner to put the shed down. b. Kanelos asked if the water is being diverted onto the neighbor’s property. c. Wlodarski stated yes. d. Kanelos asked if this was only a zoning issue. e. Wlodarski stated this would constitute a zoning violation. f. Grcic explained that it is the responsibility of the property owner to find out if the structure is within the legal limits of the property through the title report and the survey. The owner should be aware that the Village can come back and ask them to take the structure down or make it conforming to ordinance. g. Ostman will contact Grcic to follow-up on this issue. V. Open Discussion and Public Comments a. No public comments. b. The Drive-Thru Festival of Niles is occurring Saturday and Sunday. c. Next meeting October 15, 2020 VI. Adjournment Mangold motioned to adjourn. Wlodarski seconded. AYES: 8 – Chairperson McCreery, Kanelos, Ostman, Wlodarski, Mangold, Thake, Skeffington- Vos, Wlodarski, Grcic NAYS: 0 ABSTAIN: 0 Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 9:47 a.m.