Economic Development & Neighborhood Renewal

COMMISSION FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & NEIGHBORHOOD RENEWAL MEETING MINUTES May 14, 2015 Persons in attendance: Executive Committee: Charles Ostman – Executive Director Ross Klicker – Associate Executive Director Cathy Spadoni – Secretary Village Manager Steve Vinezeano Joe Bialko Mike Shields Mayor Andrew Przybylo – Ex-Officio Stakeholders: Julie Genualdi Steve Greif Carol Harczak Michael Kim Rich Mangold Denise McCreery Judy McNulty Katie Schneider Lynda Stoops Rich Wlodarski Guests: Stephen Costa Persons absent: Executive Committee: Alan Zielinski Trustee Joe LoVerde – Ex-Officio Stakeholders: Ilir Ademaj – resigned 4/22/15 Alberto DeCicco Jacob Ehrensaft Iwona Filipiak Sunghae Kim Paul Kolpak Brandon Leavitt Joe Marcheschi Barry Mueller Anthony Ori Vicki Peake Thomas Poszdol John Thomas I. Call to Order Charles Ostman called the meeting to order at 6:08 p.m. in the Council Chambers, Village of Niles Administration Building.  Economic Development/Neighborhood Renewal May 14, 2015 II. Approval of Minutes Steve Vinezeano made a motion, seconded by Ross Klicker, to approve the minutes of the February 11, 2015 meeting. On voice vote, all concurred. ***** Ross Klicker gave an overview of recent activity. The Village has approved the development of a new 100-room Holiday Inn Express to be completed by May of 2016 on the site of the former Travelers Inn Hotel at Milwaukee and Waukegan.  The old Woodward facilities on Jarvis have been purchased and are being demolished, and a new 219,000 sq. ft. industrial building will be built. The building is already over 60% leased by Therm-a-Pipe, a local business that chose to stay in Niles.  Staff has been working with Niles businesses who are doing well to make sure they have the means to stay in town, such as Flick’s Candy and Swiss Precision Machining, who both need larger facilities.  North Shore Medical has been approved to open a new clinic on Touhy.  It is expected that Wildwood Inn on Touhy will be open for business by early June.  Golf Mill Mall is working with Panera Bread to build a new 43,000 sq. ft. facility with a drive- thru as an out lot to the mall.  Staff assisted Golf Mill Ford in finding a new location for car storage on Golf Road, allowing them to expand their storage capacity and increase their sales.  Fresh Farms on Golf is expected to open before the July 4 weekend. They have purchased the warehouse behind Graziano’s on Touhy for use as a distribution facility and for future expansion.  The Village of Niles has been selected as the first suburban site for the Pace Pulse Line, which is a bus rapid transit line with limited stops that will go down Milwaukee Avenue from Jefferson Park to Golf Mill Mall. Staff has been working with Pace on this project which will improve bus transit in Niles.  Niles Free Bus service will improve on the north end of town, with the addition of a stop at the Concord Lake condos on Dee Road north of Golf.  All are invited to Bike Niles Fest at 9:00 a.m. on June 6 at Gemini Jr. High.  At a recent industrial summit, Niles received kudos for providing the services needed to attract businesses and for setting the table for new growth.  Staff continues to work on the new Zoning Code and Rewrite. III. Discussion of Neighborhood Map and Next Steps Mr. Klicker stated that one of the goals of this commission is to identify the neighborhoods in the community so that they become stronger and more cohesive. He presented a map that proposes neighborhood identification by name and boundaries. Many of the names came from the Sidwell (plat) book that named many of the subdivisions; some came from area attractions, i.e. Oasis Pool and Emerson Jr. High. He posed the question: Once neighborhoods are named, how do we use that to build community? Comments included:  Establish garden clubs, neighborhood watches, and contests for the best landscaped home and the best Christmas-decorated home.  Encourage the sponsorship of parade floats and competitions at the 4th of July post-parade event.  Prospective residents with school-aged children always look to live in a neighborhood based on a particular school district, and the seven Niles school districts may create natural breaks more than boundaries drawn on a map. While school districts may be a 2  Economic Development/Neighborhood Renewal May 14, 2015 factor as to where someone moves, they should not be a factor in building community spirit or neighborhood pride. We should ignore school district boundaries and work to develop a sense of community based on the neighborhood rather than where the kids go to school. Park District activities are a good way to bring kids together regardless of what school they attend. Perhaps they can enhance their programs to encourage inter- neighborhood activities.  Perhaps there could be signage to indicate the different neighborhoods, thus bringing value to the Village.  The neighborhood proposed as Greenwood Estates has been commonly known as Ransom Ridge.  We should include area businesses in any neighborhood events.  Perhaps each neighborhood could have a board to tie the neighborhood residents together. Mr. Klicker asked that the stakeholders take the map around town to see if the neighborhood divisions make sense. He also asked for more ideas on how this can build community. Email suggestions to Ross. IV. Branding and Marketing Next Steps Mr. Klicker stated that the logo selected almost unanimously by this commission at the February 11, 2015 meeting (the Leaning Tower, houses, condos, a bus, and trees on an arch, all in gray, above the Village name written in blue in all capital letters, with a tagline below in green) is the logo that will be recommended for adoption as the logo for the Village of Niles. Based on comments from commission members, some slight modifications were made to the original logo: one of the clouds became a sun; a bicycle was added; building shapes were slightly modified. Also based on comments from the commission members, the team went in a different direction regarding taglines. The three new proposed taglines are: Tagline 1: new thinking. stories told Tagline 2: Your place to prosper Tagline 3: It’s possible here The stakeholders indicated their preferences for these new taglines as follows: Tagline 1: 0 Tagline 2: 8 Tagline 3: 10 “It’s possible here” is the recommendation of the review committee. It and the logo will go before the Village Board for approval on May 26, 2015. In anticipation of Board approval, the logo has already been incorporated into the Bike Niles and Holly Jolly logos, creating a unifying logo for all Niles events. Previous taglines such as All America City, etc. will be scrapped. The new logo and tagline will be the new identifier and will be on the Village flag, signs, letterhead, business cards, banners, etc. We will have a marketing plan to put these changes into place. 3  Economic Development/Neighborhood Renewal May 14, 2015 ***** A stakeholder asked for an update to the alternate water source matter. The Village is preparing to make a decision to move forward with a Water Commission that would make important decisions on route studies, etc. V. Community & Wayfinding Signage Discussion In the months ahead, we will draft an RFP (Request for Proposal) to find a firm to design and create community signage (community identification, entrance signage, street signage) and wayfinding signage (signs that direct to Golf Mill, the library, the Leaning Tower, the bike route, the industrial park.) The firm can also design the sign that will display our civic organizations and awards. It was noted that whatever we do should be of high quality to establish and maintain a good image. Mr. Klicker asked the stakeholders to make note of signage that looks good (or not) in other communities, take photos if possible, and report back to this commission. VI. Dine-In and Shop Local Programs for Next Year The Dine-In program has been in existence for at least five years. This year, 32 restaurants are participating. Mr. Klicker stated that we need to think about whether or not the program is providing value. Mr. Klicker provided a chart of a 7-year history of the 1% sales tax dollars collected from the State of Illinois from drinking and eating establishments in Niles, Skokie, Glenview, Des Plaines and Morton Grove. The Village of Niles has seen an increase of 12.57% since 2008. Based on the figures, it would seem that the Dine-In program is not adding real value. If it were, there would be a greater percentage of increase. It seems the current Dine-In program is more of a “feel-good” program. The Chamber of Commerce found that most restaurants feel that the program does not bring in new business but creates greater customer loyalty from existing patrons. Mr. Klicker asked the question: Do we stay with the Dine-In program or switch to a Shop Niles program? A Shop Niles program could provide discounts, perhaps by doing something quirky and different, perhaps capitalizing on social media. But because there are so many available options for discount/loyalty programs, it would be difficult to offer something new. And there are so many different retailers and types of businesses that attract so many different types of customers that it would be difficult to come up with one program to serve them all. The original point of the Dine-In program was that restaurants drive traffic and there is an extra tax on the purchases made at restaurants. If the program does not have real value, if we are struggling to get restaurants to participate and if people aren’t using it the way they used to, then perhaps we should do a holiday promotion, which would be for a shorter period of time, would be easier to manage, and can be used for a cross-section of businesses. 4  Economic Development/Neighborhood Renewal May 14, 2015 It was suggested that a restaurant program with a punch card – buy 9 meals, get the 10th free – could work. But previous discussions with local restaurants provided negative feedback to this idea. It was also suggested that in order to promote Niles restaurants and create synergy, we should invite them to the 4th of July, Holly Jolly and Bike Niles. Mr. Klicker asked everyone to think about the future of the program and send ideas to him. VII. Touhy Corridor Update and Master Plan Consultant Discussion Mr. Klicker stated that the Touhy Corridor needs to be a destination environment – an all day, every day destination environment. The medical clinic scheduled to open on Touhy (an unlikely business for an Arts and Culture Corridor) will bring in a lot of people – employees and patients – and will therefore help create the destination environment. The Touhy Corridor Visualization led us to the exploration a possible TIF District for the area; there is a public meeting on May 19, 2015. In order for the Corridor to be driving and successful, we must address traffic in the area. To do this, we need to turn the Visualization into a land use plan, which not only lays out what uses are appropriate and infrastructure needs but also lays out vehicle and pedestrian traffic flow. Once the land use plan is in place and there are financing options for property owners and developers, the Corridor will be drastically transformed. FedEx, who will be operational next year, has provided a traffic plan that will keep the majority of their traffic off of Touhy and into the industrial park on Howard. Staff is recommending Board approval of the Lakota Group, a consulting firm, who will take the Visualization and develop it into a Master Plan. VIII. Open Discussion  Staff will not attend the shopping center conference this year.  The Milwaukee Corridor Committee is in the process of studying and reviewing pole designs to replace some 200 street lights on the 5-mile stretch of Milwaukee Avenue. The lamps will be LED.  In order to approve the appearance of vacant stores, all vacant stores will display uniform paper panels publicizing that the store is available for rent. The Village Board will be asked to appropriate for this.  Mayor Przybylo will appoint people to the Arts and Culture Council at the May Board meeting. Stakeholders include schools, the VFW, the Historical Society and the Chamber of Commerce.  We will have the Holly Jolly Market again this year and will add fireworks to the Christmas tree lighting event.  The Cleveland Sewer Relief project has gone out to bid.  We are going to reprise the Taste of Sister Cities and are in the process of reorganizing the Sister Cities program in order to build community spirit. 5  Economic Development/Neighborhood Renewal May 14, 2015  Mayor Przybylo commented that in the recent election, the winning candidates of the Village Board, the Niles Public Library and the Niles Park District were all part of slates. The message is that the voters want continuity and camaraderie. IX. Agenda Items for Next Meeting  The Touhy Corridor Master Plan, with the consultant  Draft of the community and wayfinding signage RFP  Naming of the neighborhoods  An update on Golf Mill Mall was requested, possibly bringing in a representative from the mall. ***** It was noted that contrary to popular mindset, Niles does have some really great restaurants – Mykonos, Amici’s, Graziano’s, Playbook, La Tavola. We don’t need large chains to have great restaurants. While we are lacking a great steakhouse, in a month we will have the Wildwood Inn. The 2030 Comprehensive Plan is a guiding tool utilized on a daily basis. The Plan is reevaluated every five years. The new zoning code will have the most impact on the property owners on Milwaukee Avenue from Albion to Monroe. They have been invited to review the code at meetings on May 27, 2015 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. The general public is invited to review the code at an open house on June 11, 2015 from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. The new zoning code will be brought to this commission when it is ready to be promoted. X. Next Meeting Date The next meeting will be on Thursday, June 25, 2015 at 6:00 p.m. XI. Adjournment There being no further business to come before the Commission, Chuck Ostman made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Ross Klicker. On voice vote, all concurred. The meeting adjourned at 7:53 p.m. 6  Economic Development/Neighborhood Renewal May 14, 2015 2014-2015 Ad Hoc Commission for Economic Development & Neighborhood Renewal Executive Committee Members Administrative Officers Members Charles Ostman – Executive Director Steven Vinezeano – Village Manager Ross Klicker – Assoc Executive Director Joe Bialko – resident Cathy Spadoni – Secretary Mike Shields – resident Alan Zielinski - resident Ex Officio Members Mayor Andrew Przybylo Trustee Joe LoVerde 7