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Minutes COW 6-21-2010Committee of the Whole June 21, 2010 7:00 p.m. A meeting of the Village of Lemont Committee of the Whole was held on Monday June 21, 2010 in the Board Room of the Village Hall at 418 Main Street in Lemont, Illinois. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Reaves called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and acknowledged that the following were present: Trustees Ron Stapleton, Debbie Blatzer, Paul Chialdikas, Cliff Miklos, Rick Sniegowski, and Jeanette Virgilio were present. Also present were Village staff members Ben Wehmeier, Randy Earnest, Gerald Turrise, James Brown, George Schafer, Ed Buettner, Mark LaChappell, Jim Cainkar, Dan Blondin and Jeff Stein. DISCUSSION ITEMS 370 Kromray Deck Variation The owner of the subject property is requesting a variation to the required setback for a deck. The P&Z Commission and staff recommend approval of the request. Trustee Blazer had a question on the placement of the stairs. The petitioner stated there should be no issue since there are still two means of egress. There were no other comments; the item will be up for formal approval at a future Village Board meeting. Discussion of Covington Drive Striping and 1St and 4th Street Mayor Reaves announced that he was going to deviate from the agenda for the Covington Drive discussion due to many residents being in attendance for the particular issue. Mayor Reaves gave a brief overview of the problems. There have been traffic issues for years on Covington, and options for traffic calming were examined for the street. Striping has proven effective for other streets in town including Timberline and the entrance to Rolling Meadows. Striping was put down this week for traffic calming reasons and was halted because of complaints. The Village notified residents in the area of the meeting tonight to further discuss. Various residents spoke at the meeting, including Mike Leonard at 1237 Covington Drive, Tim Flynn at 1436 Covington Drive, John Sojka at 1200 Covington Drive, Bob Castrogiovanni at 1225 Covington Drive, Karen Zak at 1254 Covington, Angie Sojka at 1200 Covington, and Ruth Bulander at 1213 Covington Drive. The majority of the statements were in opposition to the striping. Mike Leonard stated that the traffic issue is with the volume of cars going down Covington, and the opening of 1St and 4th Street is the likely solution to the problem, not striping. John Sojka agreed, stating that the streets need to be opened to reduce traffic on the street. Other members spoke in opposition to the striping, and instead in favor of opening up the streets. Mayor Reaves gave some explanations of the issues at hand. 4th Street was not in the Village originally, and the street does not have sidewalks. In order to install sidewalks, the Village would be looking at an expense of at least 80,000. Further, there is also an unsafe line of sight issue at 4th and McCarthy. In order to make the improvements to the intersection, the Village could be looking at another $600,000 in expenditures. Until the safety issue can be resolved, the Village cannot send all the traffic to this intersection. The Village has had studies completed, that do not recommend connecting the street due to these reasons. There are similar issues with 1St Street; improvements need to be made to the street. A developer's contribution was supposed to pay for the needed improvements, but the Village has not received the funding. Eventually the streets will connect, but the funding is the main issue. Mayor Reaves stated that there will be a capital plan and timeline by the end of the year on many of the improvements, but tonight the issue of the striping needs to be decided. A couple more residents spoke against the striping saying it is not needed anel the parkingstripes encourages people to park. The majority of the Board was in favor of continuing the striping, since it has proven to work in reducing traffic speed in other areas of town. Chief Shaughnessy said that patrol can be increased as well when available and other methods such as speed trailers could be implemented. The discussion was closed. Discussion of Glen Oaks -Park District Update Mr. Brown gave a brief update of the Glen Oaks park district impact fee donation. The petition for the 250 home subdivision has agreed to move the park to a more central location, per the recommendations from the Lemont Park District. There is still some discussion to be had over the cash difference the park district is entitled too, and whether or not the Park District is satisfied with the park without the cash. Trustee Blatzer stated that the subdivision should have a park, and the majority of the Board agreed. Mayor Reaves asked Trustee Blatzer and Trustee Virgilio to meet with the Park District to further discuss the park. Discussion of Proposal - Briarcliffe Town Homes The petitioner for the project came to the Committee of the Whole one las4 time to request approval of the rezoning and amendment to the annexation agreement to allow for town Homes in lieu of the approved office condos. Due to amount of vacant office space and retail and low traffic counts in the area, the Board was leaning towards allowing the change to residential. The majority of the Board directed the petitioner that it would have a better chance of gaining approval if a few units were eliminated and a greater buffer was placed on the southwest corrrerafthe property. The petitioner stated he would have to go back to the owner for this request. The item will be coming up at a board meeting for final approval in the very near future. Discussion of Bell/McCarthy Annexation and Development For the last couple of years the Village has had discussions with developers concerning this area for development. The attorney for the owner/developer approached the Committee of the Whole to discuss extension of Water & Sewer to the area. Ideas of SSA's, recapture, and other mechanisms were discussed. By the end of the year the infrastructure should be to West Shore Pipeline and possibly to the church. Mayor Reaves stated that due to the poor economy and the state of the Village budget, the Village cannot provide much assistance for the extension, but would be willing to discuss in the future. Discussion of Heritag~uarries Rezoning_& Special Use Henry Fiene, contract purchaser of the project near in the quarry area, has requested a rezoning and a special use to allow for a scuba diving and camping operation. The Planning & Zoning Commission voted to recommend the rezoning but against the camping and scuba operation. The negative scuba vote was based on incomplete information from the petitioner regarding parking and site plans. Trustee Virgilio stated that the Heritage Commission voted not to recommend approval to the Village Board on the basis of incomplete information and not enough space on the property to do the project. Other reasons include impact to area, and having to use public property. Trustee Stapleton agreed, saying the parking plan isn't sufficient for the amount of cars. Mr. Brown stated that it is an intriguing idea, but staff was not comfortable with what was submitted to give it a positive recommendation. In addition, there was still some doubt that the water could be cleaned up adequately for this type of use, and the Board needed more information. Discussion of Parking West Side Only -Walnut Street South of Logan There has been a request to limit parking on Walnut Street to west side only during the hours of church services, due to safety concerns. There has been discussion in the past on whether or not this should be a permanent restriction or just during church hours. It was decided that the no parking will go up on that side of the street just during church hours. Discussion of UDO Amendments Mr. Brown brought up a few UDO amendments that staff recommended to the Planning & Zoning Commission. These include agriculture in residential districts, commercial building materials, and residential design standards. The one in question was the residential design standards, otherwise known as the anti-monotony ordinance, that staff recommended eliminating. The majority of the Board disagreed with staff, and would rather keep the anti-monotony ordinance in effect. The other amendments would be in front of the Village Board a future meeting. Discussion of TIF Amendment/5-Year Plan The Downtown TIF expires in December 2015. Following the most recent joint review board meeting, administration and the Village's TIF consultant began looking at the winding up of the TIF over the next 5 years. As part of this, the original Redevelapment.plan needs to be amended to take into effect new state statutes and local changes that have taken place. The changes intend to incorporate changes in the comprehensive plan, changes to the TIF Act, changes in EAV projections, the various downtown studies that have been completed, and the UDO. The item was up for discussion only, approval of the contract for the TIF study will come up at a future Board Meeting. Discussion of Personnel Manual In an ongoing attempt to keep the personnel manually up to date, staff has prepared a number of changes to the personnel manual, most of them minor in nature. The changes are due to adding language to bring the manual in line with the recently approved union contracts, to add changes recommended by the Village's risk management agency, and other changes recommended by staff. The amended personnel manual will be up for approval at a future Board Meeting. NEW BUSINESS Mayor Reaves brought up the Aunt Marlene foundation wanting to donate funds to keep the DARE program. Staff will be figuring out how best to accomplish this. Mayor Reaves stated that a letter will be going out in the near future to bar owners regarding outside drinking and smoking. There have been a couple complaints regarding these issues. Mr. Wehmeier stated that the MWRD will no longer be requiring an individual sewer agreement with the Village, but instead a standard agreement among a number of entities. Mr. Schafer brought up a local group that wants to run a bike race in town on a Saturday morning in August. The group said they would cover all costs associated with the event. Staff will be doing further research on this proposal and report back to the Board. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Reaves adjourned the meeting at 10:45 PM