Economic & Community Development Committee

Village Hall Village of Lombard 255 East Wilson Ave. Lombard, IL 60148 villageoflombard.org Minutes Economic & Community Development Committee Bill Johnston, Chairperson Reid Foltyniewicz, Alternate Chairperson Dennis McNicholas, Garrick Nielsen, Matthew Pike, Brian LaVaque, Markus Pitchford, Christopher Carter and Paula Dillon Advisory Members: Alan Bennett and Larry Kelly Staff Liaison: William Heniff Monday, July 11, 2016 7:00 PM Village Hall - Community Room 1.0 Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance The meeting was called to order by Trustee Johnston at 7:00 p.m. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 2.0 Roll Call Present 9 - Bill Johnston, Reid Foltyniewicz, Dennis McNicholas, Brian LaVaque, Garrick Nielsen, Markus Pitchford, Matthew Pike, Paula Dillon, and Alan Bennett Absent 2 - Christopher Carter, and Larry Kelly Also present: Jennifer Ganser, Assistant Director of Community Development; Anna Papke, Senior Planner; Lynne Magnavite, Lombard Town Centre; Chris Cholewa, Lombard Town Centre; and Scott Saxe, Charity Resource. 3.0 Public Participation 4.0 Approval of Minutes On a motion by Mr. McNicholas, and seconded by Mr. Pike, the minutes of the June 13, 2016 meeting were unanimously approved by the members present with Ms. Dillon abstaining citing her absence at the meeting. 5.0 Unfinished Business Village of Lombard Page 1 Economic & Community Minutes July 11, 2016 Development Committee 6.0 New Business 160243 Lombard Town Centre Strategic Planning Efforts & Visioning and 2017 Funding Request Review of the proposed strategic plan and 2017 budget. (DISTRICT #1) Ms. Ganser said that staff received the attached strategic report and funding request from LTC. The memo is meant to spur conversation as the ECDC discusses the materials. Mr. Bennett said point of order and asked for the nine points to be reviewed to determine if more discussion is needed between Village staff and LTC. Trustee Johnston agreed. 1. Completion of Strategic Planning Effort Mr. Bennett and Ms. Dillon said the plan is very high level and thought project timelines would be a good addition. Ms. Cholewa asked to speak and said that the strategic planning process has been occurring for six months. She said LTC made sure that all their audiences were included. She noted that they only have one part time staff member at thirty hours a week and therefore don’t have the resources to put people to task. Volunteers are temporary. She said LTC believes they accomplished exactly what the strategic plan needed to be. Ms. Magnavite said the plan was meant to be high level and the ECDC is the first to review the strategic plan. She noted the Village is their partner and asked why more specifics are being requested from the Village. Trustee Johnston said the Village has funded LTC at $55,000 in the past years and that is why the Village has questions, furthermore it helps with the Village budget presentation and approvals. He noted the memo was meant to spark conversation. Ms. Magnavite said LTC used the Chamber approach of two larger events in a year that would help fund the organization. Ms. Cholewa said that the downtown has evolved a lot and is in a better shape than it was years ago. Trustee Johnston said he agreed and noted that this committee has a job to do and as a recommending body the committee needs to make sure funds are well spent and working for the Village. Trustee Foltyniewicz said the Board of Trustees needs to provide good oversight as nothing is an automatic. The Board answers to the community. Mr. Saxe said it’s difficult to build a strategy without knowing how and what they can accomplish and said it’s challenging with non-stable volunteers and a current interim director. He said the funding request shows a diminishing ask from the Village and this plan will help LTC become more solid. He said this Village of Lombard Page 2 Economic & Community Minutes July 11, 2016 Development Committee plan marks a fresh day for the organization. Trustee Johnston said he believes the first point was discussed and is taken care of, as all the action items would be assigned to LTC. 2. Alignment of Planning Effort with Initial Scope of Work Mr. Saxe said the planning effort changed over the six months. The Board had critical eyes throughout the process and looked at the organization internally. Trustee Johnston said he was ok with the second point. Ms. Cholewa said the Board did a great job and spent a lot of time talking with people and businesses getting opinions. Trustee Johnston said he attended many of the meetings. 3. Alignment of Overall Mission and Stated Future Goals Mr. Bennett said he felt the plan lacked a marketing plan in order to retain or attract businesses. He noted a welcome wagon or a coupon program for the winter months. Trustee Johnston said he remembered a past LTC Board meeting where they discussed an app for the downtown. Mr. Saxe said there is no formal marketing plan in the document since this is a strategy document. He agreed that it’s necessary for the organization. Ms. Magnavite said within the outreach of the executive director is a lot of the marketing. Much of the marketing is organic as the executive director is talking with businesses. Mr. LaVaque said marketing can be challenging and he agrees more information should be included. He said the businesses will be a draw and that he is more concerned about fundraising. Ms. Dillon said two years ago there wasn’t a lot to market, but now there is a product to work with. Mr. Bennett asked LTC if they work with the Chamber. Ms. Magnavite said they do. She also noted that LTC is working within the skillset of their staff and volunteers. Ms. Dillon suggested adding target dates for some of their ideas. Ms. Cholewa and Ms. Magnavite said they are working on that now. Mr. McNicholas gave a history of past downtown organizations: Downtown Lombard Unlimited and Downtown Lombard United. He noted they were entirely volunteers and in 2001 they decided to dissolve and merge with the Chamber of Commerce. He said he had two questions: Is the ECDC and Board of Trustees prepared to support the organization until the end of the TIF? and What happens when the TIF is over, is LTC prepared to continue on without Village funding, even if that means it is only volunteers? Mr. Saxe said today is not the end of the strategic plan, it’s just the beginning and LTC hopes to increase revenue from other sources than the Village. Village of Lombard Page 3 Economic & Community Minutes July 11, 2016 Development Committee 4. Alignment with Main Street Objectives Mr. Saxe said the program has changed and they need to do more research, but overall the vision aligned with Main Street. Mr. Pitchford said he thought the program ended. Ms. Ganser said it is not funded thru the State, but the Village feels these principles are important since LTC was established under the Main Street Program. 5. Alignment with TIF Requirements Ms. Ganser said this point is important as LTC receives funding from the Downtown TIF and state statute mandates what is a TIF eligible expense. Mr. Saxe said the TIF is not addressed in the strategic plan, but will be in an operational plan. Mr. Bennett asked who monitors if LTC is working within the TIF eligible expenses. Ms. Ganser said staff does, and the memos from LTC to the ECDC also serve as a check. 6. Special Events Mr. Bennett said the summer event reminds him of Taste of Lombard. Ms. Magnavite said it may be similar but all the restaurant vendors would be Lombard businesses and the event would be in the downtown. She said LTC has been in discussions with the former Jaycees about their past event. Mr. Bennett noted there are many Lombard events in the month of June. Ms. Magnavite said the event is still preliminary, she noted that their survey suggested that residents wanted more summer events. LTC also wants the event to not be too close to Spooktacular. Ms. Dillon asked if two larger events would help with sponsorships and volunteers and Ms. Magnavite said yes. Mr. Bennett said their survey noted a winter fest and Ms. Magnavite said that event is still held. Mr. Bennett asked about coupon books and Ms. Magnavite said they do Small Business Saturday and hope that business collaborations will help drive customers. Mr. LaVaque said most people choose downtown businesses to shop local, not because of a coupon. 7. Measurements of Accomplishment The ECDC said this was discussed in the first point. 8. Tasks that Led to Plan Trustee Johnston said LTC did a lot of outreach, which was incorporated into the strategic plan. 9. Funding Request Ms. Ganser the funding would be discussed and voted on at the August ECDC meeting. Village of Lombard Page 4 Economic & Community Minutes July 11, 2016 Development Committee 160295 LED Exterior Lighting Discussion regarding the use of perimeter lighting in storefronts. (DISTRICTS - ALL) Ms. Ganser gave an overview of the staff memo. She said it is becoming more common to see lights around the exterior perimeter of a business window, as evidenced by a few businesses in and around Lombard. Current Lombard Village Code does not regulate perimeter window lighting. Staff contacted sixteen (16) municipalities and eleven (11) of those prohibit perimeter window lighting. Staff reviewed how other municipalities regulated such lighting. Many times the lighting was classified as a sign. However, Lombard Code defines a sign as follows: “Sign. Any device, structure, fixture or placard using graphics, symbols, and/or written copy designed specifically for the purpose of advertising or identifying any establishment, product, goods or services”. The perimeter lights would not be sign as they do not use graphics, symbols, or words. Should the Village Board want to regulate or prohibit such lighting, staff would recommend defining this lighting as a nuisance. Nuisance items are enforced by Code Administration and a variance cannot be given for a nuisance. Trustee Foltyniewicz noted that he finds the lights not to be visually appealing and has received complaints from residents. He said that even though Roosevelt Road is not his district, he is still concerned about the lights. He mentioned the rope lights around the smoke shop in downtown Lombard. Ms. Dillon asked if there is potential that other businesses will begin to use the lights, especially in the downtown. Trustee Foltyniewicz said he would like to address the issue before it is out of hand. Mr. Pike asked if it is the task of the government to regulate. He noted that some of the towns that prohibit the lights still have businesses using the lights and said as consumers we can choose not to patronize the shops that use the lights. Mr. Pitchford said he brought up this issue when the smoke shop opened and feels it should not be used in the downtown. He noted it makes it difficult to notice other businesses. Mr. Bennett asked if flashing lights were prohibited. Ms. Ganser said that per the sign code, signs with flashing lights are prohibited. She noted that the sign at Dairy Queen on Main Street is a local landmark and that the sign is allowed to flash, since it was a flashing sign when it was first installed. Mr. LaVaque asked if anyone had talked with the business owners. Trustee Johnston said that is part of the next steps. Village of Lombard Page 5 Economic & Community Minutes July 11, 2016 Development Committee Mr. LaVaque said the lights look poor, and noted that downtown is different than Roosevelt Road and maybe they should be prohibited based on neighborhood. He also noted it may be difficult to distinguish the lights from holiday lights. Ms. Dillon asked if there can be an exception for holidays. Ms. Ganser said Village Code allows for holiday decorations, with time limits, but noted that defining a holiday would be very difficult. Mr. Nielsen said as an entrepreneur and lender he believes government does have the right to regulate the lights. He agrees that it should be a nuisance provision. He noted in some communities that even a McDonald’s looks different due to sign codes. He said the window lighting could increase if it goes on. Mr. McNicholas agreed and suggested a way to regulate this may be how far the business is from the right of way. He noted that lights at Von Maur are not as noticeable as the lights from the downtown smoke shop, where the building is up against the street frontage. Mr. Bennett agreed. Ms. Ganser and Trustee Johnston said staff will come back with more information. 7.0 Other Business 8.0 Information Only 9.0 Adjournment On a motion by Mr. Pitchford and a second by Mr. Pike, the meeting adjourned at 8:32 p.m. Village of Lombard Page 6