Building & Zoning Committee

VILLAGE OF NILES 1000 Civic Center Drive Niles, IL 60714 www.vniles.com Meeting Minutes Thursday, October 22, 2015 8:00 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 – Assistant Village Manager Joe Annunzio – Legal Rich Mangold – Resident Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes October 22, 2015 Committee Meeting CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL The Niles Building and Zoning Committee Meeting was called to order at 8:09 AM. Present: 9 - Chairman McCreery, Ostman, Wlodarski, Kanelos, Skeffington-Vos, Annunzio, Mangold, Thake and Preston Absent: 0 APPROVAL OF MINUTES Chairman McCreery asked if there were any additions, clarifications or corrections to the minutes of July 16, 2015. There were a few small clerical corrections to the previous meeting minutes. Chuck Ostman moved to approve the minutes of July 16, 2015 and seconded by Rich Mangold. The vote was: AYES: 5 - Chairman McCreery, Ostman, Wlodarski, Kanelos, Skeffington-Vos, Annunzio, Mangold, Thake and Preston NAYS: 0 There being nine (9) affirmative votes the motion was carried. NEW BUSINESS Chairman McCreery called for the first item on the agenda. The first item on the agenda was the discussion of Hookah Bars. Chuck Ostman mentioned that there were a lot of requests for Hookah Bars and he wanted to ask the committee how they felt about bringing this type of business into the Niles community. Hookah Bars creates a new form of entertainment for young adults that is considered safe, nothing illegal and not specific to one culture. A number of questions brought up were, should there be a limited amount of them in the town, should there only be one at the north end of town and one on the south end of town or should we not have them at all? This type of establishment is considered a Special Use where there is smoking inside a free standing building and uses approximately 1,000 square feet. There is, however, approximately 80% of generated sales and 20% of non-tobacco sales. The town of Morton Grove did decide to eliminate Hookah Bars altogether and a cigar house on Touhy Avenue in Park Ridge has been gone for a while. The committee consensus was that they had concerns about this type of business. The staff needs to gather more information about them and their function and why Morton Grove decided to eliminate them before this would be considered by the Village Board. Until more information is gathered on this, we will put it back on the agenda for the next meeting. Village of Niles Page 2 of 4 Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes October 22, 2015 Committee Meeting The second item on the agenda was a discussion on proposed car wash locations. Chuck Ostman started off mentioning that someone wants to open up a car wash south of the Holsom Bread property on Milwaukee Avenue which was the Dorrner Jewelry store and is now vacant. Holsom Bread might become an auto parts dealer which also opened up some discussion about having a few auto related businesses located near Golf Mill where there is a lot of traffic congestion. Chuck wanted to get the committee’s feelings on car washes in the Milwaukee Avenue area. How would the car wash work in this area, should we limit the amount of car washes because we have so many already? Shopping at Golf Mill people could benefit having a car wash so close and it would be an automatic car wash where a car comes out dry every two minutes. A picture of another car wash was shown as an example of what it could look like in the space. There is a zoning code regarding gas stations which will not be permitted south of Monroe Street to Albion Street. In the C3 district no car washes are allowed. The biggest subject of discussion is the traffic and the congestion in that vicinity. The committee came to the conclusion that we will need a traffic study because of the congestion before anything could be decided. The next item on the agenda was signs. Chuck started the conversation saying that full color electronic message boards are located right now at Fresh Farms and Jerrys Fruit Market. The LED lights – 16mm at both properties and are good quality. Do we want to keep these signs as a Special Use or should they be Permitted Use, allowing anyone to have a message board? The quality and cost of the sign might keep people away from putting one up. Animated signs, however, are not allowed right now. Schools such as Notre Dame are Special Use and because it is a private school they can do what they want. The committee decided to keep the full color electronic sign as Special Use for right now and we will continue to monitor it. Ground sign height was discussed next. Do we want to keep the 20 foot height or go to 24 feet? In 2025 all signs except schools have to come down to the appropriate height and size. After much discussion, the consensus from the committee was to leave the 20 foot height right now instead of changing it to 24 feet. Temporary banners were discussed next. Temporary banners are allowed up to six months thru the year to be used for holidays like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or Easter. It helps restaurants out with business and is normally permitted by the Village. The maximum size permitted is 32 square feet. Everyone on the committee agreed that banners for restaurants are permissible. The last item on the agenda was the discussion on fence height for the separation between residential and commercial properties. Rich Wlodarski started the discussion and mentioned that Jerrys Fruit Market wants to put up an eight (8) foot tollway fence in the back of his property. A picture of the fence that is there now was given out for the committee to look at. The real question is do we want people to be able to put up a fence taller than six (6) feet and would a taller fence be a distraction in the scheme of things? The committee agreed that extenuating circumstances should be considered when it is a commercial business and the staff should come into play with solutions. When staff reviews the language of commercial vs residential it should be written up as eight (8) feet instead of a six (6) feet fence. There is a lot of activity in the back of Jerry’s Fruit Market and in this case it should be an eight (8) foot fence. Village of Niles Page 3 of 4 Building and Zoning Meeting Minutes October 22, 2015 Committee Meeting The next meeting date was discussed and it was decided on January 14, 2016. Denise McCreery thanked the committee for all the knowledge they had and that they were able to keep the board so informed. Denise asked if there was anything else up for discussion and Luella Preston suggested the staff when gathering more information for the next meeting, look at Hookah Bars near the Chicago boarder. Luella also mentioned a list of grocery stores that are now located in Niles and she used them as an example, when Hookah Bars were previously discussed, and how stores in general come and go. Denise asked to adjourn the meeting at 10:00am. Richard Mangold motioned to close the meeting and Chuck Ostman seconded it and everyone agreed. Village of Niles Page 4 of 4