Downtown Zoning Committee

APPROVED MINUTES OF THE VILLAGE OF NORTHBROOK DOWNTOWN ZONING STEERING COMMITTEE Village Hall Terrace Room April 24, 2013 Members Present: Chairman Scott Cyphers, Susan Elfant, Steven Elisco, Selwyn Marcus, Lori Jordison Members Absent: None Staff Present: David Schoon (Assistant Director, DPS), Tom Poupard (Director, DPS), Leslie Oberholtzer (Farr Associates), and Tony Manno (RTA) Call to Order & Introductions Chairman Cyphers called the meeting to order in the Terrace Room of Village Hall at 7:00 p.m. Everyone introduced themselves. Public Comment- Hear from the Audience None Purpose/Scope of Project Schoon reviewed the purpose and scope of the project as one of the first steps to begin implementing the Downtown Plan. Manno reviewed the RTA role in the process. Though the RTA has provided a grant to fund this project, he emphasized that the RTA is only funding the project. This process is for the community to come up with the appropriate zoning mechanisms for downtown Northbrook. Zoning Recommendations & Design Guidelines from Downtown Plan Oberholtzer reviewed the recommendations from the Downtown Plan and asked a series of question to get a better understanding of what the thought process was in the recommendations that were developed. Existing Regulations Oberholzter then reviewed existing zoning regulations in the Downtown to remind the Committee as to what are the current regulations and the types of changes that would need to be made Introduction to Form-Based Regulations Oberholzter presented an overview of what form-based regulations are and how they may be applied to downtown Northbrook. Given what was proposed in the Downtown Plan and what she is hearing from the Village, it would appear that the new zoning regulations would be some hybrid structure of form-based regulations. Downtown Zoning Committee Meeting Minutes April 24, 2013 Boundaries for Study Area & Draft Proposal Oberholzter then reviewed the study area, which basically includes the Village Green Overlay District, with some changes on the edges. The study area would be expanded to include some commercial areas along Shermer between Maple and Illinois. There are two other areas that the Committee will want to discuss including – they include the commercial properties at the intersection of Shermer & Waukegan and generally the residential properties along the west side of Shermer between Illinois and Brentwood. Oberholzter then presented a proposal regarding potential zoning districts/areas within the downtown. There was discussion an initial discussion of regarding how to implement these zoning district/areas. Would it be to leave the underlying zoning districts in place and to create a new overlay district that would include the bulk of the regulations that would apply to these underlying zoning districts in the downtown. Or would it be better to create new underlying zoning districts with a more general overlay district. Poupard indicated that he felt the latter was a cleaner way and a more transparent way of establishing the new regulations. Oberholzter then briefly reviewed the following proposed zoning districts/areas: (1) Commercial Center, (2) Core, (3) Neighborhood Edge 1, (4) Neighborhood Edge 2, (5) General 1, (6) General 2 (Multifamily), and (7) Civic. Discuss Process for Project and Next Steps Oberholtzer reviewed the future process that the Committee will go through to make its recommendations. The next step is for the Committee and staff to meet without the consultant to review the zoning district proposal presented at the meeting this evening and to review the design guidelines in the Downtown Plan to see which ones the Committee wishes to continue to pursue. Adjourn On motion made and seconded, the joint meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m. Respectfully Submitted – David Schoon