Zoning Board of Appeals

1 APPROVED 2 MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS 3 VILLAGE OF NORTHBROOK 4 COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS 5 February 26, 2015 6 7 Call to Order 8 Chairman Decker called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. in the Terrace Room of Village Hall. Chairman 9 Decker and Members Craig, Geslicki, Sussholz, Wolfmark and Schofield (arrived at 7:35 pm) were 10 present. Member Lown was absent. A quorum was present. 11 Village of Northbrook Staff present included Jennifer Maisch, Zoning Administrator, and Denise 12 Kauffman, Recorder. 13 Review of Minutes 14 Member Sussholz, seconded by Member Geslicki, moved to approve the minutes of the January 26, 15 2015 meeting, as presented. On a voice vote, the motion carried unanimously. 16 General Public Comments 17 There were no comments. 18 Chairman Decker announced that the docket would first be heard in the public hearing portion of the 19 meeting. ZBA deliberation and decision regarding the docket would occur immediately following the 20 hearing, during the regular meeting. It was announced that if members of the audience are not able to 21 stay for the regular meeting, they can contact the Zoning Administrator for the results. Petitioners will 22 be sworn in and should address the Board. Neighbors within 250 ft. were notified of each new petition. 23 As required by state statute, the hearing notice for all new dockets was properly published in the 24 Northbrook Star on February 5, 2015. 25 Public Hearing and Consideration of the Following Petition: 26 DOCKET NO. 15-Z-2 (3400 DUNDEE ROAD – DETACHED GARAGE) – Petition by Levin 3400 Holding, LLC; 27 Levy 3400 Holding, LLC; Oliva 3400 Holding, LLC; Rudman Family 3400 Holding, LLC, as joint property 28 owners, all located at 3400 Dundee Road, Suite 310, Northbrook, IL, 60062; for a Zoning Code variation 29 to reduce the required interior side yard setback requirement for a building in the O-2, Limited Office 30 District from 10’ to 2’. The Property is commonly known as 3400 Dundee Road (PREI Numbers 04-05- 31 304-014; 04-05-304-019; 04-05-304-020) and is the site of an existing 3-story office building. The 32 variation has been requested to allow the installation of a detached garage. 33 Petitioner Andrew Vennamore was sworn in. Mr. Vennamore addressed the ZBA and also introduced 34 Sam Oliver and Henry Vasquez. There was discussion of the proposed new detached garage. Discussion 35 included that the structure there now is on the property line. Discussion also included the large laundry 36 list of items such as HVAC blowers, filters, piping, ceiling tile, ladders, power washers, etc. that are now 37 stored in places all over the property. Some of these items are in electrical closets. The proposed 38 project will increase the size of the structure to get all the building related items into one place. The 39 proposed garage door is to be able to put the Bobcat in there. There was discussion of the variation. 40 There was discussion of the parking spaces required and there are 286 parking spaces available and the 41 requirement is 305 spaces so parking is already tight. The petitioner said the proposed location is to not  1 lose any additional parking spaces. Further discussion included that the Bobcat and Blade currently take 2 up parking spaces and putting them inside will alleviate part of that parking problem. The proposed 3 location for the structure would only have a 2’ setback. The petitioner said there is no other practical 4 location to place this structure. The petitioner told the ZBA that the hardship is there is no other 5 practical location to put the structure. Mr. Vennamore said he has met with the neighboring business 6 owner to discuss the project. There was discussion with the other owner about extending the fence 7 adjacent to where the new garage would be located. The neighbor is the Center for Deafness. 8 Discussion included that the snowplow is kept there year round always taking up three parking spots. 9 With the proposed new building, the snow blade would be stored inside during the summer months. 10 There was discussion between Members and petitioner about the property. There was discussion about 11 the use of the snow equipment only for that business. There was also discussion of the location of the 12 fence in relation to the garage doors. There was discussion of moving the fence. The gates of the corral 13 will move in toward the building. There was discussion of not blocking the windows and the view of the 14 tenants on the bottom floor. There was discussion of putting windows on the elevation of the garage. 15 There was discussion of making the structure narrower. Again, there was discussion of what the 16 hardship is for the variance. The petitioners said the hardship is that all of the supplies have always 17 been scattered and stored all over the place. The Fire Department said they cannot keep supplies in the 18 electrical closets. There was a suggestion and discussion of giving up the office space to accommodate 19 some of the storage needs for all of the supplies. The petitioner said the tenants have long term 20 contracts that would need to expire before they could take the space to turn it into storage area. There 21 was discussion of using opaque, solid fencing to shield the building. Village Staff Zoning Administrator 22 Jennifer Maisch said there have not been any complaints from the neighbors. The petitioner said he 23 desires to replace what is there and make it look better. Jennifer Maisch said the neighbors did call to 24 inquire about the variance but no complaints were registered. 25 Motion by Member Craig, seconded by Member Sussholz to close the public hearing. On a voice vote, 26 there were all ayes and the motion passed. 27 There was continued discussion in the regular meeting. Member Sussholz said he is concerned that all 28 options have not been looked at and he doesn’t see that every option has been explored. Members 29 Wolfmark and Members Geslicki said they don’t think a lot of effort has gone into presenting alternative 30 options. There was discussion of putting the garage in the back corner and that it would look better 31 there. There was discussion that the parking is already far below the minimum. There was discussion of 32 putting the building in the back and asking for a parking space variance. There was discussion of asking 33 petitioner to perhaps review the plan and see if they could come back at another date. There was 34 discussion of coming back with a revised location. There was discussion of relief for setback 35 requirements if there were revisions in location presented at a later date. There was discussion of what 36 actions could be taken to keep this petition live. There was also discussion that voting would have to 37 take place tonight and it would require re-noticing. There was further discussion of procedural options. 38 There was discussion of narrowing the depth of the structure and keeping it in the current proposed 39 location. There was also discussion of the petitioner returning with something more architecturally 40 appealing, with more landscaping and screening. 41  1 At this time, the petitioner requested a continuance to bring this item back to the April ZBA meeting on 2 April 27, 2015. It was determined that no vote is required and this item is continued to the next 3 meeting. 4 Old Business 5 There was no old business. 6 New Business 7 It was announced that there will not be a ZBA meeting in March. The next meeting will be April 27. 8 Adjournment 9 There being no further business, Member Schofield, seconded by Member Sussholz, moved to adjourn 10 the meeting at 8:22 p.m. On a voice vote, the motion unanimously carried. 11 The meeting adjourned at 8:22 pm. 12 13 Respectfully submitted, 14 Denise Kauffman/Recorder