Long Grove Plan
Commission
December 4, 2001
Present: Chairman Young, Commissioners Borawski, Di Iorio, Gould, Jenkins, F. Phillips, L. Phillips, and Walter, Village Manager Doughty, and Planner Kendig.
Meeting gaveled to order at 8:01 PM by Chairman Young
II. MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 6th, 2001
Corrections:
Commissioner Di Iorio’s name was misspelled in the last meeting minutes.
Commissioner Walter moved to accept the minutes as amended.
Commissioner F. Phillips seconded the motion.
Ayes all.
Motion carried.
Commissioner L. Phillips moved to recommend approval of Plat Amendment Lot 96 Indian Creek Club Unit 5 per village Engineer Bleck’s letter dated 11/14/2001.
Commissioner Walter seconded the motion.
Ayes all.
Motion carried.
Manager Doughty introduced the new secretary, Ed Acuna.
Planner Kendig revised the latest draft of the Monotony code dated 11/28/2001.
Commissioner Gould commented that a previous draft of the standards mandated that developers needed to submit elevations or photos of homes on either side of any home site to be developed. The Commission discussed the merits of this and agreed to amend the standards to include this provision as amendment ‘I’ on Section 4.
Commissioner Gould inquired whether it is necessary to include a standard that will not allow 2 in 10 homes in a row to be similar. Planner Kendig did not think that this was a necessary standard because of custom home design.
Commissioner Walter pointed out that on page 2, section 4A of the standard, the word “heights” should be changed to “height” for grammatical correctness.
Commissioner Walter moved to recommend monotony and housing design standards as outlined in the memo dated 11.28.01 with an amendment ‘I’ on Section 4.
Commissioner Di Iorio seconded the motion.
Ayes All
Motion carried
Planner Kendig gave a presentation of his review of sample homes that illustrate some of the concerns the Commission may wish to address regarding bulk housing regulation. With regards to square foot and volumetric measurements, Planner Kendig showed that the current code allows for homes far in excess of what the Commission has suggested is intuitively reasonable.
Commissioner L. Phillips asked if the Plan Commission is the appropriate body to review elevations versus the Architectural Commission, for example. Manager Doughty pointed out that the Architectural Commission has not dealt with these issues in the past.
Manager Doughty pointed out that legally the Plan Commission can not approve the elevation of each home to be built in the village. The bulk housing regulations specifically address planned communities and therefore are under the influence of the Plan Commission.
Planner Kendig suggested that the following aspects were the most relevant in evaluating homes:
· Relative Scale
· Set backs
· Excessive floor area
· Sighting (orientation)
· Vegetation
· Architecture
Planner Kendig also suggested that walkout basement regulations should be considered as well as height guideline.
Some discussion ensued about whether it was the goal of the commission to ‘protect’ the public or village residents. Commissioner L. Phillips urged the Commission to be specific in its goals so as not to damage the potential property values of existing homes.
Planner Kendig will prepare a chart for the next Plan Commission meeting to outline proposals for volumetric and/or square foot limits as well as addressing some of the other factors listed above (e.g. set back distances dependent on size of home).
Commissioner Borawski suggested that commission initially focus on current subdivisions being proposed.
Report to Long Grove Plan Commission submitted by Chairman Young regarding parcels 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, and 34. Area 10 should be added to the report.
Chairman Young directed Planner Kendig to review and revise the plans he had prepared for the area. The Commission agreed that the current plans had not drawn much interest from developers and that the activity of surrounding communities had impacted the viability of various potential plans.
Potential plans and timing were discussed without conclusion.
Planner Kendig suggested that the Commission focus on better defining the constraints (height, corner unit, access, buffers against 53, scenic corridor, etc.) of the sub-area. No action was taken to do this at this time.
Chairman Young and Manager Doughty suggested that the Park District present the Plan Commission with a list of the properties in which the District is interested as well as a reason for the selection of those properties and an expected use.
The Village Board has stated that this is the last meeting of the Plan Commission at the Country Meadows School. Future meetings will be held at the Village Hall.
The next Plan Commission meeting will be the evening of Jan 7. Note that this is a Monday. Holiday schedules and meeting space constraints have made the regular Tuesday meeting time untenable.
Motion to adjourn made by Commissioner Borawski.
Seconded by Commissioner L Phillips
Ayes all.
Motion carried.
Meeting adjourned at 10:51 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Eduardo L. Acuna