VILLAGE OF LONG GROVE
Long Grove Plan Commission

October 7, 2003 Meeting Minutes

 

Chairman present:  Fred Phillips

 

Commissioners present: Ed Acuna, Michael Dvorak, Nicholas Fasano, Robert Jenkins and Lisa Phillips

 

Commissioners Absent: Joseph Di Iorio and Camy Gould

 

Also Present: Village Attorney Julie Tappendorf and Village Planner Edmond Cage.

 

1.         CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Fred Phillips called the meeting to order at 8:03 p.m.

 

2.                  MINUTES OF September 16, 2003

Commissioner Dvorak was not present at the previous meeting and wanted to add his comments into the minutes on the proposed day care center petition.  He found option A more favorable but that a scaled plan is important and that the foliage along Route 83 should be trimmed so as to not interfere with ingress and egress.

 

There were changes made to the draft meeting minutes from September 16, 2003 meeting minutes.  Commissioner Fasano motioned to approve the revised September 16, 2003 meeting minutes with changes, Commissioner Lisa Phillips seconded.  Ayes, all.  Nays, none, motion carried.

 

3.         Continued Public Hearing For a Text Amendment and Special Use Permit to Operate a Day Care Center for Approximately 22 Children Within the Existing Residence Located at 7155 RFD (Lot #29 Towner Subdivision), Submitted by Dmitriy Makhovik. 

 

The Petitioner had not submitted the traffic study as requested by the Plan Commission and the Petitioner had requested that this petition be tabled until the next regularly scheduled meeting on November 4, 2003.  Commissioner Lisa Phillips motioned to continue the public hearing to November 4, 2003.  Commissioner Dvorak seconded, Ayes, all.  Nays, none.  Motion carried.

 

4.         Public Hearing for the Consideration of a Request for a Special Use to Permit an Addition and any Additional Relief Necessary to Expand the Existing Fire Protection Facility, located at 1165 Old McHenry Road, Submitted by SRBL on Behalf of the Long Grove Fire Protection District.

 

Kelly Jameson of SRBL Architects introduced the project.  Ms. Jameson presented the plans for the proposed addition and noted that it would provide a much better elevation on the West side of the building as the façade itself was broken up into smaller sections rather than one big imposing wall.  She explained that the addition would extend approximately 40 feet to the west of the present building.

 

Joe Rubel, a SRBL Partner, finished the presentation by discussing the interior of the building and the layout of the parking areas.

 

Norma Sayles, 1180 RFD, said she thought the addition was to increase the number of bays to five for the Fire District rather than increasing office and living space.  She is not in favor of this proposal at this location and would prefer the Route 83 location for a Fire District facility.

 

Chairman Fred Phillips stated that the Plan Commission could not comment on the relocation of the Fire District because the review of the Special Use application is the only Plan Commission mandate at this time. 

 

James Monroe, 1841 RFD, identified himself as the President of the Fire District and explained the reasons for the much needed addition.  He stated that maybe in the future there would be a need for an additional satellite fire station but the Fire District cannot afford to build a new station at this time.  He stated that there is an approximate $3.5 million shortfall.  The Fire District has borrowed approximately $1.4 million and a new station would cost approximately $5 million.

 

Gerald Ostick, 5109 RFD, asked what the value of the property located at the intersections of Route 53 and Route 83 on the south side of the Executive House was?

 

No one had the answer to this question.

 

Commissioner Acuna stated that he did not have a problem with the planned addition proposal and feels that this request does not eliminate the potential selling of this property in the future.  He would be interested in the relocation of the Fire Station if there is a buyer for the property, but as no buyer has come forward at this time, he is in favor of the addition.

 

Commissioner Lisa Phillips stated that the submitted plans were very detailed but she had a concern on the precedent set by increasing the impervious area.

 

Village Attorney Tappendorf said the text amendment in the R-2 district allows an increase in percent of impervious for institutional uses only.

 

Commissioner Acuna stated after reviewing a letter submitted to the Plan Commission that the Fire District collects additional run-off water on site and re-uses it, and this might be a good reason to justify such an increase in impervious lot coverage.

 

Attorney Tappendorf stated that a concern was that if other petitioners could also capture water on-site, then this would be a concern to the Village for authorizing an increase in impervious lot coverage.  Such an increase to impervious lot coverage should be limited to institutional uses only. 

 

Commissioner Acuna would like to include verbiage in the proposed text amendment about containing water on-site.

 

Steve Triphahn of W-T Engineering, who is the engineer working on this project, said the site lighting would involve moving poles on the west side of the new addition further to the west of the lot.  Other than this change, all the other fixtures would remain the same.

 

Commissioner Lisa Phillips requested that the applicant consider decorative streetlights such as those planned for the downtown area.  She also requested that the existing dumpster should be enclosed.

 

Commissioner Acuna requested that some landscaping be added to the east of the building, this would make an improvement to buffering in this area, this was per a letter submitted by a neighboring resident.

 

Commissioner Fasano stated that he prefers the concept of the text amendment, he felt that it was important that no precedent would be set.  He stated that the Plan Commission cannot deal with the relocation of the Fire District at this time.

 

Commissioner Jenkins said the present Fire District building was built for a volunteer department and should be updated now that there is full-time staff at this location.  He has no problem with the application and is in favor of the proposal.

 

Commissioner Dvorak has very similar views to the other commissioners.

 

Village Planner Cage explained the main staff report issues were the lighting, landscaping, dumpster enclosure, parking and impervious lot coverage.  He read into the record letters dated 10/7/03 from John Mangel, and Dave & Marlene Grupp.

 

Attorney Tappendorf stated that two separate motions would be needed, one for the text amendment and one for the special use permit.

 

Commissioner Lisa Phillips said she has a concern about the text amendment not being referred to the Plan Commission by the Village Board.

 

Norma Sayles asked if this means with this approval, a private business can use this building?

 

Village Attorney Tappendorf said they would have to bring this building into compliance.

 

Commissioner Lisa Phillips also asked for a calculation of impervious surface area if the front and rear concrete drive areas were returned to grass to insure the property could be brought back into compliance should the Fire Station decide to move and sell the property to a commercial entity.

 

Norma Sayles stated that she thought the Fire District building will not be big enough.

 

Commissioner Lisa Phillips motioned to recommend approval of a special use permit to (i) allow the proposed expansion of the existing fire protection district facility, subject to the comments contained in the updated staff report dated October 1, 2003, and (ii) allow the fire protection district facility to exceed the maximum lot coverage restrictions contained in Subsection 5-4-3-4(D) of the Zoning Code, but in no event shall the facility exceed 46.9 percent of impervious surface area.  Commissioner Jenkins seconded, ayes all.  no nays.  Motion carried.

Village staff were directed to address all the outstanding details and plan revisions with the petitioner including landscaping, dumpster enclosure, lighting, etc prior to the next Village Board meeting.

 

Meeting ended at 9:14 pm

 

5.         Other Business.

No other business was discussed.

 

6.         Adjournment:

              Next Regular Meeting, Tuesday, November 4, 2003, 8:00pm

               Next Special Meeting, Tuesday, November 18, 2003, 8:00pm

 

            Motion to adjourn by Commissioner Jenkins, seconded by Commissioner Lisa Phillips.  Ayes, all.  Nays, none, motion carried.

 

            Meeting adjourned at 9:14 p.m.

 

 

Respectfully submitted by,

 

Edmond Cage

Village Planner

Village of Long Grove