Candice Bielski, Village of Homer Glen Clerk | Village of Homer Glen
Candice Bielski, Village of Homer Glen Clerk | Village of Homer Glen
Village of Homer Glen Plan Commission met April 17.
Here are the minutes provided by the commission:
1. Call to Order.
The Meeting was called to Order at 7:01 PM
2. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag was led by Commissioner Bradarich.
3. Roll Call.
Members present: Commissioner Stanly, Commissioner Komperda, Commissioner Foley, Commissioner Bradarich, Vice-Chair McGary and Chairman Hand. Also present were Planner Udarbe and Plan Commission Secretary Pesavento.
Not present: Commissioner Lyons.
4. Minutes.
a) April 3, 2025
A motion was made to approve the minutes from April 3, 2025 by Commissioner Foley, seconded by Commissioner Stanly. All in favor, zero (0) opposed. The motion carried.
5. Public Comment.
Christy Nahser- I live at 14862 W. 143rd Street, Homer Glen, Chrislin Farm. I think most people kind of know me. I'm the acres that are right across from Reed School, and we've been trying to save the road. In 2002, my mother and I moved to Homer Glen with the intention of building a world class facility and bringing Olympic riders. I've developed young riders to the gold medal Junior Olympics so I wanted to continue with that. We were wined and dined by the Chamber of Commerce. Everybody seemed very, very anxious and excited that we were going to come and do this on this big piece of property and do a world class horse training facility. As we started to develop it, somebody on the Board started to say, no, we couldn't do this, and couldn't do that. My mother and I kind of felt like, what just happened here. We have moved from Burr Ridge to Homer Glen so we figured we'll just continue on and just work with people in the area. The keyword that I want you to remember is hostage. At that point, we kind of started to feel a little bit like hostages, in the fact that here we are now, we've changed our whole lifestyle to come to Homer Glen, where a lot of people have said they're all excited about it. We tried to continue going about things. We couldn't build an indoor arena, which would have helped me to develop my business and keep things really going forward because the Board at the time said, no, we couldn't do it here. My mother passed away in 2013. I maintained the farm and kept going forward and trying to stay with the farm and training horses and riders. It's very difficult to continue your business if you don't have an indoor arena, but I still maintained it. As the years went by, they wanted to start to widen the road, so I decided to stay, stick it out. They were thinking that I could never sell the piece of property if I chose to do so. Through the years, as I've been trying to stay here and help Homer Glen save 143rd Street to maintain the integrity of the area into a rural area, which I know a lot of people love seeing the horses. Now I've got developers that have come to me and I know they've talked to you guys about developing the piece of property. I don't want to go anywhere, but I've been told also that, us winning the 143rd Street fight is pretty much a done deal. We're not going to win it. I've had developers come to me. I know they've come to you people. They will come back to me and say, no, we can't do anything because Homer Glen won't let us do anything. I've had a couple different people approach me for a solar facility, which would be lovely for the area. They're kind of saying that I don't think Homer Glen is going to work with them so once again I'm going to throw that word out to you, hostage. I'm a hostage now. If they develop the road on 143rd Street and they encroach on my piece of property, I can't develop it. I can't go anywhere. I'm stuck. I'm 71 years old and I'm going to be 72 years old in August. What do I do? What does Homer Glen want me to do? Now I'm angry. I'm angry because apparently, I can't do anything with my piece of property, but sit there and the only time I'm going to be able to get off my piece of property is in a casket. I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that person. I want to be able to go ahead and think about my future and at least have a little bit of control of my future, but right now I have nothing. I sit and I take very good care of my animals. I have animals that are ancient, but I'd like to move them to another facility if I could and we could live in harmony, and maybe I could have a little extra cash to do it. Right now, Homer Glen is not allowing anything to be done with my piece of property that is 31 acres on King Road and 143rd Street. I throw it to this committee to think about what you need to do to change. Maybe there's different areas in Homer Glen that you need to change and help people. I mean I want to save it and keep it on two lanes and keep it quiet and coming into Homer Glen, but that just doesn't seem like it's going to be a deal. Maybe it'll happen in a different lifetime, I don't know, but not in my lifetime. I look to you people to make a decision on what I can do with this piece of property, and I can go ahead and go on with my life. Thank you. Oh, by the way, Happy Easter. I should have probably said that before I got ticked off.
Chairman Hand asked, can I ask you a question? I don't recall, the Board turned you down building an indoor arena? Christy said, yes. Chairman Hand asked, when was that? Christy said, we wanted to build an indoor arena and new stalls on the piece of property and it was turned down years ago, but the problem now, is that if the road is widened right up against my barn, what do I do? Do I have to do a whole new barn in a different area? I have horses that are handicapped. I have a blind horse that is in a paddock that is right near the road, but apparently the road is going to come straight up, almost to my barn. I don't have a sound wall against my house. I don't want to listen to trucks coming through there, not to mention all the wildlife that is going to be decimated. I can't remember the exact year that they said no to an indoor arena. The problem being now is that because so many years that I have not had an indoor arena, and I can't maintain my business at the level that it should be maintained, I lose people and riders come and go. I'm trained by people on the Olympic team. I'm going to tell you right now, I'm good at what I do, but I can't hold on to it if I don't have an indoor arena. Through the years, the money that I had that I was trying to put together for an indoor arena has slowly been dwindled away trying to stay alive. When we did have the money two different times, the Board said, no. They wanted me in the very beginning to put everything at the very middle of my piece of property. The biggest thing is they had setbacks of like 300 or 500 feet. It was ridiculous. The biggest problem for us was I couldn't do horse shows. I couldn't do clinics with people on the Olympic team. I couldn't do something that would benefit the area. I mean I did know people on the Olympic teams from all over the world. Homer Glen should've used that. It would have been a great way to pull people in here and come see Olympic riders do their thing and develop riders for our next Olympics. Now I don't have the funds to put in an indoor arena, plus the fact that 143rd Street might be widened. I think it's just a done deal, which is really sad because I sat to stay and fight for Homer Glen. I love the people and there are so many people I absolutely adore that have helped me with the horses and stuff. I've saved a ton of animals in the area, rescues and stuff like that, but I think I'm done. I don't know unless there's a hail mary pass that someone comes and tells me that they aren't touching 143rd Street then I will stick it out. Chairman Hand said, the Plan Commission doesn't have much jurisdiction over the road. What we have some jurisdiction over is variances. If your barn were to be too close to the road or to a lot line, that's what we approve or deny. All I can recommend, if it's even possible for you to build the indoor arena, is to come in and talk with Taylor here and go over your survey and your plat. I'm not aware of where the sound wall is going to go. I don't know if any of us do. Christy said, the sound wall is supposed to be 10 feet from my house on 143rd Street. I'm right across from Reed School and supposedly, here's my house and the pads right there. I've been told that the sound wall will be right there in my house. I wouldn't be able to see and the sound of the trucks going by my house. The house is 170 years old. I'm going to wake up one morning and everything is going to be on top of me and the vibrations and stuff like that too. I don't want that. Not to mention, I can't teach my riding lessons because it's going to be right near my outside arena. Chairman Hand said, obviously the whole Village is not in favor of the five lane or whatever they're calling it. I'm not familiar with where the sound wall is going, but obviously that's going to change the whole look of that whole corridor. Christy said, absolutely and then for me to pull out with horses and a trailer, it'll be horrible. It'll be an accident waiting to happen with a trailer full of horses and live animals that you can't move really fast and people speeding. I don't know if anybody's ever sat over there and watched people come speeding down there, and I would bet my life on it that they're not from Homer Glen. They're just speeding through. They're cutting through. They're trying to avoid the tolls as much as they can. They cut from 355 to get over and go straight down LaGrange Road and avoid the tolls. I don't know what the answer is, but at this point I'm frustrated.
Chairman Hand said, if there's anyone to talk to, Taylor, would you know who it might? Planner Udarbe asked, about 143rd Street? Chairman Hand said, well, and technical stuff like the sound wall. Planner Udarbe said, you've probably talked to Brett Westcott before because I think he has seen concept plans. I don't know how far we are into final engineering for 143rd Street. I know it's all been on hold for a bit pending the lawsuit. Christy said, supposedly that lawsuit was dismissed. Planner Udarbe said, I believe that is true. Christy said, I guess it has gone to a committee down in southern Illinois for eminent domain. If we don't sell our frontage they are going to come and seize it. I'm not interested in the sound wall because if I am then it means I'm staying. I won't stay. Why would I stay at this stage in my life to listen to the pounding? If I wanted that kind of noise I would move to Chicago, but I have animals to think of. I have animals that are handicapped and that are blind and one that is going blind. I just need to protect them. That is all I have to do. Chairman Hand said, if you need some answers, Brett Westcott is our engineer here, and I'm sure he's had his nose into all the intricacies of that. You can maybe make an appointment with him. Christy asked, what is he going to say? I mean, what I'm looking for right now is, is I don't know what you guys want to happen to my piece of property. That's the key. I mean, as it stands right now, like I said, I've had a couple people that have looked at about buying it and doing development and a couple of different people with solar. All I know is they come back to me and they said, we can't do anything right now. Homer Glen doesn't want solar. It would be beautiful because it's 31 acres and then you wouldn't have houses. You wouldn't have development. You would just have solar panels and they put trees all over the place. That would be beautiful. That would be no impact on the community and not to mention that would be an asset because you're going to get free energy. Chairman Hand said, the ground solar, like a solar farm can only be put on industrial zoning here, which there's not much. For your farm, you would be allowed to put on, I think it's 1,500 square feet of solar panels, which would just take care of your farm. It wouldn't be like community solar or anything like that. Christy said, I don't know how many panels that they want to put up or anything like that. Chairman Hand said, if you want more information, you can sit down and go over the details with Brett about your property. Christy said, even where Homer Glen will let me do something with it? Someone called today and offered insulting prices on my piece of property. We paid more than that when we moved in. I need to have some security in my future, because that's it. Planner Udarbe said, if you want to write down your contact information for me. Christy said, sure. Planner Udarbe said, thank you and I will reach out to you.
6. New Business and Possible Action.
a) Case No. HG-2509-V: A Variance to reduce the required rear yard setback for a single-family home from thirty (30) feet to twenty (20) feet for certain real property located in the R-4 Single-Family Residential at Vacant 13634 S. Beaver Ct, Homer Glen, Illinois.
Planner Udarbe presented the facts of the case. This is a request for approval of a variance to reduce the required rear yard setback for a single-family home from 30 feet to 20 feet for certain real property located in the R-4 Single-Family Residential District at Vacant 13634 S. Beaver Court, Homer Glen, Illinois. The applicant, Matt Skubisz, is the project manager and owner of the vacant property with the common address of 13634 S. Beaver Court. The applicant is proposing to construct a single-family home at the subject property, which is in the Old Oak Estates unit 7 subdivision and is zoned R-4 Single-Family Residential. The applicant is proposing to construct a single-family detached home with a footprint of around 2,380 square feet. The subject property is characterized as being off a cul-de-sac bulb and having a very shallow lot depth. Per the zoning regulations for the R-4 Single-Family Residential District, the primary residential structure shall maintain a 30-foot rear yard setback.
I have not received any public comments for the zoning case.
This is the site plan. This is the home. The rear setback is 20.5 feet so we round down to the 20 feet. That's why I chose 21 feet because I don't have the decimals on there. These are some renderings of the home. They haven't submitted a full permit yet. This is all that they've shown us with the site plan. As you can see, they are proposing 100 percent masonry on the first floor. They would have to meet all the other requirements for the district, such as 35 feet in height, etc. Per the Zoning Regulations for the R-4 district primary residential structures are required to maintain a rear setback of 30 feet from the rear lot line. They're proposing 20 feet from the rear property line. In my staff report, I kind of reference hardship being a deficient lot depth, but just to explain, the R-4 district is labeled as no longer available for development. It was grandfathered in, if you will, from Will County. We don't allow people to do map amendments into this district so our bulk table doesn't have any standards for lot depth or lot frontage in our use table. I while say it is really shallow, there isn't technically a requirement for depth in the R-4 district in our code. This shallowness is just in comparison to other properties and in comparison, to properties that are not located on the end of a cul-de-sac like this. Otherwise, this plan appears to meet most other zoning requests. They haven't submitted a full application for a permit yet, so I don't know the exact height of the house, but we do allow a maximum height of 35 feet and it's a mean height. The applicant is aware that they do have to meet all other codes after this variance request.
I did pull some aerial images of some other properties located off of cul-de-sacs. As you can see, most of these houses are deficient. A lot of them don't appear to meet the 30 foot setback that's required in the R-4 district. My measurements are not completely accurate, but you can definitely see these are shallow lots with setbacks that are pretty close to the rear. These are another few of them. The one on the right is a pie shaped, so it's hard to argue exactly which is the side and which is the rear, but as you can see, they're not maintaining 30 feet really from either of those sides. For findings of fact, the plight of the owner is due to the unique lot shape. The subject property is characterized as being located off a cul-de-sac bulb and having a very shallow lot depth of only around 96 feet in the center. The purpose of the variance is not exclusively based on the desire to make profit out of the property, but for a reasonable use of the property to build a single-family home. If permitted to be used only under the conditions allowed, meaning the 30-foot rear setback, they would just have to redesign the house and they would lose 10 feet off the rear to fit within the required yards. That concludes my presentation, but I'm available for questions.
A motion was made to open the public hearing by Vice-Chair McGary seconded by Commissioner Bradarich all in favor, zero (0) opposed. Motion carried.
A motion was made to close the public hearing by Vice-Chair McGary seconded by Commissioner Komperda all in favor, zero (0) opposed. Motion carried.
Commissioner Bradarich said, it's a unique shape. Commissioner Foley said, when I drove by there, it looks weird. It looks like the neighbor has landscaping. Vice-Chair McGary said, when you look at where the house is on it, maybe they'll be able to stay those landscape islands. Commissioner Foley said, I did see that. Planner Udarbe said, I think it was owned by someone behind them. Commissioner Foley said, that is what I thought too. Planner Udarbe said, they had been holding on to that lot as well and had their landscaping on there. I've heard of this lot for a while now. Vice-Chair McGary said, it looks well taken care of. Chairman Hand said, it has a depth of 96 feet so there's the hardship.
Chairman Hand asked for a motion. Commissioner Bradarich made a motion to recommend approval of a Variance to reduce the required rear yard setback for a single-family home from thirty (30) feet to twenty (20) feet for certain real property located in the R-4 Single-Family Residential District at Vacant 13634 S. Beaver Ct, Homer Glen, Illinois [HG-2509-V]? The motion was seconded by Commissioner Stanly. A roll call vote was taken with Commissioners Foley, Komperda, Bradarich, Stanly, Vice-Chair McGary and Chairman Hand voting in favor six (6) to zero (0). The motion passed unanimously and will go before the Village Board on May 14, 2025.
Chairman Hand asked for a motion. Commissioner Bradarich made a motion to adopt staff's findings as the findings of the Plan Commission? The motion was seconded by Vice-Chair McGary. A roll call vote was taken with Commissioners Stanly, Komperda, Foley, Bradarich, Vice- Chair McGary and Chairman Hand voting in favor six (6) to zero (0). The motion passed unanimously and will go before the Village Board on May 14, 2025.
b) Discussion and Consensus on Content for the Plan Commission Annual Report.
Planner Udarbe said, our code requires that an annual report describing the business of the Plan Commission for the preceding year and making recommendations for the forthcoming year shall be presented to the Village Board on or before May 31st for each year. As you know, or might not know, last year was the first time we actually did an annual report for our Plan Commission. I was not actually at that meeting when Melissa presented this or the data was discussed at Plan Commission. This is meant to just be prompts for some of what our code wants the report to touch on, or what responsibilities of the Plan Commission are to discuss and recommend. This is a very open format. If there's something that Melissa did last year that you guys liked, definitely interrupt me and ask questions. This is a very open format. Vice-Chair McGary said, I know Melissa did this and Chris is probably going to put his own stamp on it, but she had a really nice layout. As far as I'm concerned, the only thing we need to do is come up with what you want to do in the next year because everything else is fact, Planner Udarbe said, I did hand out what was presented to the Board and for fiscal year 2023-2024, this new one, a lot of this is going to stay the same new data for case reviews. These are all in front of you. This case analytics will change based on the data for this year and then zoning code amendments will list that there. The very last page is what the discussion is based on tonight and what we feel is important to put in this report to present to the Board. If we want to just get right into it, we'll just kind of go through some of the prompts. If you don't feel it's important, we can skip it. We can have as much or as little discussion as we want or if we want to start with some of these old recommendations to see if we want to go off of this. Vice-Chair McGary said, you should look at the old recommendations and say, what did we do or what didn't we do? Chairman Hand said, I'm looking at what did we change off of the recommendations. Vice-Chair McGary said, we had a turnover in leadership. That's what happened. We will blame that. Chairman Hand asked, the restaurant parking hasn't been codified? Planner Udarbe said, it has not. Chris would like to do a full rewrite of all of our parking requirements because it's not only restaurants that has the seats and employees, but most of our parking requirements are in that same format, which just makes it cumbersome for us. Commissioner Foley said, we have talked about that though. Planner Udarbe said, yes, we have. We still feel parking is a priority.
Vice-Chair McGary said, we did the temporary sign thing so we can cross that off. We didn't do side yard fencing. Planner Udarbe asked, do we want to talk about that one more? Vice-Chair McGary asked, do we want to just leave it and have the people come? Chairman Hand said, it's ironic that we haven't had anything since we last talked about changing it. Commissioner Komperda asked, didn't we talk about changing it so they didn't have to always come in? Planner Udarbe said, the process, yes. That's how I recalled it. It's not so much that we don't want to see it. It's just that the public hearing process, the two months and the fees, might have been the discussion around fence variances. I don't know if we still feel that. I personally, just in the last week have heard from a permit that I have that someone's like, I can't go through that process. That's going to be too long for me for something like a corner side fencing that's five feet in height instead of four feet in height. I don't know if we feel that's a priority. We could definitely go through data, too, and see how many fence variances we've actually had in the last year. Commissioner Foley asked, isn't that a little hard when every yard is different. That is a tough call. I understand that they want to come in and do what they want to do, but I think it's tough call because what if a certain lot is affected by it. Planner Udarbe said, like against a front yard, definitely. Commissioner Komperda said, well there are still rules on what type of fencing. Planner Udarbe said, yes. They could have fencing, but it would just have to be four foot and 50 percent open. Commissioner Komperda, my neighborhood, Golden Oak Drive and Pine Grove Drive has come up in front of us and the neighbors were a little up in arms and everybody was all worried about it and now driving by it, it looks cute. It's white and open and it's cute. It's not bothering anybody. Chairman Hand asked, could we check a few neighboring towns? Planner Udarbe said, yes. We want to keep it on the list then for a potential code update? Commissioner Bradarich said, what we really should do is have some sort of appearance committee or appearance ordinance or something where they have to come in front of us, maybe for an appearance before they come in front of us for an approval. We can comment on mechanical roof screens, fences, like you're talking about, or materials. Vice-Chair McGary asked, you brought this up before and it would require creating a committee? Commissioner Bradarich said, yes. Commissioner Komperda said, if we have the list and it's showing that these are the fences that are allowed, this is the size that is allowed so follow that for getting a permit. Commissioner Bradarich said, as far as fences go. Chairman Hand said, most of the people coming in wanted privacy, period. They couldn't do an open fence. It had to be a closed cedar fence, cedar fence. That's what I'm remembering with all these cases was that was a priority. A lot of them were on a corner side where there was a street there. Does come into play for just those properties where corner side lots or do we still want to take a look at every case? Commissioner Bradarich said, I don't think we want to look at every case. I think, like Laura said, we should just say what it is and they can see if they meet those requirements. Chairman Hand said, we can make a recommendation to the Board if we decide that we're fine with a solid fence on a corner, side yard. Is that what that is? Where is the closed fence not allowed? Planner Udarbe asked, do you want me to pull up a map example like where you could or could not? Chairman Hand said, yes. Planner Udarbe said, this property here at 13948 W. Clifton Lane is a corner property whose corner yard abuts another rear and corner lot. By right, they're allowed to do the six-foot privacy fencing into their corner side yard. Vice-Chair Hand asked, they're allowed? Planner Udarbe said, they are allowed to. This was a 2020 zoning code update. 14364 S. Pebble Creek Drive here is a corner side property, but they are abutting a front yard of another property. By right, they could do the six-foot fencing just up to their building line and then anything closer to the street would have to be the four foot, 50 percent open because they're against someone's front yard. Chairman Hand asked, where a backyard abuts a front yard? Planner Udarbe said, yes. That 2020 or 2019 code update did open up a lot of new cases because what we were seeing a lot was this one where we were like, what's the problem? It's against someone else's rear and corner side yard whereas sometimes we do still see esthetic issues potentially with allowing a six-foot fence in this area. If we were to allow that by right. Vice-Chair McGary said, it's probably why we left it alone. Planner Udarbe said, it is probably why we did. Commissioner Bradarich said, case by case. Planner Udarbe said, that's how it is now and off the top of my head I don't know how many fence variances we had, but I can look really quick and see. Vice- Chair McGary said, I don't think too many. Planner Udarbe said, I don't think we did in the last year, but let's see. Vice-Chair McGary said, I still think you'd need to look at accessory structures and fences case by case. Planner Udarbe said, okay.
Vice-Chair McGary said, Jay, can I ask you, where towns have an appearance committee, is it the people on the Plan Commission? Commissioner Bradarich said, Mokena is a separate committee of architects and design people. In Skokie, it's the same people who are on the Plan Commission. You have to go in front of them for appearance, and then you come back to them for the regular hearing and what that ties into is, Melissa always complained that we have no landscape ordinance. Chairman Hand asked, is that on our list? Commissioner Bradarich said, it is not, is it? Planner Udarbe said, it will be. It's not on the old one, but it is staff recommended. Commissioner Bradarich said, if we're going to create this list, I think landscape ordinance and some sort of appearance committee, or it could be an appearance session. Planner Udarbe said, if I may say, I don't know how we would form an appearance committee outside of this Plan Commission. I don't know what that process would be. If we're wanting staff to go out and include more site photos for our staff reports like this, that's something that we could just implement now. If that's what we're looking for. I would also just be concerned about adding another meeting that the applicants would have to go to just for a fence and my time. Commissioner Bradarich said, this would be something where staff would decide. If a building comes in like a strip mall or an office building, usually a commercial building we would be talking about. Staff would say, well, you have to go in front of the Plan Commission for the appearance showing what you're doing, and they could comment on your materials and if you need a roof screen. Planner Udarbe said, so kind of like our concept review process. Commissioner Bradarich said, we don't have any ordinance. Planner Udarbe said, we don't. Behind the scenes, like for any big development projects, we do have pre-application meeting requirements that people have to come in with renderings and concept site plans. That's all internal, but as you can see with Dunn Farm, we don't have any requirements that they had to do that. I think in Frankfort they did have a concept review requirement. Commissioner Bradarich said, they do. Planner Udarbe said, this was on the list as a top priority last year. Commissioner Bradarich said, the reason being is because when these cases come in front of us, we're going to vote on them and that's the first time we're seeing these materials. Our objective in the time that we have here is to vote yes or no on a project that we're seeing the materials for the first time, and there's no roof screens, and the landscaping is maybe not up to par. If we had a landscape ordinance or appearance ordinance for commercial buildings that they screen the rooftop units and you can only have so much drive it on the building and, if there's so much masonry and so on then you wouldn't need an appearance committee. It would just be a code. Maybe that's what we need to create. Vice-Chair McGary said, when you do it and what you'd like to put on this back page is a real discussion of what we do want. Planner Udarbe said, yes. It sounds like if there's consensus to keep as a top priority to establish some type of concept review so that we can have more workshop like things for our larger development projects. Is that right? Chairman Hand said, with Dunn Farm, we have almost nothing to look at. Somebody is going to have to look at it and put a lot of time into it and go back and forth with the developer. We are talking different phases of construction and different single-family, the quads and then the duplexes. Are they all going to be different or do we want them to appear all the same and we don't know yet. Commissioner Bradarich said, another way that it can be done and I don't know if you guys would agree with this, but if you had a project that was coming in, most of them are spread out and they could come in at 6:30 pm and we could look at it at 6:30 pm and then have our regular meeting at 7:00 pm. At least we are getting 30 minutes to look at it. Planner Udarbe said, we can definitely look into that. We have been doing a lot of workshops and even our Board has seen workshops so we can definitely see if this is something that is a standard operating procedure or if it's something that we have to codify, but we can look into that this upcoming year. If everyone's okay with us keeping that? Chairman Hand asked, this would apply new development, residential or commercial, also? Commissioner Bradarich, I think it could be both. Chairman Hand, for all new development then? Planner Udarbe said, maybe anything that requires a site plan. That would have been like the St. Bernards addition needed a site plan. Dunn Farm is site plan review and Hidden Valley was site plan review. This variance tonight was not a site plan review. That was just a variance. We probably wouldn't need to have more time on a case like that. Fences wouldn't need that. Commissioner Bradarich said, it's not a public hearing. Chairman Hand said, it's informational. Planner Udarbe said, we can look into that one.
Vice-Chair McGary said, as far as the rest of them, they're still on the agenda. Accessory dwellings, restaurant parking we should finish, cemetery regulations we never looked at and we never did massage therapy. Planner Udarbe asked, are both of these still priorities for us?
Chairman Hand asked, massage would be to establish a Homer Glen licensing program? Is that what that means? Planner Udarbe said, yes. We were at one point discussing removing that as a special use requirement, because all people did was come here and prove that they have the proper state licensing. It was like, why are we going to the Plan Commission when our staff should just be able to check that? We don't have the best license checking programs here so we keep these ones. Commissioner Bradarich said, I mean, the first one on the list is establish a concept review process. Vice-Chair McGary said, it kind of falls under that. Planner Udarbe said, temporary signs are done. I wanted to go over a few other ones that staff recommended. You don't have to present these if you don't want to. We feel strongly about changing our parking requirements so not just restaurant parking. We want to do a comprehensive look at all types of uses and establish by square footage instead of per seat count per employee count. This is to make it easier for staff. Commissioner Bradarich said, parking stall sizes and isle sizes? Planner Udarbe said, yes. We will probably be looking at that code if you guys are okay with that. It's not something that you necessarily have to put on this report if you don't want to, but these are just some ones that we were looking at. We just discussed wanting to do landscape ordinance. Do you guys want to put that on the list? Vice-Chair McGary said, I think so. Planner Udarbe said, other ones like clarifying definitions and state licensing requirements for I guess, all different things. We will be having a group home coming in soon for a special use permit. Commissioner Komperda asked, what is a group home? Planner Udarbe said, our code defines it as developmentally disabled individuals, but the state licensing doesn't call it that. It's kind of clarifying and probably aligning our code to meet state definitions and state requirements so that it's clear that people are getting the right license from the state, as would match our code. That's just something that I had to look into with this zoning case coming up. I thought it'd be nice that it's something codified so that another planner doesn't have to do what I did, chasing down, Illinois Department of Public Health and all the things that go way back years ago. Commissioner Bradarich said, we approved one of those years ago and I was on the Plan Commission. Do you remember that? Vice-Chair McGary said, yes. Commissioner Komperda asked, that is residential? Planner Udarbe said, yes. It is residential use. Chairman Hand said, Taylor, you can fill us in more when we get to your staff report for that because Chris mentioned that's going to the next meeting. Planner Udarbe said, that licensing requirement probably doesn't have to go into this recommendation just because we'll probably want to see how next week goes. Other ones that Chris had pointed out, he wants to clarify banquet facility definition, clarifying yards versus setbacks with graphics and, update our use tables. Those last three might just be those substantive amendments like we did with Melissa a few years ago, where we have a bunch of really minor code changes to clean things up. That might be something that we're looking to do this year, but again, very small minor clarification ones. I think we have a good list here.
Commissioner Komperda said, we didn't talk about the Comprehensive Plan. Planner Udarbe said, that'll be our next one. Commissioner Bradarich asked, when is this due? Planner Udarbe said, by May 31st. Please provide thoughts regarding the Village's Comprehensive Plan. I know we've already talked about how we want to start this up, and I do think that discussion ended with that we will have to see the Board temperature. It's my recommendation that this Plan Commission recommend that we look at this again. It's certainly no secret that it needs to be done. I do think it's the Plan Commission's responsibility to keep this in their face and it's presented as a recommendation that needs to be looked at. Vice-Chair McGary said, it's my understanding that we're not even eligible for some grants because our Comprehensive Plan is so old. Planner Udarbe said, that is what I hear as well. Commissioner Komperda said, I think we need more things like that to make a statement instead of saying to just update it. When I was at the training in Champagin last year and I talked to some people there, they said every 10 years. We're 20 years in. If we had a couple more things that we could say like we can't get any grants and whatever else. If we point out some negative impacts, maybe that would influence them a little bit. Planner Udarbe said, I think Christine is a good example. Our Comprehensive Plan has her huge property as agriculture off 143rd Street as a future land use where I find that a lot of properties are designated for future land use are a lot of just existing conditions. It's hard to say. With that example, I do think we do like a rural feel and solar farms were pretty much a no go anywhere in the Village, which is why we only allow it as a special use in industrial. I think a property like that, you can't envision as agriculture forever off 143rd Street. Commissioner Komperda said, Homer Glen said, that if you're going to develop that property that it has to be a state. They're saying minimum one acre, which is never going to happen. A developer can't make any money on that. No one's going to develop it. Personally, as far as solar farms go, I have a property going under contract right now that is 75 acres out in Peotone or Monee. I have a few with this guy, but it is out that way. We're going under contract for solar farm. There is quite a few of them out there. They're all agricultural so to say only industrial, I think is very strict. Vice-Chair McGary said, it is very strict. Commissioner Komperda said, I would like to see it where they could go on agricultural case by case, special use. Could they ever come to us and say, this makes sense. I have a guy looking at some in New Lenox and looking at the aerials it's farmland right now, and it's off 355. It makes sense to put it there and New Lenox is open to it so I think case by case if we were able to look at some agricultural. There is some along 355. Vice-Chair McGary said, I'm trying to think of where I just saw it right along the road. Chairman Hand said, it is next to a warehouse. That's Lockport. Commissioner Komperda asked, which one? Chairman Hand, it's next to a warehouse across the west side of 355. A warehouse has a solar farm. Taylor, has a code update for solar been passed? Planner Udarbe said, it passed. Chairman Hand said, it's a done deal with industrial only. That's what I wanted to tell Christine. Vice-Chair McGary said, all along the runways in Fort Myers Airport. Chairman Hand said, what a perfect place to put it. Commissioner Komperda said, down south you see them everywhere. It is a low impact and she was right to say that it was a low impact to the community. You know what she could be zoned for because somebody was looking at it, a cemetery. Homer Glen said she could have a cemetery there. Someone could come in and put a cemetery there. Vice-Chair McGary said, we have never addressed the cemetery regulations. Planner Udarbe said, we have not. Chairman Hand said, well getting back to the Comprehensive Plan. Planner Udarbe said, we'll keep it as a high priority.
Planner Udarbe said, I don't know if there's much discussion for number three. Are there any publicity marketing ideas related to the activities of the Plan Commission that should be developed for the general purpose of public understanding thinking, like Facebook posts, updating our Plan Commission website page, which I have a link to here so I can show you this really quick. I will also say that the 167th front yard variance was tabled at the Village Board meeting, and Trustee Steilen had mentioned that public hearing requirements might need revamping with additional posting on our website about cases coming up. I don't know if this commission feels the same way. We do send out postcards. We do post in the newspaper, and then we do put a sign on properties. I don't know if this commission feels that there's any other publicity or marketing that needs to happen, either matters of this Plan Commission, matters of our public hearings, or our meetings. Chairman Hand said, the one thing that has bothered me for a long time is you'll post the signs, but how far in advance of the meeting? Planner Udarbe said, two weeks. Chairman Hand said, that is all that it is? Planner Udarbe said, yes. Chairman Hand said, it might be because they linger out there for a while. Vice-Chair McGary said, some of them never get taken down. Chairman Hand said, the timeframe gives the public very little time also to be able to view what's happening with that. You release the packet on the Friday and the meeting is six days later. How could that be extended by like a week? I know it would change all of your scheduling and your routines. Vice-Chair McGary said, it would also really put it off for the petitioner. Chairman Hand asked, a week? I don't know what else we can do for the public to be notified other than give them more time to look at it. Vice-Chair McGary said, when I first was on the Plan Commission, I think a wider area was notified and they were notified by registered mail. Planner Udarbe said, I have seen those files. Vice-Chair McGary said, then they changed that. Planner Udarbe said, this is our website for Plan Commission. We have all the meetings, the time, and the location. That they are the first and third Thursdays of the month and then a note to check agendas when they're posted. There is a link of these agendas and minutes. Our 2024 annual report, all of you guys, all of the staff, and then an overview of the jurisdiction and responsibilities. That's pretty much the extent of our website. I think this question is, are there any other ideas that we want to be doing as a Plan Commission? Commissioner Komperda asked, ss far as the website goes? Planner Udarbe said, yes. Any publicity or marketing ideas? This was not mentioned on the recommendations last year at all. Chairman Hand said, at least we have a website, but the way things happen fast. Dunn Farm is a little different and that's a whole other animal. The whole process for that we can discuss sometimes on what the public is going to see and when and how many public hearings is it going to be. Do you know what I mean? We haven't had a public hearing for that. We just had a workshop. Planner Udarbe said, I'm hearing no marketing, but that's okay.
Planner Udarbe asked, are there any outreach initiatives or other municipal agencies, regional planning commissions and other outside agencies or groups that could further a local planning program and assure her harmonious and integrated planning for the Village? Think like training opportunities. It's been a while since we've done training, 2021 might been what I saw. I don't know if people had anything specifically. I know a few of you have gone to the APA Conferences. I hear that you guys had mock trials and if you had any particular program that you saw there or heard about there that you'd be interested in. Chairman Hand said, training. Commissioner Foley, I haven't done any of the training and I would like to do something. Chairman Hand said, if you see that there's going to be no case, like in a month or so to try and set something up rather than cancel a meeting. Planner Udarbe said, that's how I think we've done it in the past. We'll definitely look into this. Commissioner Bradarich said, that should probably be something that we should do, instead of canceling meetings, we can work on something. Chairman Hand said, I think Chris understands that too and to keep busy and not have a canceled meeting when we have all this to work on. Planner Udarbe said, we'll look into that. We will look into some available agencies. APA's pretty common. I think we had Ancel Glink, which is like a planning land use law firm. Maybe our own legal team has something that they could present to us. We'll let you guys know availabilities as they come up. Any thoughts and procedures on the zoning requests and any changes that could be recommended to the Board? We kind of touched about this in three. I know Laura has mentioned before, she's seen public hearings slips so instead of people having to come up to the microphone saying, I actually have no comment, but I just signed in. You were saying that there's one where you can say, I'm here, I don't want to talk, but I support. I'm here, I don't want to talk, but I don't like it.
Commissioner Komperda said, it gives a little flavor of the audience. Chairman Hand asked, it is a written comment? Vice-Chair McGary said, it was the paper that she brought us. Commissioner Komperda said, it was a sheet of paper in the back where you signed in and you would fill it out and then when they are all filled out, they bring them up to you. I don't know if they read them individually, I can't remember or if they said we have 12 that agree and so on. It was nice though because not everybody wants to talk. They are nervous. Chairman Hand said, sometimes people are here a lot and there would be a big crowd and only three or four people would speak. All those other people have opinions that we wouldn't mind hearing. I think it's a nice idea. Planner Udarbe asked, is that something we want to look into, whether it's a card like that or if it's just another "X" on our public hearing sign in form? Do you want to talk? Yes. Do you not want to talk? No. Commissioner Komperda said, there are more questions like, I'm here and in support of it. You could have it, but it will be pretty wide and then it would definitely a procedure you'd have to keep reminding people of. Vice-Chair McGary said, it would be something at the beginning of the meeting that you'd have to bring up. Planner Udarbe asked, any other recommendations? Is this card something that we want to look into? Vice-Chair McGary said, maybe it doesn't have to be a piece of paper that big. Commissioner Komperda said, it wasn't that big.
Planner Udarbe asked, any recommendations for land suitable for annexation to the Village? It is kind of a little vague one. Vice-Chair McGary said, we annex all the pieces of property that are Homer Township. Planner Udarbe said, then of course we have boundary agreements between other communities. A lot of those areas are already addressed in annexation agreements. I didn't know if anyone had any comments on this one. I didn't think we would. Vice-Chair McGary said, especially the neighborhoods where one house is incorporated and the other is not. Planner Udarbe said, the Cedar Brook one. Vice-Chair McGary said, it would be really nice to fix that. Planner Udarbe said, it is a weird one. I think those people all opted individually to come in. We have a lot of code updates that are going to keep on the recommendations. We are keeping the Comprehensive Plan. We are adding that we want to do some more training this year. Commissioner Komperda said, we've had these on and hardly anything got done. Is that because staff has a lot of work to do ahead of time than to bring it to us and then we have discussion and staff just doesn't have the time to do it? Why aren't these getting done? Vice-Chair McGary asked, or is it our fault? Planner Udarbe said, no. There are a few things. In this last year, I was without a director for three months, so that was pretty difficult for me to pick up a lot of this. Even with me, Chris and Sarah now, the Village is a skeleton staff. We are pretty busy as staff especially with Dunn Farm and Hidden Valley. We have quite a few new developments coming up and code updates are not something that the Board has seen pretty often in the history. There were just other priorities this year when Chris came in on code updates. Otherwise, I could say like the ADU regulations, we've obviously only seen one and they've expired. We're not interested in re-upping their special use permit for that. Commissioner Komperda asked, could any of this be delegated out to someone else on staff? Does anyone else qualify for anything that is here like research? If you had someone doing research and then they brought you the research because that's so time consuming. Planner Udarbe said, some of the Comprehensive Plan that you were talking about with like, what are we not able to move forward with because of our Comprehensive Plan? Gia could probably help me determine what grants she's not eligible for because they tell her our Comprehensive Plan is not updated, but otherwise, a lot of these are planning and zoning heavy. Vice-Chair McGary said, you need a couple summer interns. Commissioner Komperda said, I know it's very time consuming and that can take up your whole day. I don't know how busy everybody else is and who else is here, but if some of this could be delegated out and someone could help, we can actually make some progress. Planner Udarbe said, some of that massage therapy, licensing stuff could probably be the clerk maybe. I'm trying to think who else could really help us, but a lot of these are planning and zoning happy. I mean, we did do temporary sign updates. We did just do other code updates that were not this commissions top priorities. If we want to prioritize these ones, we definitely can. We did just tackle a bunch of other ones that needed to be addressed as well. Vice-Chair McGary said, this isn't much different than the list I have at home for myself. You just keep rewriting them and we will get there. Chairman Hand said, it seems like we're happy just to cross one off the list. It's a matter of prioritizing for everybody. You get a lot of cases come in and these get put on the back burner. Planner Udarbe said, it's hard because we try to get a temperature of our Board if they're interested in hearing specific code updates and if there's not, we don't spend our time on it. We did also change the code where the Plan Commission doesn't initiate text amendments. It'll just be Administration and Finance and our Board of trustees that initiate them. Commissioner Komperda asked, who initiates the change in the Comprehensive Plan? Planner Udarbe said, that is probably the Board. I mean, at this point we would have to kind of start from scratch. I don't know if the same group is going to be able to pick up a project where it left off and finish it. I think there's been too much time. We're looking at substantial amounts of time and money that would go back into the community, like planning the group meetings and the RFP's. Vice-Chair McGary said, the problem is, you have all those group meetings and all those people come in and they lie. Chairman Hand said, it was 2020 and that consultant did all of that. It wasn't that long ago. If someone new comes in, are they entitled to use all that? Vice-Chair McGary said, I think it should be up to them to go back to this company and say, how much less will you charge me if you just don't do what you did before? Commissioner Komperda said, a lot of this might be relevant and some things might change. Chairman Hand said, I think most of it's relevant. Commissioner Komperda said, I haven't looked at it. You feel like most of it is relevant? Chairman Hand said, yes. Planner Udarbe said, I just don't know whose intellectual property that is. Vice-Chair McGary said, in 2005, the focus was in a different area than it is now. Commissioner Komperda said, we were really young then. We were just trying to figure it out.
Planner Udarbe said, let's move on to some data. This is what I included in case counts and stuff. The description, case type and then the votes on each of them. For data for fiscal year 2024 to 2025, starting in June, this Plan Commission has seen 24 zoning cases. This included all of our public hearings that we've seen, public meetings, workshop items and I guess that one appeal that we had too. In these 24 cases, there were nine different categories of zoning requests such as, variances, text amendments, special use permits, general site plan, special use permits for plan developments, map amendments, plats, appeals, and parking adjustment. In those 24 cases, we've seen 33 of those requests. A lot of our cases are duplicates. You're getting a site plan or special use permit. You're getting a PUD with a site plan and a plat and an amendment and all of those things. This was the same information that Melissa had pulled for you guys. This is on page three of the report from last year. Going back to this data, I don't know if there's anything else on here that you guys are wanting me to present to the Board? Commissioner Komperda asked, such as? Planner Udarbe said, such as votes on cases. How many were unanimous? How many were split votes? What got approved here and denied at the Board? I don't know. How many are side yard setbacks? How many are rear yard setbacks? How many were for oversized accessory structures? I don't know if we want to get to in depth of any of those, but this was what was presented last year, which is why I included these ones again. If there's any other data or ways to frame this data that you think would be important for this report, I can look into that. Chairman Hand said, I think it's pretty thorough. Planner Udarbe said, I will also be adding this variance so the number will go to nine because I'll add this case from tonight into that report. I might end up adding the May report too because I saw Melissa's fiscal year went up until June. I'll probably keep adding to these numbers until it's actually presented to the Board. We'll probably get one or two more cases in there. Next week will be a special use permit, and I don't know if I have anything else coming up. Commissioner Foley asked, where is the special use permit? Planner Udarbe said, that will be for the group home on Parker Road. Vice-Chair McGary asked, it's on Parker Road? Planner Udarbe said, on Parker Road, just south of Chicago-Bloomington Trail. Vice-Chair McGary asked, is it in a development? Planner Udarbe said, it's in a single-family home. Vice-Chair McGary asked, the home exists? Planner Udarbe said, yes and it's an expansion. It's a large group home so they have an existing use. Vice-Chair McGary asked, how close to the neighbors? Planner Udarbe said, off the top of my head, I'm not sure. Vice-Chair McGary asked, is it big lot? Planner Udarbe said, yes. It is an agriculture property. It's not huge, but to the south there's that 10-acre farm property. Commissioner Stanly asked, it's on the west side? Planner Udarbe said, it is on the east side. Chairman Hand asked, it's not in a like a subdivision? Vice-Chair McGary said, it is not in a subdivision. Planner Udarbe said, it is not, but if we want to finish this item under other business, I can pull up a map. I don't know if we have anything else on this topic. Vice- Chair McGary said, I don't. Planner Udarbe said, I don't know if Melissa actually brought it back to the commission as a draft before she presented it. Do you want me to bring something like this in a draft form, with all of our topics that we talked about to the next commission? Vice- Chair McGary said, if you have time. Planner Udarbe said, yes. Commissioner Bradarich said, there is only one more meeting between now and May 31st. Vice-Chair McGary said, two. Chairman Hand said, two in May. Commissioner Bradarich said, the second meeting is when we have to have it though, right? Vice-Chair McGary said, it just has to be presented to the Board by May 31st and their meeting is on the fourth Wednesday. It is very late in the month for next month. Planner Udarbe said, we have a May 1st Plan Commission and then we have a May 28th Village Board meeting. We're actually May 1st and May 15th because May starts on a Thursday and then the Board is May 14th and May 28th. I can bring it to the 1st or the 15th. Do you guys want to see this draft at the 1st or 15th meeting? Is there a preference? Vice-Chair McGary said, you don't have to make it real professional. Planner Udarbe said, I already have these graphs so I just have to plug in the next data and update. It's only a six-page report. I'll bring it to the 15th. Are we okay with that? Chairman Hand said, the 15th sounds perfect. Planner Udarbe said, I can make any minor changes that are needed before the Board packet. That concludes the item. That was very productive.
7. Old Business.
None.
8. Other Business.
Vice-Chair McGary said, Jay, do you remember why she was turned down for the indoor arena? Commissioner Bradarich said, it was about the setbacks and what they were asking her to do didn't work. Vice-Chair McGary said, that is what I got from her. Commissioner Komperda said, she farms it with food for the horses so if you take the whole center out then you just took out all their feed. Chairman Hand asked, the Plan Commission denied it too? Vice-Chair McGary said, she is not the only one caught between a rock and a hard place. Commissioner Bradarich said, they had all these setbacks that had to be and it just didn't work. Planner Udarbe said, I highlighted the setbacks here. This one here is her property. She is zoned A-1 agriculture. Vice- Chair McGary said, if you left early, you didn't hear Christina at the end of the meeting after the presentation on the budget say, if I needed 6 million dollars to buy the road, would we have it tomorrow? Commissioner Foley said, I don't know much about the road. I came because of Hidden Valley and then we had a meeting a couple days later with just the residents. There was more conversation and it was a lot of the same questions that kind of seemed like a waste of time. They are going with 52 homes they're paying the money for the park. Vice-Chair McGary said, Rosie is pretty adamant that she doesn't want another park. Commissioner Stanly said, the mayor said that they would be looking at possibly another lot somewhere in that subdivision to develop as a park, which is even smarter because everybody kept saying people are going 70 miles an hour, nobody wants my kids there. Commissioner Foley said, I said that a long time ago, but bringing up to what Jay said earlier about what we were looking at when Dunn Farm came in. We were talking about a park for there and there was a park on both sides of Dunn Farm. Chairman Hand said, there is one in Evlyn's Gate and Stonebridge. Commissioner Foley said, there was talk that night when we're talking about Dunn Farm and I was like why are we going to put a park there then when there is already a park in each subdivision. I know our subdivision in Oak Valley were built years and years ago, so they didn't have to do it. After I left that night I had seen they are wanting to put a park there when they have two already and they can connect to those subdivisions. Commissioner Foley said, those are the kinds of things that we need time to look at because I caught it afterwards. Chairman Hand asked, wasn't the HOA going to have a kiddy park? Commissioner Foley said, yes. Vice-Chair McGary said, that is why things like Dunn Farm have to come numerous times. Chairman Hand said, it will. Commissioner Komperda said, I've heard some people from Evlyn's Gate chasing people out of the park if they don't live there. Vice-Chair McGary said, I heard that too. Commissioner Komperda asked, is that considered a public park? Vice-Chair McGary said, yes. Planner Udarbe said, Sarah has to write these minutes so if it's okay to talk about the next meeting.
9. Reports of Plan Commissioners and Staff.
Planner Udarbe said, just really quick, this property here, 17535 Parker Road will be coming next week. You can see my screen. It is for a large group home. This will be an interesting one. Vice-Chair McGary asked, have you sent out cards to neighbors? Are there very many neighbors? Planner Udarbe said, this week on Wednesday was the noticing for this one. We haven't heard anything yet, but there's a lot of background that will be interesting. Vice-Chair McGary said, this is a farm, but that's the house. Planner Udarbe said, this is the house. This is that property. Chairman Hand said, it is a pretty good location. Vice-Chair McGary asked, do you know what the disability is? Planner Udarbe said, the history with this one is that the applicant had come in for a group home. You can have a small group home in a home or daycare centers is a permitted use. When I sat down with the applicant, she had told me originally that this was an adult daycare center and that no one was residing in the residence. Upon a fire inspection, there appeared to be overnight residents. It's for elderly patients overnight as a full-time care. At the time, the fire department indicated that she may have been exceeding her capacity that would be allowed, which is what triggered a lot of this, the need for her now having to get a large group home. I will say our code is not very clear. Our code probably would say that this is maybe not a group home, but it is what she is applying for. Chairman Hand said, that's considered a business for starters, right? Planner Udarbe said, correct. Commissioner Komperda said, it is kind of more like a nursing home then. Planner Udarbe said, it's more of like an elderly care facility. Commissioner Komperda asked, is she governed by the state or somebody coming in and checking on her and the patients? Planner Udarbe said, what the Department of Public Health's licensing is called, is not aligned exactly with ours. I would have to look through my notes, but the state has her licensing and she was operating without a state license in this location. Vice-Chair McGary said, this is already happening? Planner Udarbe said, yes and now she is expanding. Commissioner Komperda asked, are you looking to see if she's had any complaints filed against her? Planner Udarbe said, I don't know how to do that. If you know how to do that, please let me know. Chairman Hand asked, where is this one at? Commissioner Bradarich said, the only would they could complain to is Illinois Department of Public Health. Commissioner Bradarich said, they handled all the nursing home care for seniors and all the certificates. Those are the people that you call, but if she is not keeping people overnight that's technically not a nursing home. Planner Udarbe said, she is keeping people overnight. Commissioner Bradarich, she is, but she is saying she's not? Planner Udarbe said, she had told me that she was not, which is what I wrote a zoning letter for, which was a permitted use in the district and what we gave her home occupation for and it has either expanded beyond that or was never that. Commissioner Bradarich said, if you call Illinois Department of Public Health for the Joint Commission, they will come out and shut it down. Planner Udarbe said, I have spoken with the Illinois Department of Public Health, and I did let them know that this is here. I sent them all the information and they haven't reached back out to me. Commissioner Komperda asked, how long ago did you send it? Planner Udarbe said, this would have been December, maybe. That's why I would like to be very clear in our code updates, because I had to talk to so many different departments to determine what her use was and who has jurisdiction over her, mostly because there was deceit or confusion on what exactly she was doing here and what I was being told. Commissioner Bradarich said, if she doesn't have a license to operate, then the Joint Commission wouldn't worry about her because she doesn't have a license to operate. She isn't asking for a license to operate. Planner Udarbe said, Chris told her she has to get her license. She has to show us her license. Commissioner Bradarich said, maybe they don't care because she's not asking for a license. Planner Udarbe said, potentially. Commissioner Komperda asked, shouldn't she have a license before she gets any changes before, she comes here? Planner Udarbe said, yes. I did verify that she had this same license already with her other one in Lemont. I think she had another facility in Lemont, and they told me they confirmed that she had a license with them for that. Commissioner Bradarich asked, were they overnight? Planner Udarbe said, I believe so. I explained the use to them and they said she needs this license with us and can you send us all this information? We will verify and at the time she had told me that she was applying for it, but I have not heard any differently and I've not seen the physical license yet since December.
Commissioner Komperda asked, who was the one that went inside the house? Planner Udarbe said, the fire department and our building manager. Chairman Hand asked, where is this house? Planner Udarbe said, it's on 17535 Parker Road. Chairman Hand asked, this is already being used like a group home? Planner Udarbe said, yes. Chairman Hand said, I thought you were speaking about a different house. Planner Udarbe said, no, it's the same one. She's requesting a large group home. In the A-1 district, you can see here residential uses that are permitted are single-family detached dwelling, day-care home with no more than six or a group care home with no more than six residents. When I sat down with her and I was like, what exactly are you doing here? You need a home occupation. She's like, oh no, I'm a daycare home. There's no overnight so I wrote a zoning letter indicating this is what you explained to me. This is a permitted use. You can't expand beyond six residents, but as you can see here, a group care home is also a permitted use. The Village staff was just not aware that's what this use was for, so upon fire department inspection, it looked like there was more than six beds. We were like, what do you mean there's beds? This is a day-care home. Commissioner Bradarich said, the other thing is, when you have that many people in a home and I know that has a septic system then Illinois Department of Public Health would shut that down too. It isn't big enough to handle that many. Chairman Hand asked, how many bedrooms are in this house? Planner Udarbe said, I'm not sure. They go by units. Some of these are shared units. My staff report will include all this background information. I think it'll be really important during a public hearing with the applicant on the stand to be asking all of these questions, because I'm telling you that I've heard different things from her. Commissioner Komperda asked, could we ever request to go inside of a residence? Planner Udarbe said, we would have to ask her for that. Of course, our staff does that and our code enforcement for compliance and fire department. We would have to ask them if we're able to go in, but if that's something that we want to ask about. Commissioner Bradarich asked, would it be wrong of staff to ask her for the names of the people that are in there? Planner Udarbe said, that might violate something. I'm not sure. Commissioner Bradarich said, I'm not sure if there is any way to catch her on the overnight thing. Planner Udarbe said, as she's operating now with the six people group care home is permitted. Whether or not she meets the definitions for group home is another thing, Chairman Hand asked, our entire code is that one line for group care homes? Planner Udarbe said, it's kind of mixed about here. In our agriculture districts, it's written out like this. In our residential use in bulk, I think group care homes are also permitted, but those are the small ones. Group care homes are permitted by right, but these are small group care homes. The issue here is the expansion beyond the six so she's asking for a large group care home. Commissioner Bradarich asked, she wants to have more than six people? Planner Udarbe said, that's right. The other problem was that staff was under the impression that it wasn't a group care home, but rather a day-care center, but there is a lot of confusion on what is actually happening here. That's some of the background, but stay tuned for that staff report because it will probably be a big one. I don't know if I'm going to be taking that case or if Chris is going to be taking that case, but she did come in for her first home occupation under Melissa and myself. I'll probably be providing a lot of that old background. Chris has been on top of a lot of the new licensing requirements stuff for her. Commissioner Stanly said, there is a home on Robert Emmett Drive and Bruce Road that is group home as well. Commissioner Stanly said, it is right there at 17514 Robert Emmett Drive. That is a group home. Planner Udarbe said, I need to write that down because there are distance requirements between group homes. She would not be by that one. Commissioner Stanly said, that is well and septic too. Planner Udarbe said, I know of another one that is kind of close, but not close enough. This Crystal Lake Drive one. This is the one that you guys were talking about. I think it's this one that's a group home as well Crystal Lake Drive. This is a small group home, I think. If anyone has questions in the meantime, you can definitely reach out to Chris and myself ahead of that zoning case. I would recommend that you do just because I think it's important that we ask all the good questions while she's under oath at a public hearing. Otherwise, that is all I have for you guys.
Commissioner Bradarich said, I have not received an official letter or notice or anything, but John talked to the mayor on Monday and I am being released from the Plan Commission because of attendance. Chairman Hand said, Christina emailed me that she emailed you on Monday. Did you look? Commissioner Bradarich said, I checked my email today and I don't have anything. Chairman Hand said, Taylor, can you or Chris, look into that? Planner Udarbe said, yes. Commissioner Komperda said, I opted not to renew. It was my belief that I was going to be released for nonattendance. I counted how many I missed that year and it wasn't even five and you're allowed to miss five. Commissioner Bradarich said, I missed my five, but I recused myself on three of them so that had to count on something. Then I came late to one after the roll call, and I probably should have said something about the minutes and put myself back on that, but I didn't think it was a big deal. Chairman Hand said, Christina told me that she was going to email you. Commissioner Bradarich said, I checked my email today. Chairman Hand said, you had a thought it might be you and then I just said, yes. Commissioner Bradarich said, I heard there was a rumor that we had two seats open. I contacted John and asked, who are the two seats and they told me about Laura and I said, I think I'm the other one and John said he would talk to the mayor on Monday. Commissioner Foley said, that was said at the Board meeting. Commissioner Bradarich asked, what did they say? Vice-Chair McGary said, that there were two seats open. Chairman Hand said, not who it was though. Commissioner Stanly said, then a couple trustee positions. Vice-Chair McGary said, well there is one right now. Chairman Hand said, Chris did send everybody an email on how the process is going to go this time. Did you guys all see it? Commissioner Foley said, I didn't see that. Vice-Chair McGary said, I think he only sent it to you and me. Chairman Hand said, I'll forward it to everybody. Taylor and Chris will be narrowing it down to a handful of people. I don't know exactly how many, maybe three, it sounds like and then Lynn and I will look at it and make any changes and then it goes to the mayor, right? I'm just trying to remember. The process has been different each time we do this so that should be an item someday. If this process works maybe we put it in writing. Vice-Chair McGary said, there you go. It is something else we can do. Chairman Hand said, almost everyone here has been appointed in a different way so if you guys know anyone that might be interested. Also, Jay and Laura, the mayor said you can reapply. She just left that open. Commissioner Bradarich asked, how does that work? Chairman Hand said, I know. She just said you can reapply. Commissioner Bradarich asked, would your slate get wiped clean if you reapply? Chairman Hand said, that's what the email said that I thought was sent out. Commissioner Bradarich said, maybe there's something wrong with my email. Chairman Hand said, I didn't get a copy of it either. Commissioner Stanly asked, is it five meetings in a specific year that you're allowed to miss? Chairman Hand said, I honestly don't know. Commissioner Bradarich said, I just looked at this last year. Chairman Hand said, I'm thinking it might be per year. Commissioner Bradarich said, it was only four meetings where all seven of us were here in a whole year. Commissioner Komperda said, I've never missed a big meeting. Chairman Hand said, the selection process is going to have to move fairly quickly because they need to be sworn in at the last Board meeting in May, which is a 28th. Is that correct, Taylor? Planner Udarbe said, yes.
10. Adjournment.
A motion was made to adjourn by Commissioner Bradarich, seconded by Commissioner Stanly. All in favor, zero (0) opposed and the meeting was adjourned at 8:40 PM.
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