2025 Elgin Planning and Zoning Commission to order, and we're going to start by welcoming and swearing in uh the new commissioners.

Raise your right hand.

Can you state your name starting at the left?

Second.

Do you swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and that you will faithfully discharge the duties as a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission for the City of Elgin, Illinois, according to the best of your ability?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

Commissioner Abwali.

Present.

Commissioner Bosque.

Present.

Commissioner Jones?

Here.

Commissioner Olson?

Here.

Commissioner Rubel.

Here.

And Chairman Willerwood.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Now we're going to go on with the approval of the August 4th, 2025 meeting minutes.

Is there a motion to approve those minutes?

I move to approve.

All second.

Well, staff please call the roll.

Who is the first?

Jones?

Commissioner Jones?

Yes.

Commissioner Abwali.

Yes.

Commissioner Boske?

Yes.

Commissioner Olson?

Yes.

Commissioner Bruble?

Yes.

And Chairman of Willemon?

Yes.

The minutes are approved, six to zero.

Thanks.

Now it's my turn to make the chairman's opening statement.

So good evening and welcome to the September 25th.

September 25th.

I've already messed up on my first day of chair.

September 8th, 2025 meeting of the Elgin Planning and Zoning Commission.

I want to reiterate my thanks to the former members of the Commission and special thanks to former Chairman Cox for his leadership.

Before we move on to the agenda, I want to briefly discuss the role of the Planning and Zoning Commission and the procedures of tonight's meeting.

As a reminder, the Planning and Zoning Commission is an advisory and recommending body to City Council.

The job of this commission is to review development proposals and determine whether proposal meets the applicable standards of review.

There are three petitions on the agenda this evening, and anyone wishing to testify will need to be administered the oath by the court reporter.

The process we will go through tonight is we will first hear from city staff followed by questions the commission have for staff.

We will then invite the applicant to provide a brief overview of their proposal, and the commission will then ask questions of the applicant.

After that, the we will open the hearing to public uh comment uh for questions and comments.

And during that time, um for those that are wishing uh to testify before the commission, please come forward, state your name and spell it and provide your address.

Public comments should be addressed to the commission who will keep notes on the questions, concerns raised, and then city staff and the applicant will have the opportunity to address those questions.

In the interest of time, we ask those testifying to not reiterate points that have already been made.

The commission will then deliberate, vote, and pass its recommendations to city council.

In all cases, planning and zoning uh meetings are the forums for public hearings for each project.

It's where the public can provide comments and show um and we ask well, it's it's the opportunity for you all.

We want to hear your thoughts on uh the petitions before the commission tonight.

Um and most importantly, we just ask that all attendees maintain appropriate decorum and show mutual respect for all parties participating in the process.

At this time, we'll move ahead with the agenda.

Um, and those of you who wish to speak tonight should now stand and take the oath from the court reporter.

Will you raise right hands, please?

Do solemnly swear or affirm the testimony about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Thank you.

Perhaps at this time, perhaps at this time we would uh allow the former chairman to speak and address the commission.

Yes, we would and family, so I appreciate this.

All right, good evening, everyone.

Thanks for giving me a few minutes to uh to address the commission and all of you here tonight.

Uh it's been my pleasure to serve on this commission for 17 years and nine months.

Time's gone quickly.

Over that time, I've been fortunate to work with two community development directors, Jerry Deering, Mark Millot, and uh be on numerous petitions with our planners, Lydia Trigenza, Dave Waden, Denise Momadou, and of course, Demir.

Um, it's a team like no other, and I think we all know it, and I appreciate all of you on city staff and uh how we've worked together and in a sense grown together as well.

Uh, Chairman Wildermouth, congratulations.

Um, I know you got this.

I know you will serve with veracity and positivity.

I've seen you display that as a as a commissioner, and I know you'll bring that to the to the term of chair.

You have my support.

Umberto is also done.

I was gonna address him as well, but uh Karen, Nancy, I would say uh I've enjoyed serving with you, and I would count you as my friends.

It's it's been a good number of years that we've been sitting next to each other, and um, and I've very much enjoyed that.

Uh to the new commissioners, I'm glad you're here.

Um, my advice is ask a lot of questions about the process of city staff of the petitioners, and um, I'd say if there's something that comes to mind, ask it.

Just know that it might be better handled between meetings.

City staff's here for that.

Um I can brag on this one as an architect.

I've presented in front of numerous planning and zoning commissions.

Our staff is the best I've worked with.

So, as new commissioners, you should know that.

There's no doubt.

You can go into your term knowing that our staff I will use is the term phenomenal.

Um, they're here for you, they will take great care of you.

They will answer their phones for you, answer emails.

It's it's incredible.

Um, as a commission, you should push into gray areas.

That's something it took me a little bit to learn.

Staff's bound by a black and white reading of of ordinances and codes.

Um this commer commission is the opportunities to interpolate that, so definitely take that opportunity.

I had a project early in my tenure on the commission where uh there was some awnings that were being approved downtown Elgin, and I wasn't a big fan of the graphics, I was fine with the awnings.

Staff came forward, and it was different staff at the time came forward and said, All right, based on these following recommendations, we'll go ahead and approve it.

I wish I had spoken up because I wasn't the only one that had to comment about the graphics.

Now we live with that, and it's right downtown.

So I would highly encourage you in that.

Um, read the entire packet when it comes out.

I know it's 400 plus pages sometimes.

And for those of you in the audience that knew that or not, it it can be it can be challenging, but I highly encourage that.

You come to the meeting so much more prepared, and you won't ask questions that have already been presented.

I think that's uh it's it's very important.

Um still come to the meeting with an open mind.

There's multiple times I thought, all right, I'm ready to go.

Came to the meetings like, well, testimony's been presented.

I changed my position.

So just always be flexible in that.

And then, of course, focus on the things in the purview of the commission.

Um if someone wants to put a daycare in a community that's already got two other daycares and they worked out the the density and the business pro forma, that's up to them to worry about.

This one uh takes a little bit, is try to put aside your personal opinions and agendas.

Um we're thinking what's best for the city.

Twenty years, a hundred years from now, and remember you're working on the fabric of the city for the long term.

That's that's a lot of power that's in your hands as a volunteers.

Um be swayed by the emotions of the public or developers.

There'll be times you hear charge petitions, and that's healthy.

Uh Chairman Wildermouth will walk you through that that process.

I think that's uh a great thing.

Um if you come into a full council chambers, it means we got great public engagement.

I've always appreciated that.

Um seek to listen to both sides, react based on zoning, staff report, la salle factors.

If you don't want to know what the LaSalle factors are, talk to staff.

And um remember emotions are good, but they're not good guides.

Um be ready to weather some storms too.

Many people, you are the face of Elgin.

So you'll hear thanks a lot, but you may hear some negative comments thrown your way.

I had the pleasure of that as chair, uh, maybe walking out of the meeting sometimes.

Just be a rubber duck, afloat above it.

Remember that's not directed at you personally, it's just maybe frustration uh with how things went.

But just remember your purpose for being here.

This is something else I've seen in front of other um communities.

Be kind, respectful, and courteous to your fellow commissioners and the public, as you said, uh Chairman Wildermouth in in your opening statement.

Um, I've been in front of other communities, it doesn't always work that way, but um this commission has received praise numerous times from people who didn't like the outcome of our recommendation to city council, but they stopped me on the way out and thanked me because they felt this commission heard them and respected.

So please continue that tradition.

And as my wife reminded me, as I'd be sitting up on the dice listening, smile.

Smile, smile, smile.

I'm so thankful she reminded me of that.

Sometimes you're sitting up there listening and concentrating, right?

Trying to hear what's going on, but be welcoming.

And then again, thank you to all of you for doing this.

Make the most of it.

I know I enjoyed it, and uh, and I know you will as well.

Saving the best for last, to my wife and kids, uh Jen, Megan, who's not here tonight, Marcus, Hannah, and Emma.

Thank you for your support over the years.

Uh, this commission and service on it has been part of our family's monthly routine for the majority of our 18 years of wedded bliss.

So I did the math.

When I say majority, it's 95.4% of our our our marriage.

We've been coming to these meetings.

Um, my other metric standing here is our uh as our 17 almost 18-year-old daughter.

She was uh came to our first meeting two weeks in utero.

So my wife brought her in uh very pregnant and glowing Jen came to that meeting.

So and our daughter is as we got older when Jen had to work.

Emma would sit up there at the end next to where you are, Commissioner Olson, and uh color or eat teddy grams or do homework and and that was before we were televised, so we could we could pull that away.

Um and now she's a high school senior.

So to all of you, you're rushing home to get dinner before after our meetings, staying up late, sometimes until after 1 a.m., which I know a few of you have been here with me on, uh sitting in council chambers, watching, listening, or sometimes catching up later as a family on YouTube, um, and coming tonight has been noticed.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all that support.

So I know some of you are just meeting us tonight, but please give my family the round of applause.

There you go.

And I know you're partly clapping because you know I'm done.

But anyway, with that farewell.

I know we'll see you around the city.

Thank you.

Have a great evening.

Thank you.

Thank you for your service.

Yes, yeah.

Once again, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh, Chairman Cox.

Um really I've look to model my chairmanship and leadership of the what you've said before.

So really appreciate all of your work and dedication to this commission and to the community.

So thank you so much.

Don't go.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Yep.

All right, with that, we will uh move on to the first um petition to be considered.

Um, petition uh 07-25.

Okay, thank you, Chairman Wildermouth.

And good evening, everyone.

So the first petition before you tonight, and for the record, we have provided the required notice in this one.

The first petition is the application by Mohammed Sufion as applicant and active property holdings incorporated as property owner, who are requesting the approval of a plan development as a conditional use with departures from the LG Municipal Code requirements to establish a motor vehicle detail shop within an approximately 1,100 square foot tenant space that is located at 1048 Dundee Avenue, which is part of the multi-tenant commercial building commonly known as 1048 to 1054 Dundee Avenue.

So, as usual, we'll start with the uh general site location of the property in question.

Uh the entire property is outlined here in red.

It is an approximately 18,295 square foot property that is located on the west side of Dundee Avenue, just south of Congden Avenue.

It is zoned AB area business district.

That's why it has the the red shade over it, as are all other properties along Dundee Avenue that have the same shade.

Uh so that would be to the north, south, and to the east, as you can see.

To the north is a one-story multi-family building, excuse me, multi-tenant commercial building.

Uh, to the south is a one-story commercial building that includes uh signed contractor shop, and then to the east across Dundee Avenue is a one-story commercial building, home to Beef Villa Restaurant.

The properties with the yellow shade over them are zone residential, RC2, single family residence conservation district, and all those properties are improved with single family homes.

Here is the bird's eye view of the subject property.

This as you can see, the property includes the multi-tenant building that's approximately 4,008 square feet, and the includes includes a parking lot that includes 24 parking spaces.

And here is the proposed site plan.

So I will mention that the two tenant spaces in the front are known as 1054 Dundee Avenue, which is a proximately 1,500 square foot tenant space that currently is home to a tobacco store.

It's called S Smoke and Vape Shop.

And then the one to the south that also front has frontage on Dundee Avenue is known as 1052 Dundee Avenue.

That's an approximately 2100 square foot tenant space that is occupied with a consumer financial loan services company, prestige loans.

And then the subject tenant space that's subject of this petition is in the back of the building.

That's suite 1048.

It's also known as 1048 Dundee Avenue.

That's approximately 1,100 square feet.

So the applicant is proposing to establish a car detailing shop within this rear tenant space at the back of the building.

A car detailing shop is part of a land use category that's known as car washes, which are classified as conditional use in the AB district, and therefore the applicant is here requesting that conditional use approval.

They have actually already started operating when they were notified that a detailing shop requires this conditional use approval.

They've been allowed to continue to operate as they go through the approval process to obtain that conditional use approval.

The proposed car detailing business would offer deep cleaning car services, uh polishing, washing, waxing, vacuuming, uh, as is typically associated with those types of establishments.

All services would be inside the the two service bay tenant space.

Here are the two detail bay area service bay areas.

Although they have indicated that they would be working only on one car at the time.

The hours of operation are 9 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

Monday through Friday, and then 9 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

on Saturdays.

The applicant indicates there's only one employee working on one car at a time.

All services are scheduled by appointment only.

The proposed business is required to have two parking spaces per bay and one per employee, so with two service bays and one employee.

The tenant spaces required five parking spaces.

The other two tenant spaces in the building require 15 parking spaces, so altogether, all tenants in the building are required to have 20 parking spaces, and that's within the 21 parking spaces that are proposed on site.

The three parking spaces uh directly in front of the service bays indicated right here, those would essentially be lost and cannot be counted, although they would remain and would be used either as stacking spaces during the operating hours or as normal regular parking spaces after the detail shop is closed.

So the applicant is required to uh provide an enclosure for the existing refuse or you know dumpster that's generally located in this area.

Uh so that refuse collection area has to be six feet high and a masonry wall that matches the building.

The wall is generally in line with the the back of the building, and it's approximately six feet from the west property line right here that's adjacent to the to the single family home to the west.

That is the one departure that is part of this application.

Um because that property to the west is residential, there's a 50-foot transition landscape yard requirement from the west property line.

Of course, the existing building is about six feet from the west property line.

They're proposing to just build that wall in line with the building.

So a six-foot setback is proposed.

Uh the proposed uh that the proposal requires is required to meet standards for planned developments as well as standards for conditional use.

We have provided our overview of the standards in the packet, and staff finds that all applicable standards are satisfied.

And therefore, staff recommends approval subject to the conditions in the packet.

And there's one condition that simply prohibits any type of uh motor vehicle repair as part of this business or establishment, those those types of motor vehicle repairs are generally prohibited along arterial roads such as Dundee Avenue.

But other than that, staff recommends approval subject to those conditions.

At this time, I'm happy to answer any questions.

The applicant's team is here as well.

It can address the commission.

All right.

Thank you.

Just one question.

Do you know how long approximately they were in operation until this process started?

I think they were notified about a year ago in August of 24.

Okay.

Thank you.

No questions.

Okay.

Commissioner Wally.

That um 50 foot that is normally required.

Um is there a reason for it?

Is it the smell?

Is it what is it the question?

So normally the transition landscape, excuse me, transition setback is for buildings and other similar things that that's the setback that's required from a lot line that that is shared with a residential residentially zoned property.

The purpose of that is simply because commercial properties tend to have bigger impact than single family or other residential properties.

So you want those types of uses that happen within the buildings, or in this case, you know, a dumpster or trash enclosure to have a somewhat of a distance from residentially zoned properties where people are probably enjoying their backyards.

So it's it's a it's a transition to to make sure that there is no negative impact that the commercial business would have on the right.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Uh Commissioner Vruble.

Commission uh Commissioner Mbusquet.

I just want to start off by saying uh given the uh city staff a big thank you for taking into consideration the small things like the uh water uh the uh oil and sand separator that uh could create a bigger problem down the down the line.

Um so my question would be is are they operating with a oil and water separator at this moment?

Or that's probably a question for the applicant.

They still have to obtain the permit.

They made some uh changes to the space.

It appears that that was one of the changes.

Uh was it done up to the code will be determined when they apply for the building permit, and they also have to obtain a permit from the Fox River Water Reclamation District for things like that.

Uh I think I believe the the applicant is here and his architect, and they can certainly uh provide some answers on that.

Perfect.

Commissioner Jones.

Um we'll be a tiny bit.

Yeah.

We yeah, we're not we're gonna wait until we're gonna ask the applicant when the applicant comes up, then we'll ask the question of the applicant.

So we're gonna continue asking staff questions and then we'll get to we'll get to uh applicant.

All right, uh Commissioner Jones, any questions for staff?

Uh yeah, Demir.

I I'm curious, you know.

I'm always curious about how the petition comes to be.

Was it uh did they come then and ask for assistance?

Did they did the neighbors turn them in?

Did um was it discovered by the code department?

How did that come to be that they're here?

Um I believe it was discovered by the code enforcement officer who has this area under his radar, so they noticed that the business is in operation.

They generally know when they have occupancies, and and in this case they did not receive an occupancy permit.

So upon investigation, they just turned out that they did not start operating properly.

So that's how it started.

Is it possible to include that in our packets?

Uh like how the source of the petitioners, how that came to be.

Is that is that possible?

Other than I mean, we can certainly provide well I guess you it's not pertinent.

I'm I'm just curious, I can ask you about everyone.

Yeah, I it's I mean, we can certainly it's not part of a uh we can certainly provide more information about that.

Uh there isn't anything tangible that we can include as in the packet, but we can certainly elaborate on that within the staff report in terms of how it is brought up and all that.

We can certainly thank you so much.

I'm always curious about that when we have some of them.

Um that's all, thank you.

I don't have any questions.

Thanks.

Um now we'll invite the uh applicant to come forward.

Good evening.

Thanks.

And if you could please uh state your name and spell it for the court reporter.

Uh my name is Steven Silva, and the architect for the project.

Um my residence or my my office address is 168 East Highland Avenue, suite 102, downtown in Elton here.

And I'm Mama Sofyan, the applicant.

Do you want to ask us spelling place?

Sorry?

Spelling.

Oh, he's also uh my name spelling?

Yes.

M-U-H-A-M-M-A-D-S-U-F-Y-A-N.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

So if you want to go ahead and tell us, uh, give us a brief overview of the project, anything that you want to uh stay that in addition to what staff provided.

Yes, uh we are working as a car detailing uh shop, and it's just we do the interior and the outside of the wash, nothing.

Uh we don't do any oil changes, nothing automated work, just the wash of the work uh washing the cars inside and outside and just doing the vacuums on the car.

That's what the detailing is anything.

If we could have the audience please uh maintain be a little quieter in the back place.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

So that's that's the main thing that we work with the appointments.

Uh we don't block any of the parking spots in the uh for the neighborhoods and all these things.

Uh like we have a 30 uh minute window for the uh customers to come in, drop their cars, and the customer just when the car is done, we call them, they pick up their cars in 15-20 minutes, and then we line up the next customer to get in.

And uh if the customer wants that, hey, I will come after one hour or so, we ask him to bring your car up to one hour.

You don't ask the customers to drop off the cars from the morning till the evening so that we can block the some of the parkings of the other tenants in the building.

And we're just working inside a garage, it's a closed garage.

We are not doing anything outside so that it can affect any uh audiences or any customers in that parking lot.

Um we'll go uh if there's any questions of the applicant by the commission.

So I'll start on my left with Commissioner Bruble.

Um no questions.

Commissioner Bosque.

Yeah, the uh the question I had was uh are you operating your condition conditional use car wash with an oil and sand separator at this moment?

No, we are not operating with the this moment, but we like uh uh at the city of uh the water recreation department recommended us that uh you wanna have it.

So we are waiting for to get the permit from the city to install the three bin secondary.

Okay, what what steps are you taking to mitigate uh without that?

Right now, as we are not using any oil or anything, uh we're just using the waters to remove wash the cars, and but it's a requirement from this to for the perm to get a permit for to install these three-bin separator.

We are waiting for the permit to get it from the city so that we can install that permit.

Do you have a time frame for when you will once the permit we are get uh we are approved to get the permit from the city, we're gonna start working on that thing.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Johnson.

So I'll just ask you out of curiosity when when you opened up um did you did it, did you ever think about coming to the city or asking the question?

Or your your landlord, did they tell you what those uses were, anything like that?

The garage was already there.

We were just in the start, we were not working as a complete, we were just washing our own cars also, but then the city asked us to apply that you you cannot use these things.

The court officer asked us to you have to get a uh permit from this.

So we applied for the conditional permit last year, and then from after they get in the conditional, then we were working correct.

But before that, we were just washing our own cars, our cars.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner Olson.

Uh a couple questions.

Um are any vehicles parked overnight if customers don't come and pick them up?

Sorry?

Are any uh cars parked overnight in the parking lot if customers don't retrieve them by the end of business day?

Uh no, we don't park anything in the or outside.

If the customer somehow says that hey, I can I like I cannot come into this, so we park inside the garage.

Okay.

Once we close our shop, we park it inside the garage so that the next morning the customer can come and pick it up.

But it doesn't happen or anything.

That's the precaution we have made that the customer comes in.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And then um if I wanted to add to that, um there's gonna be signage on the parking lot that you can't park overnight.

I'm sorry.

Uh that there's a tow zone if you're in the parking lot overnight, uh, past a certain hour.

I don't recall what they were exactly, but the car will be towed.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And then the only other question I had was um I was just curious about obviously you guys have been in business for a little bit now, so um you probably have a pretty good idea of this, but the sustainability of the car uh your detailing shop in that location.

Um, it's just a little bit of a strange location to me with it not really having any street view from Dundee Avenue there.

It's also in a lower income area.

Just curious if you guys have had some good business and foresee that to continue.

Yes, we uh we are mostly right now working with out of science and I think we're just working to the social media, Facebook, Instagram, and people like our service, they just come to us, they just give us a call.

Hey, I want to make the appointments and uh set up the car wash or so, and that's how we are operating.

And people are people are coming to us with uh phone calls and everything.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

I did see your Google reviews, they're all really good, so that's great to see.

Um thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner O'Bali.

I'm excited about the location, super close to me.

So you're most welcome.

You can come anytime together.

But my question is um they mentioned that you only use one bay at a time.

Is there a reason for that?

Is it just because of employee staffs, or do you just not want two running at the same time?

It's because of the employee staff also, and it's because uh if we get the two cars there, that's not much space.

If you make the two car inside, we don't have that much room to move the equipment like the vacuum and car wash uh machine and everything.

So we utilize mostly one of the B for washing the cars and other way to move the equipment and all these things so that we have the employees have so much space to work on the car exec perfectly.

Okay.

Thank you.

No more questions.

All right.

Thank you.

Um we'll now uh you can have a seat and we'll now uh open the floor to public comment.

Is there anyone wishing to testify on this petition?

All right, seeing none, um I will uh accept a motion on the petition.

Yes.

I move to recommend that city council approve petition seven-25, subject to the conditions outlined within our packet, and to adopt as the findings of the co of the commission, those findings also within our packet.

Is there a second?

Second.

Well, staff please call the roll.

Commissioner Abwali?

Yes.

Commissioner Boske?

Yes.

Commissioner Jones?

Yes.

Commissioner Olson?

Yes.

Commissioner Bruble?

Yes.

And Chairman Willemuth?

Yes.

The motion is approved six to zero.

All right.

Yeah, thanks.

The city will be in touch with uh next steps.

Thank you so much for coming forward this evening.

All right, we'll now move on to our uh second petition, petition number 26-25.

Okay.

So the second petition before you tonight, and again, we have provided the the required notices on this one as well for the record.

So this is the um application by Karen Dodge as applicants, uh, and C D Elgin LLC as the property owner.

Requesting approval of an amendment to the special regulations for street graphics within a portion of the Randall Road I 90 area of special character established by ordinance number G2908 as amended by ordinance number G410 and ordinance number G30-22 to construct a 10-foot high and 122.5 square foot monument graphic with a 65 square foot electronic message center panel along the portion of the property facing the I-90 tollway, add the property commonly referred to as 2125 point boulevard.

And again, we'll start with the general location of the property.

In this case, this is a 5.2-acre property that's as you can see on the north side of I 90, uh, and it's generally east of Randall Road, just off the screen here.

Uh the property has frontage along an access from Point Boulevard on the north side, and again, visibility and frontage along I-90 on the south side.

The properties improved with a approximately 52,000 square foot building.

It's a one-story office light industrial building and an accessory parking lot.

Property zone PORI, Planned Office of Research Industrial, that dates back to 1999.

That's the purple shade over these properties.

As you can see, the properties to the north, west, and generally to the south across the tollway, have the same purple shade over them, so they're all zoned the same, P O R I.

That's Planned Office Research Industrial.

To the north is a one-story office building that has multiple tenants.

Uh that includes the manufacturing facility and the four-story office building that's visible on the screen.

And then to the east, the property that does not have a shade over it.

That property is outside of the city limits.

It's currently unincorporated open space in Kane County.

Here is the bird's eye view of the subject property looking north.

The existing building has two tenants.

And here are a couple views of the property from I-90.

So the applicant is proposing to install one new monument sign along I-90.

The sign would be 10 feet high, 122.5 square feet in total sign surface area.

And it would include a 65 square foot electronic message center or this electronic message panel.

The property does not have any other signs on the property, and the applicant is not proposing any other wall signs or any other freestanding signs.

With a 40 square foot electronic message center.

The applicant will have to uh slightly move the sign to the west close of the parking lot to allow for stormwater surface flow between the sign and the fence.

But generally the sign will be in that location as proposed.

The sign will uh the applicant will provide the required landscaping around the perimeter of the of the base of the sign.

This sign is part of an area of special character that dates back to uh 2008 that included uh other properties within the same office park east of Randall Road and some other properties along I-90.

Uh that area of special character, which is generally special uh regulations for signage that are provided to these properties within within these areas of special character that are once they're established.

In this case, the the special sign regulations were established in 2010, and those special regulations are out allowed for this subdivision to have one larger than normally permitted monument sign that would serve the entire subdivision.

Uh that sign uh was allowed to be 200 square feet and it was allowed to have a 103 square foot electronic message center, and it's actually just two properties to the west from this one.

Uh but that that are the regulations for signage within this area of special character was then amended again in 2022.

Uh this was when another monument sign of similar size was allowed at the property at 2205 Point Boulevard.

Over the years, the city has uh modified its overall signed regulations that affect all properties within the city as well as these within these areas of special character.

Uh as you can see, these are some of the signs that were approved over the years along I-90.

Uh, this one that's shown on the bottom and in bold appears to be the one of the smallest signs that uh we have approved in in recent recent years.

The proposal is required to meet the standards for map amendments and uh the standards for the area of special character.

We have outlined our analysis of the standards in the staff report, and we do believe that all standards have been satisfied, and therefore staff recommends approval, subject to the conditions of the packet.

Um conditions to note, those are pretty standard.

Um the applicant is here as well and can address the commission.

All right, thank you.

I'm gonna start on my immediate left with Commissioner Jones.

Any questions for staff is this for staff?

Yeah.

Um sorry, Jordan.

Um with that section there uh with the overgrownness, and you said that belongs to I-90.

The fence is generally right on the property line.

So the landscaping that's on this on the image to the left of the fence would be on the subject property, and then obviously the fence and everything to the right of the fence would be in the I-90 property.

And so the part that's on the um petitioner's property, they're not maintaining that.

Uh it's just nobody's maintaining it.

Yes, they should be the property owner would be maintaining it.

The lawn, the shrubs and the overgrowth there.

Uh, I'm not sure that if that's overgrowth, that area generally, the the area between the fence and the parking lot, primarily space closest to the fence serves for uh the drainage for the storm water flow, and those areas generally are planted with native plantings.

Uh they have some rock usually on the bottom, so they have specific uh native plantings that are planted in bed area to allow the water to go through and kind of infiltrate.

So if that particular shot shows overgrown weeds or native plantings, I'm not sure, but yes, the property owner is generally responsible for maintaining that.

No, no, it for I can't I wear trifocals, I can't see real good.

I love native plants.

I love what you just described to me, and they do look like that on occasion in different times of the season.

So thank you.

I'm glad I asked.

Thank you for pointing that out with the natives.

I appreciate that.

That's important.

Commissioner Buske.

No questions.

Commissioner Bruble with regard to the plantings.

So what we're seeing there for the new landscaping, would that just be like cleaned out a little then and something?

Yes, so generally the landscaping that grows on the fence is the problematic part that obstructs the view, and it's probably better seen in the other image that I had.

Uh so as you can see, so so the top image, so all of this is on the inside of the fence.

Uh so that this is the landscaping that that belongs to the the tollway property.

Uh, it's kind of harder to see in this image.

So the top of the fence is generally and the fence itself is overgrown with with landscaping, and that's what obstructs the view partially, and that's why they felt the need to go with a larger than normally permitted electronic message center.

This the height of the sign is within what's what the code allows, that's 10 feet.

Um, but it's just that electronic message panel that they chose to make larger for that enhanced visibility, I guess.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Commissioner Boile.

Um I can ask the petitioner, but do you know if that sign will be constantly changing?

Uh I had I had a similar question for them.

I think the the applicant is is uh very well positioned to answer that.

So typically there are I guess apps that come with these types of electronic message center signs.

Uh the city code regulates how quickly this the message can change, but they themselves regulate the message that they want to display.

Uh the frequency of that changes has to comply with the code.

Thank you.

Commissioner Olson.

Uh yeah, question Does the city mandate at all how bright these can be, especially at night?

I don't think it's particularly an issue with the sign being along Interstate 90 with as many lights as there are there, but just in general, is there any kind of we do, yes.

There are there are limitations on brightness and the the frequency of change.

Okay, thank you.

No questions.

All right.

We'll invite the applicant to come forward now.

Hi, good evening.

Good evening.

And if you could state your name and spell it for the court reporter, please.

Karen Dodge, D O D G E.

Um, I'm representing ATEC Ambulance at 2125 Point Boulevard.

And we would like to install a 5 by 12 electronic message center ground sign.

They would like to install it on the south end of the property facing I-90.

It will be set back 13 feet, which is similar to the other two building signs to the west with similar signage.

There are four other companies within 1200 square feet that have similar signage.

No other ground sign or wall signs are currently on the property.

The building is 56,000 square feet and is set up for two tenants.

ATEC occupies 75%, and the other 25 is not occupied right now.

But that other tenant would be able to use this sign also.

Great, thank you.

Um Commissioner Olson.

No questions, thank you.

Commissioner Wally.

No, I don't have any questions.

Thank you.

Commissioner Jones.

No questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Busquet.

No questions, thank you.

Commissioner Rubel?

No questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Not have any questions.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

We'll now open public comment on this.

Um I have uh Ms.

Dodge's name, but there's no other names left on the sign-in sheet.

Um, are there any other folks out in the audience that wish to comment on this petition?

All right.

If not, um we will close the public comment portion and uh look for a um motion for petition number 26-25.

I move to recommend that city council approve petition 26-25, subject to the conditions outlined within our packet, and to adopt as the findings of the commission, those findings also provided within our packet.

A second.

Well, staff please call the roll.

Commissioner Olson?

Yes.

Commissioner Jones?

Yes.

Commissioner Abuali?

Yes.

Commissioner Bosque?

Yes.

Commissioner Bruble?

Yes.

And Chairman Wildermouth.

Yes.

Uh motion is approved.

620.

All right, thanks so much.

Thank you so much for coming this evening.

And staff will be in touch.

All right, we will now move on to our final petition of the evening, which is petition number 25-25.

Thank you, Chairman Wildermouth.

It's gonna take me a while to get used to this, Chairman Wildermouth instead of Chairman Cox.

Me too.

Caught myself twice already, almost saying Chairman Cox.

Uh okay.

So this final one is the uh, and again, we have provided the required notice on this application as well.

Final application is by school district U46 as both the applicant and the property owner, requesting approval of an amendment to the master signage plan that was established by ordinance number G 52-01.

And a plan development is a map amendment with departures from the Elgin municipal code requirements to construct improvements to the existing outdoor athletic field at Larkin High School, including but not limited to new stadium seating, uh new concessions building with locker rooms, a new scoreboard, an outdoor gazebo, fencing, landscaping, and other miscellaneous improvements, all of the property commonly known as 1475 Larkin Avenue.

Here is Larkin Avenue or Larkin High School campus outline in yellow.

This is a 42.7 acre property that's generally located on at the southwest corner of Larkin Avenue and South McLean Boulevard.

Uh it stretches down to Erie Street.

It is zone CF Community Facility District and Arc Arteri Arterial Road Corridor Overlay District.

And it is home to obviously Larkin High School that was completed in 1960.

As you can see, the properties uh on to the west, south, and east have that yellow shade over them, so those are residentially zoned properties, most of which are improved with single family homes.

To the north, however, are uh a mix of uh uses and zoning classifications.

The red shade uh means that's the commercially zoned A B district and properties, which are mostly uh fast food restaurants and um and such service-oriented uses, and then at the northwest corner of Larkin and uh South McLean Boulevard is a multifamily development that's owned MFR that includes a cluster of two and a half story multifamily buildings.

So here's the general site plan of the high school campus.

The high school building generally occupies the northern portion, northern half of the site, uh, while the outdoor sports fields and recreational amenities are generally located on the southern half of the site.

Uh the property, the high school has a total of 540 parking spaces, which are generally located on the north and south sides of the high school.

There are four access driveways to the campus.

There's one to Lark on Larkin Avenue that is an inbound driveway one indicated here on the map.

And then there are three access driveways to South McLean Boulevard.

Driveway two is and driveway four are exit-only driveways, whereas the driveway three is an inbound entrance only driveway.

So the applicant is proposing improvements to the main athletic field that would make it into a formal stadium.

These improvements consist of new synthetic turf field and an upgraded track around it.

New bleacher seating, both on the north and south side of the stadium.

The south side would be the home side and would include the press box.

The new bleacher seating would have a total capacity of uh 2,025 people.

The applicant is proposing a new 7,627 square foot concessions building that would also include a locker room, locker rooms.

Let's see if this works.

So this is the concessions and locker room building.

To the south of it would be a 1,500 square foot outdoor pavilion that would be covered by a metal canopy roof.

Other improvements include the installation of new fencing.

Currently, the stadium complex and the entire uh outdoor recreational area is enclosed by a six-foot high channeling fence.

The improvements require uh removal of some of the fence and then reinstallation of the six-foot channeling fence, generally shown here in blue.

Uh there will also be a three-foot high channeling fence directly surrounding the uh the running track.

The applicant has agreed and will install a six-foot ornamental fence on the east side of the stadium that would extend all the way down to Erie Street.

There would be two ticket booths.

There's one here and then one east of the stand on the north side.

And then generally there will be new landscaping throughout the site.

Oh, and also the new scoreboard that's going to be on the east side of the of the of the stadium.

The applicant is not proposing any changes to the existing access driveways, the parking or other buildings and facilities on site.

The concessions and locker room building would be all masonry.

It would include the public restrooms.

The masonry would complement the existing masonry of the building.

I apologize for the low quality image, but that's kind of all we had.

The press box would have the peak height of 40 about 44 feet above grade, but it would be about 300 feet from the east property line along South McLean Boulevard.

Here are the details of the proposed fences.

On the top is the six-foot-high ornamental fence with a couple gates along the that would be along the east property line along South McLean.

That is currently a chain link fence, so they've agreed to install this.

The applicant is proposing extensive landscaping throughout the site, particularly on the east side of the stadium, surrounding, particularly surrounding the uh the scoreboard.

They would be installing two shade trees and ten ornamental trees all around the scoreboard to sort of uh screen and buffer the look of that screen scoreboard from South McLean Boulevard.

They've also uh agreed and will install additional trees along South McLean all the way down to Erie Street.

The applicant has submitted a traffic and parking analysis, uh, and the applicant's team here can also address any questions in regards to it.

Uh in general, currently Larkin High School football games and soccer games, which are the the most attended events, are held at the Elgin High School because of the stadium and the size that they have over there.

And they anticipate that the biggest attendance would occur for the Friday night football games.

If you're familiar, Friday night football games include a freshman and sophomore game that's scheduled for 5 p.m.

And then the varsity game that's scheduled for 7 p.m.

The parking and traffic analysis indicates that the busiest time for the for the events would be that hour before the 7 o'clock varsity game, so between 6 p.m.

and 7 p.m.

And during this time, the the study indicates they would expect about 355 vehicles or trips entering the facility, and then there will be about 235 vehicles or trips exiting the site.

Those are probably vehicles that are associated with the uh freshman and sophomore game that happens at 5 a.m.

5 p.m.

This, however, is generally the same type of traffic uh that is expected and happens every morning and afternoon during the school uh start and dismissal times.

And during those times uh the as I mentioned, the driveway to Larkin is the only one used for entrance.

Uh and then that there are two driveways that serve as exit only to South McLean, and those are uh only right turn exits during that peak time.

And the applicant has indicated they are willing to and will implement the same uh traffic circulation and parking arrangements that they have during the the school start and dismissal times.

That is something that both the visitors, staff, and students are familiar with, and the neighborhood is also familiar with that and should have minimal impacts on the surrounding areas during the during that peak hour between 6 p.m.

and 7 p.m.

Now, in regards to parking, the the city's ordinance requires certain number of parking spaces based on the number of employees for the school, and then based on the capacity of a largest facility on campus.

And prior to the stadium, it was the gymnasium.

Now with the stadium and the the additional uh CDM uh seating capacity, the stadium becomes the biggest facility, and with that capacity at 2,250 and 205 employees, the school is now required to have a total of 430 parking spaces.

As I mentioned, they have 540 on site, so the school will continue to meet its regulatory parking requirement.

However, they have the the traffic and parking study does address the parking needs during both the typical Friday night for the busiest football games, and then for the the rare and few occasions that they would anticipate the biggest attendance, such as the homecoming game or the first game of the season.

So during those busiest football games, uh they anticipate up to 1,000 uh attendees for the games.

This is based on their observations at the Elgin High where they counted exactly how many visitors are coming.

So during those times, uh they uh they estimated that if there's a about 1,000 people attending the game, they would need about 400 parking spaces, which obviously they have on their site that has 540 parking spaces.

So uh during the busiest football nights, they should have plenty of parking on on premises.

If the facility is filled to capacity, which is 2,250 attendance, that would lead to a parking demand of approximately 900 parking spaces.

In those instances, the school has indicated they would utilize parking uh on at nearby middle school, Kimball Middle School up on McLean, and then two elementary schools, the Highland Elementary and then Creekside Elementary School.

Uh with those uh parking lots at those schools, they can have uh more than 900 parking spaces available, and during those times they would arrange shuttles for uh attendees that would park with those uh at those remote facilities and they would uh send notifications in advance of the meeting with the anticipation of the high attendance.

So with that I will touch on the required departures for the proposal.

Uh the fences that are proposed, so everything south of the building is generally considered the street yard, where only a four-foot-high open design fence is allowed.

Obviously, they're proposing six feet high fences, and some of those are chain link fences, which are generally not allowed in the street yards.

That's one of the departures.

Um again, this is an improvement from what's there because the channeling fence is already existing there, proposing ornamental fence uh in the most visible part along South McLean.

The number of signs generally, because of that uh master signage plan that was approved in 2001, they were allowed two total signs, which they currently have the one at the corner of Larkin and McLean, and then there's a second sign that is just northeast of the existing athletic field.

Those two would remain as they are.

Of course, the the scoreboard sign is the third one that is larger than what's what's permitted, and that's one of the other departures requested.

And then finally, uh this plan development approval would allow all other accessory buildings south of the of the main high school building.

So anything like the concessions building, uh dugouts, the the ticket booths, all those things are considered accessory buildings which are not allowed in the street yard, and again, anything south of the high school building is considered a street yard, so they need a departure to construct any of those buildings, all of which are customary and traditional for a high school campus.

So the applications required to meet the standards for map amendments and those for the planned developments, and we provide uh our overview of the standards in the packet.

We do believe that all applicable standards are satisfied, and therefore staff recommends approval subject to the conditions in the packet.

And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

The applicant's teams here and they can address as well.

Great.

Thanks, the Mirror.

Um, are there questions for staff?

I'll start with Commissioner Brable.

Verbal, sorry.

With regards to um the landscaping by the um scoreboard, um, do you have any specifications set for like the height of the trees that will be planted?

So they've really enhanced the landscaping there.

I mentioned there are 12 trees total that are proposed to be um on the east side of the scoreboard.

So ornamental trees usually grow up to a peak height of about 20, 25 feet, depends on the on this on the type of the ornamental tree.

And then the shade trees are obviously much larger.

They are actually proposed to flank the scoreboard on the far north and then the south end, and then the ornamental trees are sort of in between.

So when fully grown, it should be very well obscured from South McLean.

Okay, I was just curious as to the time frame, like fast growing trees, because I mean it could take years for these trees to reach an adequate height.

That is true.

Um, I'll let the applicants team perhaps touch on the the choice of the landscaping.

The city does not have specific requirements for which tree needs to be installed.

And in fact, um, as a as a plan development, we've we've kind of worked with them to enhance and put as many as possible, uh, but we haven't gone into the details of the specific um the species.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Commissioner Brusca.

Uh no questions.

Commissioner Jones.

I think this is more a question for the petitioner.

Do we know what the capacity of the parking lot is on a school day?

And what happens with the other foot with that more for the applicant?

That's probably for them, but I think the traffic study included that it's that it's I believe fully occupied at the time when the consultant went out there to observe it.

Yeah, that's my concern.

Um I had a kid at Elgin and I had a kid at Larkin, and we did drop off and we did pickup.

And the Larkin student, um, I was not ever gonna pull into that parking lot because it's a mess, it's hard, it's not easy to navigate these school parking lots.

So I would drive over in the neighborhood and drop off my kid, and he had to walk.

Um, and what I observed during that time that he was there, and sometimes it would be on the um Larkin Avenue side, and sometimes it would be on the other.

I'd go in there, and it just depended on what I needed that day.

Um, but something that I observed for four years is that during the school day, there are a lot of cars parked in the neighborhood.

Um the issue came up at Elgin High when my son was there, and the neighbors were losing their minds, and they're parking there because it's easier and quicker.

That's so much at Elgin High School because that's like its own campus, but at Larkin High School, it was easier for the students and faster to just pull onto those little side streets, park their cars and get out.

And the one thing that I would notice is that they overhang people's driveways, and they were black in cars, and because they're they're young, they're young.

That's a nice word.

They're young and they're learning, and we're shaping them, right?

Um then we had to install that big long because if you would get there, and I don't know if those of you who have not been there at dismissal at Larkin High School because it is so dense in that neighborhood.

Um the kids come out of the building and they they would go everywhere.

I mean, they just stop traffic, they don't look, they just are in the streets.

So the fencing has solved that problem at least.

They they can only go one, but they're teenagers, and um teenagers can be really, really humbling.

And I'm just I don't know if they can't.

I I feel like there's not a good handle in the daytime parking, and the night time feels like it would be even worse with families home, everybody's home from work, maybe we've got multiple cars in a household over there.

It's a very dense neighborhood.

This is denser than most neighborhoods, even on the east side.

It's just very compact, and I have some real concerns for those community members there to be able to get in and out of their homes during these sports.

Um the other thing that I will comment is my son was the um the mascot, so I got to attend a lot.

And when we would go to the um Elgin Larkin games, and there would be five squad cars there, and there was fighting in the park, and there was you know, there's that conflict of that rivalry, that cross town rivalry.

Um it made me feel very uncomfortable, made me feel like it wasn't a safe place, but I always thought, well, at least it's on a campus, you know, like they can't, it's not gonna be in anybody's neighborhood.

Um so those are just my observations, and I will follow up with the petitioners to see how we plan to address it because uh busing to other parking lots sounds comical to me.

Nobody's gonna do that.

I I don't I don't believe.

I don't believe because they how would you I don't believe so we'll follow up with that, but that's my concern about that area.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Olson.

Yeah, definitely um uh echoing what Commissioner Jones said about parking and everything, and it looks like uh the neighborhood has already had a lot of problems with that as it is.

Um I guess my question would be I mean, is there anything we can do on we're surrounding side streets in that area uh with a parking ordinance?

I mean, looking at yeah, there might be enough parking in the parking lots, but looking at a crosstown game that's probably way more attended than even a homecoming game is uh you know what happens at that point when you have all these teenagers that are um field up after a game leaving on these neighborhood streets.

I mean, is is there anything that the city can do to kind of help with that as well?

Well, I'll let the applicant speak to the frequency of high attendance at these games.

Um it it it I've been to high school games as well, so typically these things, you know, high school teams have maybe five five to seven home games per year.

Uh the the rivalry game is obviously once per year, perhaps the the first game of the season, maybe homecoming.

Uh so in our observation and analysis of this project, everything's already there.

Uh they're their proposed traffic plan is such that everybody should be familiar with, and there's really no other way to do it.

Uh everybody will be directed to Larkin Avenue entrance, and then they'll have to exit on South McLean.

Uh will there be people that would choose to park in a neighborhood?

Possibly.

Uh certainly the on-premise parking is a lot closer and probably more convenient.

Uh, but that's not to say that some people would not do that.

Uh the city does have the parking and traffic committee that's that's uh that is a staff only committee that consists of public works, police, etc.

That individuals can bring up concerns.

Um again, the good thing is that this this is very infrequent occurrence, uh, not like school that happens every day.

Um but there may be solutions depending on what the what the specific challenges are.

If it is speeding through the neighborhood versus parking that that up that obscures driveway people that can't get out of the driveways, those are two different types of issues that the parking traffic committee would then suggest solutions to that.

Uh and those things would have to be then taken care of, but it's less that we have.

Thank you.

No, no more question.

Commissioner O'Bwale.

Can you just repeat and confirm that there's a field already there?

These are improvements to a field, and the baseball field is separate, correct?

That is correct.

As you can see on the on the screen, uh the the other recreational fields are south of the main athletic field, and there's no change to those.

Thank you.

That's all.

You will go.

No questions from me for staff other than I appreciate that there's procedures in place for the traffic circulation and pattern, but still have some of the same questions, I think, for the petitioner once they come forward.

So I will uh invite the petitioner to uh come forward at this time, please.

Sorry, we have a large group.

Um thank you for seeing us tonight.

My name's Jolene Linneman, J O L E N E L I N N E M A N.

I work for School District U 46.

Um address 1460 Sheldon Drive in Algin.

Um to give you kind of a recap on why we brought this project forward.

Larkin is the only high school that does not have a formal stadium.

So they share with Elgin.

Um is kind of nameless, so it's only a visitor home.

Um it's never been branded because as a Larkin student, your school spirit, we wear blue, we don't want to be the maroon, we don't want to have the maroon color.

Um this was an opportunity for us to um bring the student's spirit forward.

Um it's something that I know the school district is very proud of.

Um we have been looking at some of these um concerns also that you have as a committee.

Um I know we've talked in a large part, and I'll let our team of engineers and architects speak as well.

Um, but the parking on the streets has been brought forward.

Um the idea of the shuttles is to keep Larkin is a very um walkable school.

Um we have a lot of walkers that walk to that high school.

Having the shuttles, the idea is then that you would walk to your home elementary or middle school and then be a continuous shuttle to the Larkin.

Um I know people had concerns about pickup and drop-offs.

Well, what happens if you want to leave the game early?

It is a continuous flow.

Um we have over 300 school buses, as you know, all U 46 staff, all U 46 supplied.

Um, so we're ready.

Um that director of our transportation has already gotten on board with everything and is very excited about offering her drivers more opportunity to drive our students.

Um just to see the kids' faces about when we kind of brought this idea forward, they were so excited.

1960, it is 2025, and we are just bringing this to the city to try to do the stadium.

It's well deserved for these students.

It's it's so exciting for us at U-46.

Um, but I'm gonna let my other people speak.

Um Brad, I don't know if you want to talk more about landscaping.

Yeah, hi.

My name is Briad Hovanick.

Um with uh Cage Engineering.

Um I think the only question that I can answer here is for landscaping.

Unfortunately, our landscape architect could not be here tonight.

Um but based on my experience with him in the past, uh, he typically uses trees uh that grow and fully mature within about three three years, three to four years.

So that's what I think we can expect uh near the scoreboard sign off to the east.

I don't know, Kyle.

Do you have anything at all?

Sure.

Hello, my name is Kyle Sant.

I'm a licensed engineer with a uh consulting firm called TYLN.

Uh and I uh put together the the traffic and parking study.

Um I know that uh oh I'm sorry, Kyle, K Y L E last name Sant S A N T.

Thanks, sorry about that.

Uh I know there was concern about parking.

So I'll I'll say um we went out to the school and we performed observations during a school day.

Uh and you're right.

Uh with many high schools, um, dismissal for a brief period can be can be chaotic.

Uh we did parking uh occupancy counts before school was dismissed uh to get kind of like a maximum parking sense, and then again afterwards to see how the parking lot's cleared.

Uh during the school day, we counted occupancy at about 65%, mostly uh students park on the north side and um staff more on the south side, although just there's mixing in there.

Uh afterwards, after dismissal, we counted the parking lot at 20%.

So, you know, and we observed that you know that's staff staying after, probably that's uh students that are staying around for um practices, that kind of thing.

Um and that's at 3 30, 4 o'clock.

And you know, we expect most of these uh bigger events to happen much later than that, so we'd anticipate even fewer parking cars, uh parked cars in the lots when those events are happening.

Um I'll elaborate briefly on um the maximum scenario that we that we looked at.

So a typical kind of football game, we understand from the district would max out at about a thousand attendees.

Um we assumed a vehicle occupancy of two and a half people per car, um, which we base that off of observations at other sporting events at Elgin High School.

Although in my professional experience, that's pretty low.

Um and we might expect actually a bit higher.

So it'd be fair to say that these parking estimates for an event like that are probably a little conservative, a little high.

Um with a thousand attendees using that number, um, we estimated in the three to four hundred range for parking demand, and that would fit within the existing parking lot.

That 25 or uh 2250 number, we looked at that as kind of uh absolute worst case scenario.

If every seat in this new stadium is full, what would the parking capacity or demand be?

And that's where we were estimating you'd push over the uh the on-site capacity, and that's where overflow and um the shuttling came in.

So just wanted to emphasize that we did assess that and we looked at what the parking demand would be.

We would expect that to be very rare based on what we've heard from the district.

Did that answer all of your questions on parking?

We can uh we can we'll go back and go down the line for additional questions.

Sure.

All right, anyone else?

Or we'll open the commission up to questions.

All right.

Um we'll uh start with uh on my right, Commissioner Olson.

Okay.

Um for the stadium itself, is the bleachers all ADA accessible?

I know at Elgin High, they built that extra little platform on the side.

Is this more included in the general stadium bleachers or is it more off to the side like at Elgin High?

Uh VP Trin with Arkin Associates Trin T-R-I-N-H.

Uh address is 2050 South Finley Lombard.

Um we're the architects, yes.

So it's gonna be more integrated in the um visitor side and on the home side.

Great.

Thank you.

Um is the lighting set up similar to Elgin High 2, very directional LED lighting to off try to offset any light pollution to the neighboring.

Correct.

Yeah.

Same uh lighting set up to Elgin High School.

The height's about 80 feet.

There's gonna be a screen on the lighting to kind of help with uh light pollution, but more direct into the field.

Okay.

Um terms of the view from the clean boulevard driving by, uh, I know currently you guys have a lot of uh Larkin High School branded um fabric on those fences.

Is that gonna be something we're gonna see in the future as well?

Um my concern with that is kind of passers by being a distraction with a football game going on that close to McLean Boulevard.

Um is there anything to help kind of offset that other than the landscaping?

I think with that ornamental fencing, that kind of takes away that branding.

So that's why they wanted to brand the back of the scoreboard.

That would be your only branding then on McLean.

Okay.

Um last question regarding the traffic.

I noticed um the south parking lot is directly next to the stadium and then along with the north parking lot too.

Everyone leaving the game more or less or even coming into the games has to cross the exit pathway for both parking lots.

Um little concerned about that is traffic exiting these parking lots at the same time that people are trying to cross those drive lanes to get to their cars.

Is there anything in place to kind of help with that?

Uh you know, I know that there's people directing traffic during the day at Larkin High.

I don't know what that looks like specifically.

I've never been there uh to that extent, but is that something you guys have thought about with that traffic?

Um I know I had a conversation with the AD at Larkin, the athletic director.

Um there's eight police officers usually at any event at Larkin, and they do help um with traffic as well.

Okay.

Uh no further questions.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bally.

It's pretty easy to identify the certain days that there could be an excess.

Are those the days that you plan the shuttles?

Because you said you won't use them unless you need them.

So they won't be at every game.

They will potentially only be at certain ones that you expect a big turnout?

Correct.

Yeah.

Typically there's only about five games per season.

Um and one of those games is I obviously the rivalry, which will switch years.

So that'll be like an every other year at Larkin, and then you'll have homecoming.

Homecoming is always going to be at your home.

So on those particular days or events, we would plan on the shuttle.

Okay, thank you.

Commissioner of Ruble.

I'm wondering if you have anything in place to promote a shuttle parking, because sometimes people won't know that you know that that's available.

Yes, thank you.

We actually have a whole communications department, so they'll make sure that that goes out on the marquee that's on the sign.

It'll go out on email blast, it'll go out as a flyer.

Um we'll make sure that we communicate that the shuttles are available.

Okay, thank you.

You're welcome.

Commissioner Busquet.

Thanks for coming out, guys.

This is uh this isn't so much a question as just uh an observation.

I uh was looking at uh page five of the TY Lin engineering memorandum, and um you have uh whole programming for all the athletics.

Um I didn't see anything for arts programming.

Larkin Larkin is known for its um uh performing arts academy.

Um the marching band practices at Larkin, but uh performs their halftime show at uh Elgin High and uh you know the they used markers on the field to you know perfect that performance during the halftime.

Is there anything has there been any conversation with the that portion of the students who will be using that field itself to accommodate them or anything?

I'm not sure I follow, but um I know the band actually has markers in the uh parking lot as well, so when they're practicing, they practice in the parking lot.

Um and then for events um the markings are exactly the yard lines, so that's how they line up the tick marks and the yard lines.

Not sure I'm not a football girl.

Sorry.

I'm not a football girl, so I don't know what the ticks are, but the yard lines and then I think it's the um helping before that.

Spark spot markers.

Okay, thank you.

Um but that's how they actually line up so when they go from practice on the parking lot to the field, um, they will be playing obviously um during football games, probably a halftime event or two.

Um does that answer your question?

Thank you.

Okay, thanks.

Commissioner Jones.

Thank you.

When I initially saw this project, I was so excited about it.

Just like you know, and then I started driving around.

But um, so you have the historical data of the attendance of these football games that they've been holding at Elgin High School.

How does that compare to what you're proposing to the attendance numbers?

You have all the history of it.

Now we're moving forward, and you're predicting.

So you are you predicting more people, less people?

No, the stadiums will be about the same size.

So the attendance of the Larkin Games at the Elgin High School Stadium.

What's the attendance there?

That I don't know.

Um honestly off the top of my head, I would have to research that.

Do you know that number?

So that's not where so that's not where we got these numbers.

So the the we estimated between 750 and a thousand attendees.

That's not based on any formalized attendance because there that kind of attendance isn't taken at games at Elgin High School.

No, it's not, okay.

We couldn't get any.

So uh that's based off of I believe it was the athletic director's estimates.

Oh, okay.

Because I would assume that more people would want to come to a brand new stadium and support Larkin, right?

Because that would I would and then when you guys were doing your parking surveys, I'm sure you surveyed the whole neighborhood.

How did that look during the day, school days?

We actually didn't do an on-street parking inventory.

You did not?

No.

Okay.

Um I would not be in favor of supporting uh ordinances to do any kind of modifications to street parking because I think that penalizes the community, the neighbors, rather than you know, you're trying to fix a problem, but you're causing more for them.

Um I got thank you so much.

Sorry.

Umbers at all during this process.

So we did.

We did a neighborhood event.

Um we had uh some people show up.

Um their biggest question was about um littering.

So we addressed that with our grounds coordinator and that department.

Um and he's pledged to make a sweep after the games.

So they clean everything up.

Um so they're gonna sweep the neighborhood as well, do a sweep, make sure that there's no um debris left behind.

Um and then again, they have Saturday crews too, so they'll come on Saturday as well and do another cleanup.

Um and then just curious, um, my last question.

Uh I'm assuming there's um like musicals, other events, large events that take place.

I'm just wondering about kind of I guess past experience with large events and uh your I guess feeling on on the the traffic flow and and how that works and maybe the the max attendance that you see at those um events that you know could be fine arts related or or not, like kind of what's what are you looking at in terms of attendance there so I can kind of get a scale of sure um I think our auditorium seats uh 210.

Um that's a guess because we just redid the seating, so I know it went down a little bit.

Um any events that we've had, we it's uh the same as the school day, so we really haven't had any major traffic events um uh other than you know, like our daily in and out.

Okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right.

Um with that, we thank you.

You can take a seat.

We'll invite public do you have one more question?

All right, Commissioner, we'll we'll allow it.

Uh Commissioner Jones, one one question, and then I'll I'll let everyone else have one final shot at it too.

But Commissioner Jones.

I am so sorry.

Thank you so much, Chairman.

Um how many people attended that neighborhood meeting?

Four.

That's what I thought.

Thank you.

We sent out 200.

Oh, I know how that was that's that's why I guess it's so hard to get any kind of engagement for for stuff like that.

Thank you though.

Thank you for doing the meeting.

Any other questions from any other commissioners?

Uh yeah, sure.

Uh I guess uh I don't foresee a lot of people using the shuttle service, you know, uh compared to the people parking at the stadium.

Is there any cause for concern of what happens when they get off the bus at that neighboring elementary school?

What happens then?

You know, there's no police officer stationed there in the event that there is any issues, you know, anything like that that we've kind of looked at.

I do not know that we looked at that, um, but I definitely will bring that back to you 46.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

All right, thank you.

We'll open it up to public comment and then um if there's any other if there's any questions that stem from that, we'll invite you back up to address those.

All right, we now turn to public comment portion.

Are there any members of the public that wish to testify?

Going once.

I see a lot of not eager faces.

Um not this face.

Um with that, we will uh close the public hearing portion of the wonderful, thank you.

I just wanted to re uh ask Ms.

Linneman, could can I get you back up to the podium just so I can get you into the microphone.

Want to make sure I understood the frequency of events correctly because there was a lot of discussion back and forth about the numbers.

Five home games a year.

Right, typically, unless perhaps they make playoffs, right?

Correct.

Correct.

So generally five with the hopes of of uh one or two more.

And then one of those could be one of those would be the homecoming event where there where there could be the need for shuttles.

Correct.

And then every other year, one of those could would be the uh uh rivalry game with Algin High.

Correct.

Okay, thank you for clarifying that.

You're very welcome.

All right.

Um with that, we will uh close the public comment portion of the hearing and we will now move to um if there's a motion to approve uh petition dash 25 25-25.

I move to recommend that the city council approve petition 25-25, subject to the conditions outlined within our packet, and to adopt as the findings of the commission, those findings also provided within our packet.

Second will staff please call the roll.

Yes, Commissioner Olson?

Yes.

Commissioner Abwali?

Yes, Commissioner Jones.

No.

Commissioner Vruble.

Yes.

And Commissioner or Chairman Wilderman.

Yes.

That motion is approved.

Five to one.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, everyone, for your time and your um work and continue working with uh staff on the application.

All right.

Now we will uh move on to uh summary of uh or any other business.

You have other business?

Well let me look here.

Okay.

My apologies.

Um Demir, uh you have offered a couple of times in my time on this.

Uh the city has offered training um for the commissioners, and I I always appreciate it.

I always learn something new that I maybe missed and I attend everyone that you offer.

Um I find it valuable, so maybe we could add uh if there's an opportunity to add some kind of commission training with all of our new commissioners.

I think that would be really helpful.

Yes, I appreciate the comment.

We do have um, you know, we have the training for the new members.

Uh there's a American planning association uh offers training for commission members because every city has a commission like this, and so they provide some training.

And we had invited them to come in and provide a more formal training uh was it maybe a couple years ago or something like that?

And we do have their slideshow.

I'm not sure if we have a recording, but if we do, if the our great you know video crew has that, I'll certainly share that with the with the team and especially with the with the new commission members, but we will also be on the lookout for any other additional uh opportunities.

As I said, the the American Planning Association sends emails every so often about all kinds of training.

You know, something for the chair recently that well uh that I mentioned to uh Chair Wildermoon.

So we'll we'll keep an eye on that.

We we are still short on one member, as you guys uh know.

So we may wait until the we're full.

We anticipate the council is gonna appoint the seventh member, and then maybe at that time we would look for something that's more formal that we can kind of then invite everybody to attend that.

So but yeah, we'll sharing the if there's a video recording that would be perfect.

It was a great presentation.

Um thank you.

Thank you very much.

Sure.

Any other business?

Is there any public comment?

We ran them out of town.

Um clear room.

They were tired of hearing me drag on the um uh now.

We'll we'll move on to the summary of pending development applications.

I don't believe I have much to add on this.

Um there's a council meeting in two days, they're gonna consider the uh the Subaru parking in front of Russo and then the uh the wrestling facility at 633 East Chicago, those are both up for consideration.

Um other than that, I don't think there's anything of substance that that has changed since last time.

So um I'll take any questions if there's any questions.

All right.

Seeing none, uh we will now move on to adjournment.

I move to adjourn a second.

Staff, please call the roll.

That is Commissioner Abwali.

Yes.

Commissioner Jones, yes, Commissioner Bosque?

Yes, Commissioner Olson?

Yes, Commissioner Bruble?

Yes.

And Chair Wildermouth?

Yes.

We are adjourned.

Thank you.

Congratulations.