We're going to go ahead and call the meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission to order.

And we're going to start uh with uh welcome and swearing in of a new commissioner that is joining us tonight, Ignacio Gasca.

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 to do these as a member of the Planning and Zoning Commission for the City of Elgin, Illinois, according to the best of your ability.

I just repeat the whole thing.

Sorry, I do.

Commissioner Abwali?

Present.

Commissioner Gaska.

Present.

Commissioner Jones?

Here.

Commissioner Olson?

Here.

Commissioner Ruble?

Here.

And Chairman Wildermore.

Here.

We have a quorum.

All right.

Um, and now can we have an approval of minutes of the November third, 2025 meeting?

And move to approve.

Second.

Will the staff please call the roll?

Commissioner Jones?

Yes.

Commissioner Olson?

Yes.

Commissioner Abwali?

Yes.

Commissioner Gaska?

Yes.

Commissioner Rubel?

Yes.

And Chairman Wildermore?

Yes.

The minutes are approved.

Six to zero.

All right, well, good evening, everyone, and um, welcome to the December eighth meeting of the Elgin Planning and Zoning Commission.

Tonight we're going to be hearing petitions number thirty-eight twenty-five, forty-two-twenty-five, and forty-three-twenty-five.

Before we move uh to the agenda, I want to briefly discuss the role of the commission and the procedures of um tonight's meeting.

So as a reminder, the planning and zoning commission is an advisory and a recommended recommending body to City Council.

After tonight's meeting, um uh the petitions will then go forth to the next part of the process, which is going towards um going before city council.

So we are the recommending body, not the voting body to the city council.

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

So that's what we're going to be basing our decisions on tonight is a set of standards, and we put our applications up against those set of standards.

So the process that we're going to go through tonight is that we will first hear from city staff, followed by questions from the commission that the commission has for staff.

Then we're going to invite the applicant to provide a brief overview of their proposal, and the commission will then ask questions of the applicant.

And then after that, we will open the hearing to public comment for questions and comments.

And during the public comment period, come forward, state your name, and spell it, and provide your address.

Public comments should be addressed to the commission.

And then we will be keeping notes on the questions, concerns raised, and then city staff or the applicant will have the opportunity to address those questions.

And in the interest of time, we ask that those testifying do not reiterate points that have already been made.

We have been given all the correspondence that has been submitted to city staff.

We have been provided with those in the packet and those correspondence that we're received over the weekend.

We've got copies of all of them up on the dais.

So we've received all of your comments.

So thank you very much for your participation in the process, and we will be taking all of those into account and ask and asking questions from both staff and the applicant based on what's in the application and the uh testimony and comments before us.

Um so then the commission will then deliberate, vote, and pass its recommendations to city council.

Um in all cases, planning and zoning commission meetings are the forms for public hearings for each project.

Um and it's where we come together to weigh both sides of applications and understand and get to know a little more.

So thank you for being a part of the process.

Um we just do ask that everyone please remain respectful tonight and uh please just be good listeners and attentive and uh just respect for for everyone as we um go through the process.

Um and with that um we will proceed um with um uh administering the oath to persons desiring to testify.

So anyone that thinks that they will be providing any testimony um the uh court reporter will now uh swear you in.

So those those that wish to testify can please stand and take the oath.

If you all raise your 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.

All right, we'll look to staff for our first petition of this evening.

Okay, thank you, Chairman.

Thank you, Chairman Wildermouth, and good evening, everyone.

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

This is the application by Mike Spillane, Spillane and Sons Incorporated as applicant and property owner requesting variations from sections 19.20.635 site design, pursuant to section 19.12.800 authorized site design variations to construct a new single-family home with a 25-foot street yard setback from the West Street lot line along Porter Street, where minimum 38-foot street yard setback is required, and with a 30-foot street yard setback from the South Street property line along East Chicago Street, where a minimum 36-foot street yard setback is required at the vacant property, commonly known as 552 East Chicago Street.

As usual, we'll start with the general location of the subject property.

As you can see, the the properties outlined in yellow.

This is approximately the 8,580 square foot lot.

Uh so an RC3 residence conservation district.

It is also located in the Elgin Historic District.

It's at the um just west of the intersection of East Chicago Street and Liberty Street on the north side.

The property is currently vacant as you can see, but it did have a single family home in the past.

That home was damaged by fire in 2010 and then subsequently demolished.

Two-car detached garage still exists on the property, sort of on the north end of the of the site with driveway access to Porter Street.

Here are the couple photographs.

One on the left is the former home on this on the site, and then on the right is what that property looks like today.

So the applicant is requesting approval of two site design variations to construct the new single family home.

On the left is the platter survey or site plan of the former home on the property.

And on the right side is the proposed site plan for the new home.

In red or circled in red are the two setbacks in question.

The applicant is proposing to construct the home with a 30-foot setback from the south property line.

That would be 30 feet from the south property line.

The required setback is 36 feet based on the average setback of the homes along this block of East Chicago Street.

The applicant is proposing to construct the front porch to uh provide uh an elevation and the exterior of the building that matches the other historic homes along East Chicago, all of which have front porches.

And then the other setback outline or circled in red is from the West property line.

The proposed home would be 25 feet from the West property line, where 38 feet is required.

Again, 38-foot setback is the average setback based on the homes to the north on this block.

And it's worth pointing out that the homes is shown here on the aerial photograph.

Run east-west, so the homes are setback further from Porter Street property line, and that's what sort of determines the required setback from Porter Street.

With that request for a 25-foot setback, the home would still be only uh 20 uh uh 27 feet wide, and the applicant would provide a 13-foot setback from the east property line where only six feet is required.

That additional uh uh setback between this home and the home adjacent to the east will add to that historic character on on this on this block of East Chicago Street.

Again, this is still a modest home, approximately 1,800 square feet, and includes three bedrooms and two and a half baths.

On the left is the uh proposed first floor uh with a kitchen, dining room, and living room, and a half bath, and then on the right is the second floor plan with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Here are the proposed elevations.

The one on the right is the south elevation facing East Chicago, the one on the wet on the left is the West Street along Porter Street.

That uh that elevation.

The home will be clad in fiber cement siding.

It was designed in the Queen Anne style, which is the most prevalent style in the area.

Uh the as I mentioned, the properties in the Yelgian Historic District, so design review subcommittee of the Heritage Commission has reviewed the proposed plans and has uh unanimously approved them at their meeting on November 3rd.

So this project is made possible through the collaboration between the applicant and the city of Elgin.

Uh the home will be constructed with the funds or community development block grant funds and will be sold to uh general public or to to individuals that meet income requirements and restrictions based on the the HUD guidelines.

So the home will be occupied and sold to a low to moderate household.

This applicant has constructed other homes in the uh on the in the historic district of of Elgin.

They've the the applicant constructed three similar homes.

Those those homes are displayed uh on the slide.

There are a couple on Spring Street and one on Park Street.

They've also constructed other homes uh in the Foxville area through the same program.

The proposal requires a compliance with the standards for variations.

Uh there are nine standards.

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

And therefore, staff recommends approval.

Um again, this being a variation, the planning and zoning commission is the final determining body.

So whenever you make a motion, it will be to either approve or deny the project.

With that, happy to answer any questions.

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

All right, thanks.

I'm going to start on my left with uh Commissioner Bruble.

No questions.

Commissioner Jones.

No questions.

Commissioner Wally, no questions, thank you.

Commissioner Olson?

No questions.

And Commissioner Gaska?

No questions.

No questions for me.

All right.

We'll uh invite the applicant to come forward.

And if you state your name.

Michael Spillane, we're the owner of Spillane and Sons.

Great.

And let us know your thoughts or anything additional you want to add.

Um it's a pretty uh straightforward project.

You know, like a staff has said, we have done many historic uh buildings or historic homes in the district before.

Uh we saw this opportunity and and and brought the home to the commission to uh to build.

So we we think it will fit well within the neighborhood, and uh the style and character of the home proposed, I think will fit well on the street.

Thanks.

Um I'll start on my right with uh Commissioner Gasca.

Any questions for the applicant?

No questions.

Commissioner Olson.

No questions.

Thank you for investing in Elgin.

The home that was there was beautiful and uh sad loss to the city.

So excited to see something new there.

Thank you.

Commissioner Wally, no questions.

Commissioner Jones.

Can I just ask you out of curiosity?

Are you using all building materials that would be like drywall, composite shingles, you know, today's industry products, not trying to meet any of like the historical woodworking and I mean I know you can replicate some of that type of thing to cosmetically, but yeah, with the historic standards that are within the district, we have to adhere to certain requirements.

Um, some of those are um the type of siding that we would use, uh, the type of uh windows that you would use, and really the overall character of the home.

So we believe we've met all those requirements as far as um you know in building this home.

The interior of the home though is is really styled with today's living.

So it it's the layout is different and um the materials that are within the inside of the home are much different.

Um, but the store commission doesn't um advise us to what to use on the inside.

So it's mostly the cosmetic exterior correct, correct.

That's that's where our requirements are.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Commissioner Bruble.

No questions.

Not have any questions.

Just thanks so much for uh the especial utilization of the CD um GB funds and uh and building a beautiful home investing there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, now we will um open up uh this part of the hearing for public comment.

If there's any public comment on this petition, we'll invite you to come forward.

All right, seeing none, um we will close the public comment portion of the hearing and look to staff for any final comments.

Nothing further to add staff recommends approval subject to the conditions of the packet.

All right, sounds good.

Is there a motion from the commission?

I move to approve petition number 38-25, subject to the conditions outlined within our packet, and to adopt as the findings of the commission, those findings also within our packet.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right, can staff please call the roll?

Commissioner Abwali?

Yes.

Commissioner Bruegel?

Yes.

Commissioner Goska.

Yes.

Commissioner Jones?

Yes.

Commissioner Olson?

Yes.

And Chairman Wildermouth.

Yes.

The motion is approved.

Six to zero.

Fantastic.

Well, staff will be in contact.

Thanks so much for your time.

And with that, we will move on to the next set of petitions.

All right.

Okay, so the second petition before you, and again, we have proof of proper notice that was provided for this one as well.

So this is an application by Umiamataji Sanchta, Chicago Midwest, uh an Illinois not-for-profit corporation.

As was the case with the previous petition, we'll start with the general location of the subject property.

Again, the property outlined in yellow.

This is about 34 acre property that's currently zone GI General Industrial.

That's the purple outline.

And then the northern 150 feet or so is zone CF community facility district.

That's the green portion of that of that property.

The property is vacant and undeveloped.

It has never been developed.

It was annexed to the city in 1966.

In 1988, the property was subdivided for an industrial development or a commercial type of subdivision that includes 15 unimproved lots around an unimproved Galt Boulevard extension.

This is generally west of Hiller Drive and just north of Route 20.

Route 20 is also known as Villa Street, and then east of the city is known as Lake Street.

You may hear the references to those streets by some of the public.

So as you can see, the property to the east is the Oak Ridge subdivision.

It's a residential subdivision that includes single family homes, town homes, and some open space.

To the north is the Sherwood Oaks subdivision that is currently unincorporated.

It's in Cook County, and zone R for single family single family residents.

To the west is the National or Canadian National Railroad, and the properties to the west of that are zone GI or PGI, Plan General Industrial, and include a variety of light industrial and manufacturing uses.

The building that you can see there in the aerial right here, this is the latest building that was constructed in this sort of industrial park.

That's about 477,000 square feet of light industrial space just for reference.

To the southeast of this property, generally along Route 20, are a couple vacant lots, one west of Hillard and then one east of Hillard.

Those properties are zone NB, neighborhood business district.

And then there is the Everclean Car Wash that's zoned P and B Plan Neighborhood Business, and then the vacant property at the northeast corner of this is Lambert Lane that kind of loops around.

That property is currently vacant.

It was approved for the construction of a gas station, Thornton Gas Station.

However, we have been notified that Thornton's has walked away from that development.

The property owner, however, is still trying to find a developer that will construct a gas station on the site.

And we do anticipate that at some point in the future, a gas station would be uh would be proposed on the site again.

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

The property is subject to a 1967 consent decree or a court order that was issued by the Cook County Circuit Court.

That court order has been amended, I believe, a couple times since it was enacted.

And the intent of that quarter was to limit the intensity of industrial uses on the property and to ensure a buffer for Sherwood Oaks subdivision that is to the north.

The court order specifically prohibits residential uses, and the applicant will have to petition the court to either amend that uh consent decree or nullify it altogether to be able to construct the proposed development should it be approved by the city.

So the applicant is proposing a mixed residential and religious development on the subject property.

You may recall seeing this project and this proposal back in June.

We did previously receive a petition for a similar type of project back in 24.

It finally made its way to planning and zoning commission in June.

And at that time, the planning and zoning commission uh recommended the denial of the project.

Following the planning and zoning commission, the applicant has uh decided to modify the project, and the proposal that they came up with is in front of you tonight.

This is a substantially different application from the one before, and therefore requires uh a renewed process and a public hearing through the planning and zoning commission.

The previous application included a 231,000 square foot temple facility that included a worship center, a community center, and a recreation center.

That facility was going to be 125 feet total in height.

The proposal also included a four-story 81 unit multifamily building on the north end of the site, 38 townhomes along the east property line in six separate buildings, and then 823 parking spaces throughout the site, plus an additional 461 parking spaces that were land banked to be constructed in the future, should they ever be needed, that would have been that would have brought the total to 1,284 parking spaces.

And then a stormwater detention facility was proposed on the north end.

The current proposal in front of you tonight is construction of a temple facility that would be 86,000 square feet with a worship center and a community center.

This building would be 90 feet high at the top with a five-foot flagpole on top of that.

33 townhomes, again along the east property line in five separate buildings.

Generally on the north and west side of the temple.

A 1,000 square foot accessory structure or gazebo, right in this location.

The stormwater detention facilities in the same location as before, and a new sort of eight-acre private outdoor recreation open space.

However, that connection would be gated.

There will be no access to general public.

Typical prayer services occur Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m.

to 12 p.m.

And 3.45 p.m.

to about 7 p.m.

The typical attendance during those times is only 15 to 25 persons in the morning and about 20 to 30 persons in the evening.

The typical attendance is in the evenings is 400 people.

The typical daily attendance for those Sunday services is 800 persons.

Then there's a special once per year Hindu New Year service celebration that happens in fall, with a maximum total daily attendance of approximately 2900 persons, so 2,900.

The maximum attendance at any one point during the day on that New Year's New Year's holiday is approximately 965 persons.

I'm gonna numb tri festival, and I apologize for misspelling that happens 30 days prior to the Hindu New Year, and that is daily, so uh for nine days before the festival.

So it's daily from 7 p.m.

to 9 p.m.

with a maximum of 300 persons each day.

I mentioned that the facility would also be used for various types of celebrations and special events.

One of the conditions in the in the back of the packet uh includes a suggestion or a condition that those special events do not take place on Sundays and on any of these special holidays.

This is the floor plan for the temple and includes about a uh 16,000 square foot worship center and about a 71,000 square foot remainder of the building that includes the the kitchen, the dining room, the uh the community event space and other miscellaneous areas.

Uh these are the elevations for the temple.

As I mentioned, the peak height of the temple is 90 feet, plus the full the five foot flag on top of that.

The majority of the building is about 40 feet high.

Then here are the north and south elevation, north on the top, and then the south one on the bottom.

Here are the proposed town homes.

The townhomes uh more details on the townhomes would be expected to be submitted uh in the future.

Uh if this application is approved, it's worth noting, if this application is approved and the consent decree is approved, the applicant will have to come back for a uh a separate zoning application for the for the approval of the final platform, more detailed engineering drawings, landscaping drawings, architectural drawings for these buildings would be submitted.

These townhomes would have to uh comply with the City of Elgin's design guidelines for residential or residential buildings.

Okay, so parking and traffic management.

So the applicant has submitted a parking and traffic study.

It's in your packet.

Um it was submitted a similar traffic study was submitted with the first application, and they've obviously updated that to reflect the new proposal.

I'm gonna touch on the parking uh requirements and proposal first.

So the proposed development meets the parking requirements of the city.

The townhomes require four parking spaces per unit, and that's what they're providing, two in the garage and two in the driveway in front of it.

The proposed temple facilities required to have a total of 518 parking spaces based on the total occupancy, I should say maximum occupancy of the facility, which is 2025, and then based on the number of employees and volunteers.

So the total of 518 parking spaces required, uh they're proposing 536 parking spaces, which obviously satisfies that requirement.

The study, however, goes into further detail about uh the anticipated parking demand of the facility at different times of the day and and different types of the week and the year.

They've compared the uh the operations of this facility to three other similar temples in the in the general area, one in West Chicago, one in Bartlett's, that's the the most known one, uh, I think it's called BAPS on off of Route 59, and then the one in Itasca.

Based on observations at those other facilities, the applicant's traffic consultant has determined that uh an average occupancy per vehicle is 2.68 persons per vehicle.

So, based on the anticipated peak attendance during the midday on a New Year's holiday, when they anticipate about 965 people to be at the center at the same time, and based on 2.68 persons per vehicle, that generates 361 parking spaces.

Again, demand for 361 parking spaces at the peak on a New Year's holiday.

Now, in regards to the traffic management, so the traffic study in its analysis assumes that the improvements to the intersection of Route 20 and Lambert Lane that were contemplated as part of the gas station would be completed.

As I mentioned, we've been notified that the Thornton's gas station that was approved is not moving forward.

We, however, do anticipate that a new gas station would come in.

Regardless, if this temple project is approved and construction commences before a gas station development at Lambert and Route 20, this development will have to complete those unticipated roadway improvements to that intersection of Lambert and Route 20.

What are those improvements include?

One is restriping of Lambert Lane southbound to accommodate a designated right turn lane, a designated through lane, and a designated left turn lane.

The southbound right turn lane on Lambert Lane would be adjusted to overlap with the left turns eastbound and westbound on Route 20.

Route 20's left turn on green arrow only, so the traffic signal will be adjusted so that left turn is only during the left turn signal.

And then the route Route 20 eastbound stacking for the left turn lane, that storage would be extended by approximately 100 feet.

So those improvements would have to be completed by this development should it happen before any get gas station at the northeast corner of Lambert and Route 20.

So the traffic study estimated the peak part peak traffic demand at this facility during generally during the midday on New Year's holiday.

And that's based on the observations at the other area temples.

So that peak time during the midday between 1 p.m.

and 2 p.m.

does not coincide with the peak hour of traffic on surrounding roadways, but that generally happens in the morning or in the afternoon.

For the special Sunday services, the peak happens in the late afternoon, which is also obviously does not coincide with the peak hours of the traffic that happens during the week, during the morning rush hour, and then the evening rush hour.

To manage traffic during the busiest times, so the special service Sundays, the nine-day festival prior to the New Year's holiday or New Year's holiday, the applicant is proposing a traffic and parking management plan that's generally indicated here on the on the slide.

Essentially, what this plan proposes is that all so any track all traffic coming into the site would obviously utilize either Lambert Lane entrance or Hiller Drive, which is a right in right out only.

But all exit or vehicles that are exiting the site would be directed on Hiller Drive to the right in and right out driveway, so they would only make uh a westbound movements on Route 20.

So all traffic leaving the facility would have to travel westbound.

Any traffic leaving the Oprah subdivision would be directed to Lambert Lane Light.

So the traffic leaving the temple facility and any traffic leaving Oak Ridge subdivision would be separated.

There would be volunteers stationed at at various sites throughout the property to direct traffic in the right directions.

One of the other conditions in the in the report is that the applicant will have to implement and coordinate with the Elder Police Department to uh to hire the police officers as needed to direct traffic.

The Elger Police Department does that uh for other religious facilities on the far west side.

I believe there's a couple churches that do that, and there's also one on Randall Road down in St.

Charles.

Uh so our police officers assist with that traffic as well.

So our uh the traffic management division does have experience managing traffic during the the busiest times.

Again, that will be you the traffic management plan will be utilized during the eighth special Sundays on the new year holiday, and then the nine-day festival prior to that holiday.

The traffic and parking study, and I'll let the applicant probably address that.

They it also includes a comparison of the proposed development to what could also be constructed here under current zoning uh regulations for the general industrial that would comply with the consent decree as well.

Um that would be a light industrial development that would uh far exceed the the trip generation of the proposed temple facility.

Uh the the applicant, the traffic study also includes a comparison to a similar similar type of residential development similar to the Oak Ridge subdivision.

Again, residential uses are not allowed currently based on the consent decree, but the uh the traffic study includes that comparison.

Uh the Oak Ridge subdivision includes about 138 residential units.

The traffic and parking study had compared that to if the if 84 townhomes and 50 single family homes were built on this site, that's about 134.

And the uh the traffic generated by that type of residential development would also exceed the projected traffic from the temple during the uh morning and evening rush hours during the week, uh, but less on Sundays, obviously, uh prior and after the Sunday services.

The proposal is uh requires to meet these departures.

Uh I'm gonna summarize them quickly.

The accessory structure gazebo that was shown on the plan is generally located in the street yard south of the temple.

Uh such structures are only allowed in the side and rear yards.

Because the Gulf Boulevard extension is a private road that that requ then necessitates or or there's a transition landscape yard requirement for the temple lot because of that, and that's the transition between the temple lot and the town home lots.

If that private road was a was a public road, that would obviously not be applicable.

But that transition landscape yard is as it stands right now required to be 45 feet because of the private road, that ends up being only about 15 feet between the road and the property lines of the townhomes.

The density for the the townhomes is based on the general lot sizes that are proposed for the townhomes.

So based on the the five lots for the townhomes, the maximum number of units there would be 30.

Um they're proposing 33 townhomes.

Same with the building floor area and the building coverage that's based on the proposed lot area of each lot for the townhomes.

Uh generally about 31% of a lot area can be covered or can have uh a building floor area for the townhomes.

All of the lots that are proposed exceed the permissible building floor area based on the lot size proposed.

And then similarly for the building coverage, about 27% of each lot can be covered with buildings.

All five lots exceed that.

Um and I've listed here the ones that exceed that by most.

The proposal is required to meet the standards for map amendments and the standards for planned developments.

Um I'm not gonna go into that, but all all of all of this the staff's analysis of all of these standards is provided in the packet, and we do believe that all applicable standards are satisfied, and therefore staff recommends approval subject to the conditions outlined in the packet.

And again, I'll summarize some of the conditions that are listed in our packet.

One is is that uh additional trees need to be saved at the northeast corner of the site adjacent to the single family homes in Oak Ridge subdivision.

No special events, such as weddings or other types of celebrations can be scheduled on Sundays, New Year's Day and the during the nine-day festival prior to the new year holiday.

Again, Lambert Lane and Route 20 intersection improvements will have to be done.

And the traffic and parking management plan will have to have to be implemented with a review and and recommendations as determined by the City of Elgen's police department.

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

The applicant's teams here can address as well.

All right, thank you.

Um I will start on my left with Commissioner Brumell.

Any questions for staff uh Commissioner Jones?

I was reading through some of these extras that were up here on the dice.

Um somebody's mentioning that that consent decree that was amended in 2005.

Is that the original construction of this subdivision, the residential subdivision right adjacent to it?

Could be, I'm not certain.

That could be, yes.

But the consent decree affects more than just the subject property, includes properties west of the railroad as well as you know, these properties included the subject property east of the railroad.

Okay, and there has been amendments made to that along the way.

That is correct.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions, Commissioner Jones?

No.

Okay.

Commissioner Bally.

Um you mentioned the Hindu New Year.

Just to confirm, on the report it says maximum total daily attendance.

But is the new year just one day?

I'm sorry for my ignorance on that, but it sounds like it's one day.

That's probably directly best for the applicant, but our understanding is that the celebration happens on one day.

Okay.

All right.

And then um, I don't know if you could go back to where Gulf Boulevard gate is going to be where you close it off.

Is that between the townhouse entrance and their area?

So the entrance to the development, there will be no gate.

That's at the southeast corner here.

That's the extension of Gulf Boulevard.

So this private road that connects the persimmon lane at the northeast corner of the site, there would be a gate here, so that there's no access to the subdivision on this end.

So it will be only for the fire department.

So their entrance is either there's two ways they could get in from 20.

No.

Well, yes, you're correct.

Yes.

The entrance to the site, and this is probably best seen here.

So there is full traffic light here, Lambert and Route 20.

Then one can kind of go here.

But the main entrance is is sort of west of Hiller Drive.

There's Hillard Drive has a right-in-write off Route 20.

But Galt Boulevard starts here on Hiller Drive, and so there's really no roadway right now, but they would extend any, you know, the roadway from Hiller Drive into the site and up here.

Okay.

And then just to confirm the people who live back there, they still have those two ways to enter as well.

Yeah.

Okay.

No changes are proposed to the existing entrances.

Okay.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

You're welcome.

Commissioner Olson.

Uh I might have missed it or it may not have been included.

Do we have an approximate square footage of each town home unit?

Yes.

Give me one second.

That was on your on this on the drawings.

It's about 2,000 square feet or so just over that.

And they're all the same.

Let me see here.

Looks like 2,165 square feet per unit.

Okay.

No other questions.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Commissioner Gasco.

No questions.

I don't have any questions.

I appreciate staff the distinction between the consent decree and the standards that we're reviewing tonight, so I appreciate that.

With that, um I'll invite the applicant to come forward.

All right, if you could state your name and then uh share your thoughts.

Uh Commissioners, uh, it's a pleasure to be here this evening.

My name is Peter Bezos, BAZOS.

I'm an attorney in Elgin.

I am representing the uh petitioner, the Umaya Mata G Santha, Chicago uh Midwest Temple.

Um here with me this evening, and you just raise your hand so the commissioners can see who you are, is uh Mr.

David Patel, Chairman of the Temple's board, um Mr.

JP Patel, the temple's president, then Mr.

Chuck Hanlon, our uh uh professional land planner, Ms.

Lynn Means, a senior transportation engineer from BLA Inc.

Um, and Mr.

Michael Merchill, who is a religious advisor uh with headquarters here in Illinois.

And finally, and not last but not least, our civil engineer, Mr.

Takor Patel.

As per usual, uh the staff, Demir is uh give you a very thorough presentation.

We're gonna try not to belabor things too much.

But by way of background, I've been working with this temple group since October of 2021 when they approached me about acquiring this 34-acre uh parcel of land for their uh temple.

Uh since 2023, we've been working in uh on regular basis with the uh planning and zoning staff and have met many times with Mark and Demir.

Um in fact, this site plan has been revised multiple times and contains you know many many of the changes that staff has recommended, and some that you'll see tonight that we took the initiative to do ourselves.

Um October of 2023, the uh Hindu Temple purchased the property from Mr.

Jack Sorns and the owner.

Um in July of 2024, we filed our uh we filed our petition with uh with the city, and then um almost 11 months later, well, 11 months in fact, on June 2nd, we had a public hearing before this plan commission, and I know some of you were commissioners then.

And as Demir indicated, um the that uh the plan commission in in uh June of this year recommended or did not recommend approval.

Um it was to us um seemingly the driving uh concern of the plan commission then, as one of the commissioners had uh verbalized it, that the project was so large that it seemed to be putting 10 pounds of development in a five-pound bag.

Although I explained to my client after that June uh Plan Commission meeting that you know, gee, we wish we had gotten a recommendation of approval, but the city council is free to do what it wishes.

The temple said no, uh let's let's uh listen to what we heard.

Let's go back and see if we can't redraw our project.

Um so that's what's before you tonight is the redrawn project, and I would observe again, and Demir just said it a minute ago that staff has again recommended approval like it did on the first project.

I don't think I've ever seen a petitioner voluntarily reduce the scope of its project as much as has been done on this new project, and Chuck Hanlon will explain that to you.

Um November 17th, so let's call it two and a half weeks ago.

We uh at the encouragement of the staff, we scheduled a meeting with the shore uh the the Sherwood Oaks and the Oak Ridge neighbors, and we held that at the uh recenter to uh introduce them to this smaller project that uh you know that they weren't aware of.

So, with that as background, with your permission, we'd like to have uh Chuck Hanlon address you and explain the site plan in a little bit greater detail, especially the comparison of the larger one that was before you in June to the smaller one here.

Then our traffic engineer Lynn Means will address not only parking but traffic.

Uh and finally, our religious consultant, Mr.

Mershall will address you.

Mr.

Tacor Patel, our civil engineer is here to answer any questions if you have any about utilities and drainage.

And then I'd like to uh kind of do a quick wrap-up and we can uh then respond to any questions you have after uh you after that or at the end of the presentation, if that's okay, Mr.

Chairman.

I in other words, I it although you're free to ask your questions at any time.

It would might make more sense if you kind of heard both Chuck and Lynn Means, but uh with that I'll turn it over to Chuck where we go.

There it is.

Yep, that sounds good.

We'll reserve questions to until everyone has uh on your team as presented, so appreciate it.

Uh thank you, Peter.

Again, Chuck Hanlon with JSTA Professional Services, uh Planning and Engineering Firm located in Wisconsin.

Uh if you can go forward, please to the uh zoning.

So uh some of this will be could be redundant uh to Demir's presentation, certainly, but uh just to hit on some of these points uh again.

Certainly, the existing zoning is as we know now is is general industrial for the predominant portion of the property with the community facility band of green space and storm out of management area that's uh the in the northern band of the property.

Uh existing zoning adjacent is certainly PSFR two single family PMFR uh multiple family development, a little bit of uh CF development of course neighborhood business when you get down to Route 20.

Uh our proposed zoning, uh which is on the right, predominant zoning of the property as we have proposed it would be planned community uh facility with a band of planned multiple family uh residential, which is a butting the existing uh PMFR that's on the existing uh property where they have town homes as well.

And a little bit later I'll show you some of the lot size uh comparison.

So again, for the most part, uh planned community facilities, and we are butting uh attached townhomes against existing attached townhomes on on the uh parcel next door.

Can you go forward, please?

The existing uh land uses as as proposed on Elton land use maps again is to the northern part of the property, single family residential and attached uh product below for attached uh single family, which is exactly what we're proposing.

Uh we obviously do not are not proposing single family residential to the north.

Most of that land as we go forward, you'll see is actually in open space adjacent to the existing single family homes uh to the north as well in the neighboring development.

Go forward, please.

This is looking at a map of obviously a broader Belgian, and we could have added more, but we just selected about 12 locations where there certainly is a precedent of blending in religious facilities in and amongst adjacent to and embedded in residential neighborhoods.

The center city is called out in the red square.

Didn't try to identify uses there because there are, as we all know, historically and there continues to be religious facilities embedded, really this the central part of these historic neighborhoods, but there's a lot of existing resident religious facilities embedded in those neighborhoods as well.

But that is occurring and has continued to occur going out of the center city over time, all the way to the far west area, and really in every direction of the city.

We continue in new development to blend the religious facilities into residential neighborhoods.

So setting somewhat of a precedent, we believe, to continue that again.

If you want to go forward, please.

One in particular that I had experienced back in 2005, this property was annexed and zoned at that time.

That's where the Westridge community church is located.

And in that case, we started with 25 acres.

All that was on the property was open land, some wooded areas, and one single family home on that property.

As the property broke down into very similar land uses that we are proposing for the temple project this evening.

PMFR, PCF, planning community facilities, and planned multiple family residential with some adjacent open space.

So this again, just one just drilling down into one example where there was raw land.

We created something very similar to what we are proposing, very compatible with the area in this case, and the same mix of land uses in this property centered around the Westridge Community Church.

Go forward, please.

Looking at an aerial of the subject property, kind of with Route 20 in the foreground.

We vote kind of concluding some of those remarks that we are seeing a compatible compatibility with the local zoning that historically has been used all the way from the center city out to new development areas within Elgin.

Strong land use transition.

It might be better to say just a an appropriate land use transition, again, putting light kind residential adjacent to light kind residential.

Local precedent, as we've confirmed, and proven experience with the case studies and all these developments that this can be very compatible to work the religious facilities into a residential neighborhood.

Final opinion on that would be that the proposed application is appropriate, well planned and compatible use of the site.

To hit some of the numbers, uh Demir already mentioned some of these numbers, but again the previous development plan had the temple complex with a condominium structure.

As previously mentioned, that condominium structure has been completely removed.

That was a four-story 81-unit building with additional parking.

That parking field that is on the east side, uh east of the condominium structure is not just for the condominiums.

That was also because of the larger temple complex that was part of the previous proposal.

So if you go to the right image, you now see a temple complex greatly reduced.

It's about 63% reduction, so 37% by simple math of the previous proposal in terms of the square footage of this new temple complex and the condominium structure is obviously gone.

In that area, it's been replaced with a six slightly over six-acre recreation area for the property that would be utilized by folks that are visiting the property alone for the most part.

So with uh persimmon closed off, that area would not be accessible to the public.

Just to illustrate further the kind of the fields of parking that was part of the previous proposal.

Starting with the land bank area, that was due to the larger size of the previous temple complex where we were land banking in case that parking exceeded what we were proposing.

In this case, the land bank is not necessary based on the reduced size.

And the field of parking, as you see on the right image, is greatly reduced.

Again, Demir went through the same numbers, but from 823 spaces on the left, not including the land bank, which would have taken it up to 1284 down to 536 parking spaces.

So again, that's 65% of the spaces that we were proposing before, or a 35% reduction in the field of parking.

Can you go forward, please?

That translates also to in the previous proposal, we had seven total acres of undeveloped land, whether it was parking or buildings or heartscape, the townhomes, the townhome driveways, and et cetera, translating to seven acres of open space or green space in the previous proposal.

That has now gone up by threefold.

We have 21 acres of area that is in green space, stormwater management, recreation, passive backyards, front yards of townhomes, and et cetera.

So again, from seven acres of green space to 21 acres of green space within the 40, I'm sorry, the 34 acre proposed development area.

You're also seeing if we go, well, we'll stay on the slide for just a second.

I wanted to mention with the with the breakdown of the temple structure and what's inside, just generally just three areas.

So there's a there's a prayer hall at about 15,300 square feet.

Uh, there's a dining uh area and a kitchen at about 16,900 square feet, breaking down the 86,000 in a community hall of about 43,000 square feet with some ancillary uses, offices, storage, and mechanical spaces of another 10,500 square feet that gets you up to the total 86,000 square feet.

So I thought it would be helpful to understand just the the breakdown.

It's not just one large temple or prayer hall inside the building.

There's certain breakdown uh between these spaces.

So just to illustrate that along with the additional green space.

Uh the next slide you could skip over was inadvertently.

Oh, you did.

Thank you.

Um the height comparison as well.

Uh previously, the top of the flagpole was at 150 feet, the Shikara top was 125 feet.

Uh now the top of the flagpole is at 95 feet, and the top of the Shikara is 90 feet.

So not only as you can kind of see in the silhouette image, is it a reduction in the height?

It's really just a reduction in the overall mass of the building and those elevated areas above the 40-foot parapet wall.

That is one thing that is consistent.

It's a it's a two-story building with a 40-foot uh tall parapet.

That has not changed since the uh previous submitting.

Um there is some uh commentary about that in the consent decree, but the 40 feet is actually for what it's worth the same height, I believe, as the general industrial uh would allow for in the current zoning of the property.

Although we have a much smaller area that relative to the distance of the width of the property.

If you can go forward, please.

Thanks.

Um again, uh Demir mentioned this.

We have a reduction of one building with the townhomes and a reduction of five units from the previous uh proposal.

Uh if you can go forward again, please.

Uh I think what I'd like to uh point out also these lot sizes uh across uh the middle of the page, the typical lots, the one on the left is actually what's uh required uh by Algin.

The Oak Ridge subdivision, which is the uh the next one, uh second one, did receive actually variances to decrease both the front yard uh and the rear yard from 30 feet to 25 feet in the front and from 50 to 25 feet in the rear.

Uh our previous, and I will I will mention as a footnote, it's just from our observances without trying to measure by a survey level, uh, but I I believe the Oak Ridge subdivision actual rear yards are closer to 30 feet, even though they were approved for 25 feet, they seem to be closer to 35 feet, the best that we can measure without survey level.

Our previous plan, we proposed a 25-foot front yard, and we proposed a 40 foot rear yard in the townhome lots.

In our current proposed plan, we are proposing uh 30-foot front yard, so we've increased that five feet over our previous middle and five feet over uh what Oak Ridge Sow Division has in their townhomes.

We're also proposing a 50-foot rear yard uh that's uh compatible with the Elgin requirements, but we really increased it based on comments we heard at the previous hearing about saving existing trees.

Uh we were also proposing a fence back there.

We've eliminated the fence so we don't have the difficulty of trying to remove trees just to put a fence on a straight line.

That was another comment that uh that had come up.

So we're I think greatly increasing that buffer there that will save existing trees and other vegetation, just put a greater distance, obviously, from backdoor, you know, deck to deck uh in the rear yards of existing townhomes compared to the proposed townhomes.

So with the about 30 feet, we believe is close to what's been constructed, an oak ridge and our 50 feet.

Uh that puts you about 80 feet from structure to structure, uh, rear yard to rear yard from existing and proposed attached residential.

Go for it, thank you.

Um final comment uh from the land use perspective is that uh we believe the religious mission, the mixed use development as proposed the PUD has now been downsized and adjusted, uh is very compatible and will fit this uh this area in this neighborhood.

Uh and in conclusion, to just uh mention that um there is a religious land use and institutionalized uh persons act uh which exists which is uh should also reinforce the idea of the compatibility of the religious institution embedded and becoming part of an adjacent to uh residential uses.

So we would uh greatly ask for your consideration uh of a positive motion on the development as we've now downsized it and are proposing this evening.

Uh that said our traffic means we have to hi, good evening.

Uh, my name is Lynn Means.

I'm a senior transportation engineer with BLA 333 Pierce Road Um Suite 200 in Itasca, Illinois.

Um Demir did a great job going over the traffic and parking study, but just to maybe give a couple quick highlights to what our traffic study included.

Um it included peak hour traffic counts during weekday morning, weekday evening peak periods, as well as Sunday afternoon and evening, coinciding with the typical Sunday pre and post um service peaks of traffic.

Um we also reviewed historical traffic counts on the adjacent street roadways just to make sure that no adjustments to the existing counts were needed based on pre and post um code um COVID traffic conditions, and we found that our traffic volumes that we collected to be above average conditions.

Um we also reviewed historical IDOT crash data along the study area roadways and intersections for the last five years, um, as well as their safety tier information.

Um, IDOT does uh safety tier previously in 2020, they had a five-tier system that went from critical to minimal in this area in general was considered critical.

Um they reevaluated that and included some local safety tier information in 2024.

Um so we looked at that information as well, and just for a frame of reference, Shales Parkway to the west at um US 20 is classified as high.

Um at Lambert Lane, that intersectionalized intersection is medium, and further to the east at Naperville Road is low.

So now they have a three-tier system of high, medium, and low.

And those systems pretty much regulate where safety improvements um should be necessary necessitated to give priority to um projects where the greatest um need is.

So we also then, as part of future conditions, looked at general growth within the study area, um coordinating with CMAP to get a general background growth, considering general socioeconomical growth within the area on the roadways.

We project out to a five-year build-out consistent with IDOT guidelines since US Route 20 is an IDOT roadway.

Um we also looked at plan developments in the area.

Um at the time we did include the um Thornton's gas station since that was still contemplated as um as uh as a future um development in the area, um, as well as looking at roadway improvement projects.

And as you're aware IDOT has an improvement project to improve safety and traffic operations on US Route 20 at Shales Parkway, which considers a grade separation.

They have a preferred alternative, which includes some roundabouts that's still in the development stages, as well as along Route 20 to the east, they included barrier median.

So the right-in right out that's at Hillard that would have a barrier median, which would further protect folks from not turning left either in and out of that access, as well as the signalized intersections to include those protected left turn movements.

Now obviously whatever comes first, Thornton's this development, the IDOT improvements, though that's where some of those improvements would recommend be implemented in place.

So those left-turn protected signals, turn movements, the lengthening of the eastbound left turn lane, and then the restriping of the southbound Lambert lane to provide that left through right and the southbound right overlap and retiming of the signals.

We again generated future traffic volume for this development, looking at the Institute of Transportation Engineers Trip Generation Manual.

However, temple uses are not included in that manual.

So we did reference and collect historical data from three existing temples from traffic and parking, generated traffic generation for each use based on attendance as well as that vehicle occupancy, use the highest on rate observed to be conservative, and then assess future traffic conditions to make recommendations regarding traffic and parking operations.

Just to briefly conclude, our traffic analysis had found that this particular development during typical weekday and midweek week, I'm sorry.

Typical weekday traffic operations as well as Sunday typical operations would generate between about one to four percent additional traffic through the US Route 20 and Lambert Lane intersection.

Just for a frame of reference, volumes typically in general fluctuate about 10% on any given weekday.

So those volumes are very relatively low and will not materially impact the operations of the adjacent street traffic.

Therefore those traffic volumes can be accommodated with the recommendations that were previously described, as well as the implementation of the traffic and parking management plan.

Just to briefly go over that traffic and parking management plan.

Again, there'll be staff positioned throughout the site to help facilitate and manage traffic and parking, as well as the use of police detail as needed to facilitate traffic within the public right-of-way.

So they will have a direct liaison between the police and the city staff to make sure that the plan is implemented, followed through, re-evaluated, as well as the appropriate number of staff personnel is hired.

So that way adequate detail can be provided for safe and traffic and parking movements both on and off-site.

There will be priority at Hillard and Galt for the residential folks when they come to that southbound approach to Hillard to Hillard and Galt staff andor police would be there to help facilitate so that way they would hold the temple traffic so that way the residential traffic has priority to then proceed as needed.

And again, that coordinator would have proper safety training going through OSHA, you know, flagging and training that you're not going to get, you know, random people there.

They will be staffed and trained, and the plan followed as protocol.

Um and then again, just to briefly go over, we did um perform just for information purposes only.

There is no plan for residential or industrial on this property, but just for comparison purposes only, just to get an idea if this develop if this parcel was developed as um industrial and or residential.

We compare the temple traffic to um what it could be if it was residential or industrial, and during your typical weekday, both um the residential and industrial would generate more traffic.

Um, Sunday, the industrial is fairly split between ins and outs, um, and then the temple would generate more traffic on a on a Sunday than residential use.

Um, we did just for your information purposes for those that may have been here or not um been here at the last uh meeting regarding the proposed um previous use and this use.

We did a traffic comparison, as you could see from the previous testimony, the development size had been significantly reduced.

But what does that mean from traffic from the former use during your typical weekdays about 35 to 40 percent less traffic, and on your typical Sunday, about 10 to 15 percent fewer um vehicle trips.

Again, that's one fewer vehicle every one to two minutes at those study area intersections by this reduction.

And then on your Hindu New Year, um, what this decrease means in size, about 30 to 50 percent fewer trips during those peak hours than the former use.

Um, and I'm available to address um any additional questions or comments that you may have.

Thank you.

And lastly, Mike Herschel.

Good evening.

Uh Michael Mershall, M U R S C H E L, Elgin resident.

Uh, thank you for offering me this time this evening to address you regarding some pretty specific items uh about this proposal.

Uh a little bit about me.

I'm a professional religion consultant, uh, forensic theologian, commissioned spiritual director and author.

I'm in private practice here in Elgin, and I've been in that role for many, many years.

My wife is a third generation Elginite, uh, and our grandson now marks the fifth generation of people investing themselves in this place.

Some of you may remember me from my 25-year role as religion writer with the Elgin Courier News and the Daily Herald.

My membership in the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce spans three uh three decades.

I'm a member of Searle, the Coalition of Elgin religious leaders, which is a long-standing religion uh organization representing a host of religious traditions in this area.

I'm an act, I'm an active member of St.

Thomas Moore Catholic Church over here on uh Elgin's West Side.

I hold an associate of arts degree from Elgin Community College, a bachelor's degree in communications with extensive classical and medieval studies from Northwestern University, a master's degree in theology and pastoral care from Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and I have been a professional religion and culture trend watcher for a very long time.

Through that, I've come to relate to about uh 25 different religion religious traditions.

I could not have asked for a better place than right here in Elgin to headquarter my religion consulting practice.

The historical DNA of religion in this area infuses the very air we breathe and blankets our community in one of them in one of mutual understanding sharing and religious tolerance.

Elgin began weaving its tapestry of religious involvement from its very beginning.

This place is appropriately nicknamed the city of churches.

Perhaps that's better nuanced nowadays as the city of faiths.

Within our boundaries are more than 100, 100 houses of worship from a host of American and global traditions representing just about every flavor of Christianity you can imagine and tradition traditions such as Baha'i, Buddhist, Druid, Hindu, Islam, Jain, Judaism, Sikh, Wicca, and Zoroastrianism.

This community culture right here respects and reveres sacred space.

Elgin has the unique distinction of never ever having a religious house of worship become a restaurant or an antique shop or a private residence, with the exception of one brief excursion of a house of worship into a warehouse, and that was quickly retrieved and brought back into its role as a house of worship.

This all traces back to almost two centuries ago when James T.

Gifford, who along with his brother Hezekiah founded Elgin in April of 1835.

It was James who made it a point to donate land within the bounds of this new town, specifically to churches, thereby encouraging them to come to Elgin, and their wise acceptance of that invitation ultimately contributed hugely to the rich diversity of religions which anchor the culture of our community.

Mr.

Hanlin alluded to the practice of embedding houses of worship in neighborhoods.

That's a very long-standing practice in this nation.

Over the years, numerous subdivision developers have set aside land for houses of worship, specifically because they believed that those would anchor the community provide peacefulness, a calm attitude within the community, and a stabilizing factor.

All of these have been represented across this nation.

Now understand this.

This isn't just my opinion.

This is data which is informed by prestigious religion and cultural interfaith and interconfessional authorities, such as the Pew Research Center, the Barna Group, Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions, the Parliament of World Religions, and the Theos think Tank amongst others.

Mention has been made of housing being built around the temple site.

This is a tradition which members of Hindu temples have to live in close proximity to the temple for the convenience it provides for worship as well as to their community hub.

Such close proximity also reduces, as has been mentioned, car traffic to and from, and has the added benefit of stakeholders living nearby for the ongoing care of the temple site.

There's an inherent quietness about Hindu temples.

This is after all sacred space, and distractions are discouraged in order to allow personal space for meditation and prayer.

The Hindu temples in this area, and there are many of them, are eloquent expressions of their cosmology and their theology.

And of course, they look different from churches because the tradition is different.

The expression of deity theology and cosmology is different.

So, of course, they're going to manifest themselves in different ways, but very eloquent poetic ways.

These temples, these mandir, if you will, being the Sanskrit word for Hindu places of worship, are graceful in form and spirit.

They use what we in the service of God call vertical theology, where in the height of the highest point of the temple reflects the aspirations of the spirituality of its community.

It's the same way with a steeple or a dome on a church in Christendom, all pointing toward that something higher, that heaven, that throne of God, that something beyond our realm of existence here in this world.

The central tower, this Shakira of the Mandir, is situated above the central shrine, much like a Catholic church often has a dome over the crossing where the transept and the nave and the chancel come together.

It marks that as very sacred space, and in Hindu architecture, it represents the sacred mountain peak, and as such represents the sacred Mount Maru, the legendary golden mountain standing in the middle of the universe and the axis of the world.

Far from disrupting the flow of energy of nature, the Hindu temple is a reflection of the interconnectedness of everything, the physical and the spiritual landscape, and the personal embodiment of that.

Hindu temples are designed to harmonize with nature.

The practices and the rituals affirm their connection to this by enhancing the natural environment.

Their centers highlighting ecological awareness and stewardship of the natural world in a responsible way.

And the temple, as well as every other house of worship and expression of faith in this community, enhances and adds to the value of the religious capital of this community.

Think of religious capital as the investment of personal and organizational spirituality, time and physical work involved with religious faith, which enrich the total environment of our community and everyone and everything that calls Elgin home.

Hinduism is a very personal religion and faith lived out by its devotees faithfully, respectfully, reverently, with high regard for neighbors and the neighborhood they have seen as a worthy setting for their faith.

This isn't about anyone taking anything from anyone else.

Rather, it's about what we can give each other in light of that divine light embodied in every house of worship.

Seeing the divine and all, finding God within everyone.

This is the very essence of that Sanskrit reading Namaste, which may be interpreted as the divine in me recognizes the divine in me, or the best in me recognizes the best in you.

This invites us to live to the into the best that we can be for ourselves, for each other, for our God, however, you choose to name that omnipresence for the rich religious heritage of this place called Elgin, and which we call home.

Therefore, I invite and encourage you to accept this new place of worship.

This religious capital is a gift, as an investment made into our community, which pays itself forward throughout the ages.

This is a vision worth grasping and a reality of lasting beauty and grace, non-mistake.

And thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate the context going forward.

And thank you.

So from a legal perspective, then uh folks, uh the uh the staff report indicates that all the standards for map amendment and special use and plan development have been met.

Uh the staff summary of those is uh pages 14 through 20 of the staff report.

Um the this approval of this project ultimately would get rid of the uh the industrial zoning that it uh exists right here and would result in um uh community facility where the temple would be here, planned community by the way, industrial safety clean others here, and then town homes here adjacent to the Oak Ridge town homes.

This is frankly a classic example of transitional zoning, going from industrial to housing that's compatible with the housing next door.

Um it bears repeating that our prior site plan had uh 27.9 percent open space.

The site plan that we're asking you to approve tonight or recommend approval on is 61 percent.

Um folks, I think we will uh stop there and thank you so much for letting us uh present.

Thank you.

Um I'm gonna start on my very right uh with Commissioner Wally.

Any questions for the applicant?

I do have that question just to clarify on New Year's Day.

Is that one day or is that several days?

One year one day, right?

Yes, one day one day, yes.

Okay.

Um also the recreational area.

What does that have?

What are you doing in that area?

So should we have the court come up and talk about that?

Our engineer is uh is also uh practitioner of this religion and design many temples.

He knows that answer best.

What did they do in the cultural center?

No, no, no.

The open recre that big space outside that you took out the buildings and the condos and all that stuff.

If you could state your name for the court report, please conserve engineers.

Uh due to size, it's about six acres, so we can pretty much do the cricket field, there will be a few walliball courts, ball courts.

We can put anything within these six acres.

That little dotlat in the middle here, too.

Or the kids, young kids.

And the six acres is how far south of the uh of the Sherwood Oaks property line.

By the pond.

At least uh two feet pretty much detention is there between Solrook Orks and the So generally does that mean that it's the people that are going to the temple are going to the recreation area or people coming from outside and going to the recreation area.

And then who are losing this town homes?

Okay.

Inside the subdued.

Okay.

ourselves of the uh of the Sherwood Oaks property one by the pond at least uh the two PPP who pretty much detention is there right between shore rule cokes and these so generally does that mean that it's the people that are going to the temple are going to the recreation area or people coming from outside and going to the recreation area tip temple and then we're losing this town homes okay inside the subdivision okay okay and then just my last question probably to traffic a little bit um did I notice the study the data was from March of 2022 is that what most of that data came from yes the um traffic counts were performed in March of 2022 um that's when we started the traffic impact study um as mentioned we compared obviously since the date of the data um just to make sure that it's valid um since the time has passed from original study um we checked um current available traffic counts from IDOT which were from 2023 um as well as from pre-COVID condition traffic counts um just since traffic has fluctuated over the course of um the years and found that our counts from 2022 were higher both than the 2019 as well as the 2023 um it's not atypical for a traffic study to start um and then for time to it passed before um uh you know before the evaluation to occur um and it's for those purposes that we do forecast out into a five year post build out year so we looked at um an opening year of 2027 and then we projected five years out beyond that so we looked at traffic conditions in a 2032 condition in 20 year 2032 which also considered um about I think it was a point eight percent um compounded annual growth rate to those 2022 volumes as well as considered um traffic specific to Thornton's um those traffic volume projects projections coming in so and we also did not um you know perform additional traffic counts just since the current traffic conditions right now there is some variability just due to the large construction projects that are ongoing on US Route 20 west of the study area what we have found is that um there is some diversion in traffic as a result of those construction projects um so if we can you know consider traffic count new counts right now um I wouldn't expect there to be significant variants um they might be actually lower than the volumes that we used in our study.

All right thank you just a quick quick follow up you mentioned um high medium low the high by shales is that basically number of accidents so the high is not necessarily frequency of crashes it considers also the severity of crashes so you could have a high location um and it also considers the types of roadways so it compares basically similar types of roadways um it looks at like those higher um injury and fatality type crashes those are all considered into the high medium and and low category so you could have like if you had um an unsignalized location that had one fatality at it that's gonna you know jack up that um that safety tier to a high um where it's or you can have vice versa a location that has um a lot of traffic signals may have a high number frequency of rear end type crashes where that may keep it in a low category just because it doesn't have that high of the severity so the levels are not as straightforward it compares basically the classification functional classifications of the roadways and the severities and types of the crashes.

Okay thank you yeah Commissioner Olison uh yeah for traffic before you go back um so you guys talked about the traffic and parking management plan um is that happening basically every Sunday more or less because obviously you have big events that are gonna have over 2,000 people attending but also on average Sundays look to have about 400 cars you know is that something you guys intend on having implemented every Sunday so we would expect that to occur just during those special occasions um your typical weekdays the 400 people in attendance does not equate to 400 cars arriving at one time so we have that 2.67 um persons per vehicle occupancy but you also don't have um the typical arrival and exact start time um as you may have at say you know your traditional um maybe Christian type service that has a set like start time um there is a um I guess random a little more random type of arrival of it over the course of the hour and so that's why we reviewed the historical volumes and found that based on that distribution over the hour that we wouldn't expect that traffic management plan to be needed during typical Sundays it would just be during those special higher attendance events where you would need more regulation of the parking and the traffic and obviously it's something that we did note in the study that should

And so that's why we reviewed the historical volumes and found that based on that distribution over the hour, that we wouldn't expect that traffic management plan to be needed during typical Sundays, it would just be during those special higher attendance events where you would need more regulation of the parking and the traffic.

And obviously, it's something that we did note in the study that should be you know, with that program coordinator and um continue continuous discussion um with the city as well as the police, you know, engineering and police staff to make sure that um if any changes need to be made and or it need to be implemented at different times, they could.

Um I know that there's several religious institutions within the city of Elgin that regardless of um of the need do have um police detail helping to facilitate traffic every week.

So it's something that obviously can be discussed and um managed and implemented as needed.

Okay, yeah, I the only reason I ask is just because even 200 additional cars is not something that neighborhood is used to.

Um I travel through there every day.

I go to that car wash on a regular basis, and sometimes just 20 cars at the car wash is kind of a madhouse dumping out on the route 20.

So that's my only concern.

Yeah, your first note, you know, quick sunny day after the snow, you can thank you.

But uh I I've also attended Westchurch Community Church, which is one of the ones you've guys have mentioned over the last 10 years, and the traffic management they do there has worked really well.

So I'm sure that your guys' program will be effective as well.

So good to hear.

Thank you very much.

No other questions.

Thank you.

Commissioner Gasco.

No questions.

Commissioner Bruble.

Hi.

Um question is for traffic.

Um so this person that they're gonna have manning the gate and and uh directing traffic, will it just be like how many people are they gonna have?

Do this.

So it's more than um we could pull the um possibly the plan back up.

It's more than one person.

Um if you could see on our traffic management um plan where you see all those red, red, red dots on there.

Um, those are staff.

Um and they would fluctuate obviously and move um depending on they could move slightly on the loadings and the unloadings of the person of the traffic coming in and out.

So it's more than one person.

Um we just recommend that there be um a coordinator, um, a person basically like in charge of the staff, so that way there's a point person that can communicate with the city staff and the police as well as um that has kind of oversees the other um staff that is volunteering and um facilitating traffic on site.

Okay, and then as far as the Elgin police department, um how many officers do you have any idea?

So it's uh on typical um weekdays, we we don't expect there to be a need.

Um obviously what part of this process is um for coordinating police detail, um, the coordinator and or um you know other personnel would um meet with the uh Elgin police, they would discuss um what the plan is you know their activities, what they um what the needs are, and from that they would be able to determine um how much staff would be needed.

Um so if there's a staff needed at per se, you know, Galt and Hillard, that's that's one police officer.

Um we wouldn't envision there to be staff on US Route 20 police detail, but if it was determined that police detail was needed, that would dictate that you would need at least two officers out there.

Um, and that would be something that they would need to court, you know, discuss with the police, um, come up with a plan, and then there would be a contract um, you know, to to hire um the police, the police detail um as needed.

And then you mentioned training of these individuals.

Uh, the the coordinator and staff would be appropriate, we would recommend training so that way, just as you know, um like school, you know, if you have you know, you for school, you know, I think like most people are aware of like you know, school staff that's out, you know, at intersections helping facilitate traffic, something similar.

plan and then there would be a contract um you know to to hire um the police the police detail um as needed and then you mentioned training of these individuals uh the the coordinator and staff would be appropriate we recommend training so that way just as you know um like school you know if you have you know you for school you know I think like most people are aware of like you know school staff that's out you know at intersections helping facilitate traffic something similar they have to go um to training um to school OSHA related training um so that way they have the the means and the safety needs to be able to facilitate traffic um both for the um staff of the you know the s the traffic entering and next to the temple as well as for the existing traffic within the neighborhood it's timber to promote um you know safe and efficient traffic flow for for for all okay um and then I I have a question for I don't know who it would be it it's in regards to the um square footage of the temple um what the the square footage of the temple just asked okay yeah the the there was a slide that showed the breakdown of the square footage of the temple uh 43000 square feet of I forgot what part it was yeah you want to find that one please sorry the temple building itself yes the entire building is 8600 square feet and uh get to the paper copy here fast enough um one yeah so we refer to the whole building as a temple complex and some of the breakdown within that uh is the prayer hall the prayer hall area would be 15,300 square feet the dining area with kitchen would be just under 17,000 sixteen nine the community hall which is within the temple uh so that's the current plan if you want to go towards the uh proposed plan is that in the center area that the community hall or is that yeah well this is the that's down home that community uh communities okay yeah and and what was the what would happen in the community hall just an exigeno functions could you repeat that just regular uh religious functions okay usually prayer sunday prior happens in the temple and then they go to Dina nothing happens in the community but there's a if there's a religious function then that happens then okay thank you commissioner jones uh no no questions really but I I just want to um compliment you on the revisions and it's obvious that you heard what was being said at the at the last meeting and the concerns of the neighborhood and it's a very thoughtful resubmission so thank you I echo Commissioner Jones um and I don't have any additional questions um so with that we're going to I've got the sign in sheet here we will go through um the the list um as people have signed up and then once we've gone through the list we will um circle back around and see if anyone didn't sign up on the list um that wants to submit um public comments so um with that um I am going to and please forgive me for any names that I mispronounce um yeah I've got it's on here yeah um with the last name Wildermouth I'm used to it so just please bear bear with me if I mispronounce any name so the first person I want to call up is um Paul Oak Oakmanek good evening everybody um Mr.

Chairman there was a timer last time is three minutes in place or I don't recall not at this not at this juncture if if if we get to if we get to about 10 o'clock 10 30 we might have to start uh rethinking that so my name is Paul Achmonic last name is spelled O C H M A N E K 640 North LaSalle number 495 Chicago Illinois I'm an attorney at the law firm of COVID shift for Nesbitt we serve as corporation counsel to the Oak Ridge Community Association as well as the Oak Ridge Towns Homeowners Association.

So as a matter of candor I'm not an occupant I'm not an owner I'm not a board member I've just been asked to help facilitate the memberslash constituents objections to the grant of the application in short I apologize if I'm reiterating some of the arguments made at the June hearing but I do find them relevant this evening as the members object plainly on the basis of this plan deviating from the overall comprehensive city plan as well as safety health and wellness factors.

That being said, um, again, the traffic study as noted by traffic consultant, we find it being flawed.

It was an admission that it was done during COVID.

However, redone apparently in 2023, but I do not believe it was done prior.

I'm sorry, after the car wash was in place.

So even the most recent data from 2023 is skewed.

Um there has been different slides showing outlines and individuals who are being trained to come in and help move residential vehicles.

But before we even get to that point of a regular vehicle moving throughout the community, there are construction vehicles, there are deliveries, there are materials, there are I-beams, there's support, there's cement, there's foundation, plenty of construction workers.

Looking at Gult Road and Hilliard, those are two-lane roads, and I don't know if a right turn moving eastbound is possible at that juncture.

Those roads might need to be altered to allow for construction vehicles to even gain access.

And then as we look at the plans being resubmitted, um, we feel that IDOT definitely needs to be involved.

Uh prior statement from a commission member, just you know, even noting the car wash itself.

There's been no indication regarding the impact on the street regarding the construction vehicles, the construction workers, and ultimately then leading to the regular residential vehicles moving to and from the temple area.

Um, we find that a blanket approval for these departures is premature.

Prior information from IDOT as well as fire and safety is involved.

As noted on all the drawings, there's only one means of ingress and egress to the temple community, the new development.

The secondary area used only for emergency purposes is allegedly blocked off by a gate.

Well, if it's emergency services, it stands at that gate should not be locked.

We cannot allegedly wait for an emergency responder to find a key to enter that rear area to service a townhome or temple incident.

Therefore, is that gate really secured?

And what I'm getting at is how do we stop and prevent all participants and those residing at the temple development from actually opening up that rear gate themselves and moving through the association community.

The changes to the fence, there was a transition from the prior taller fences, which were soundproof, now they are no longer soundproof.

They're cast, they're iron, they're metal.

This creates noise pollution, it impacts light pollution on those townhomes on the west side.

There's been conversation regarding the church day, and I apologize if I'm using it incorrectly with this religion, but one day of service, and then according to my math, as I was listening and taking notes, there are different holidays every six weeks by my math, and then one major holiday in November.

So it appears that there are large activities going on every month and a half, which is for the temple only.

We didn't hear any study or information regarding the community hall and other church services, with the traffic study and density will be regarding those factors.

And then even as we look at the build out of the process, and I regress for a moment, I apologize.

Um, the final drawing show a change in elevation.

This impacts water infiltration, saturation, which is key, even in today's day and age, because as I pulled into this parking lot, the snow is pushed aside in this parking lot.

There was no information regarding snow removal.

Where is all that snow gonna go and how is that going to impact the parking and parking spaces?

Not only on the one-day ceremony that lasts nine days, but every six weeks, as well as those who are using the community home and the 38 townhome occupants and their guests and deliveries and moves and trash removal.

I don't see speculations and drawings for trash removal.

Where are the deliveries going to go?

And the game plan for a professional to help move traffic throughout the week.

Does that apply through the during the day, peak times, deliveries at night for food, DoorDash, things of that nature?

The factors that we are bringing to the commission's attention, we reiterate that the prior denial should stand, reasoning that many of the issues, although downgraded in scope and size, have not been addressed.

There was a information in the application packet regarding the project being built on donations.

It's unclear whether all donations have been secured to fund the entire project.

The worst case scenario would be for this to start, all donations not be obtained, and then holes be left because the townhomes can't complete be completed, or the temple not be completed.

That would be even worse than it was there currently.

We find that this could potentially cause fire and safety issues, bringing about issues with children in the neighborhood and impact on the community.

We find that this development, even in its modified state, goes well beyond the comprehensive planned that was adopted in 2018.

We find that this is not just a simple variance, but a gross departure from what the city has intended.

For the foregorting reasons, the associations object to the development still on noise, light, traffic congestion, water infiltration and saturation, snow removal, and fence emergency concerns, which then ultimately lead to traffic in the association, which is what we're trying to prevent.

Thank the commission and the staff for their time and their attention to this matter.

That's all I have on behalf of the associations.

Thank you.

All right, thanks so much.

Um next on the list.

Uh first name is Amida.

Uh last name starts with the B.

Looks like uh meet up Bly, I mean a boo.

Yes, that would be, I think that would be correct.

Come on down.

It's yeah, you're I think you're the only Amida on that.

Yeah, well, okay.

Thanks though.

I thought I would sign up.

And then um, while he's up there, I'm gonna start.

We're gonna go the next uh one on deck, one in the hall.

So next up is uh Jessica Astrug, and then Jeremy Carlson.

So go ahead, invite us, yeah.

Yeah, my uh name is spelled Amitab A M I T A B H last name Middle M I T T A L.

Um the growth is going to happen.

The traffic is going to increase.

And this is the same thing I said in June.

Uh the cities are growing, the Cook County is growing, the DuPage County is going, the Cain County is growing.

Um, and if we are afraid of the growth, we're in the wrong place.

Uh, you know, uh simply it's gonna be in a magnificent building that's gonna increase the value of the area, it's gonna increase the name.

Okay.

Uh everyone gets a chance to speak, please know.

Reactions.

I know.

Uh the it's uh, you know, 30 years ago there was nothing here, jungles, most of the time.

Was called uh uh like there's nothing there.

Cornfields, and the most beautiful city, most happening city now, Aurora Napraville area is growing.

Uh the city needs growth.

That's the number one thing that any city needs, and then people are growing.

And uh I feel it is a good fit.

The current location of the Mandir, and as it is, it's just off of 59 and Juliet.

Um in that small place, the entire congregation manages.

I'm not part of this Sunstower, this Mandir at all, but I speak as a fellow Hindu.

The well-managed, I would encourage you to visit that temple and the busiest today and see how they manage the traffic, how everybody behaves, how everybody works together and celebrates their fate.

Uh that would be an example for everyone who's worried about the traffic.

There's a single lane, this only two-way, very tiny road that turns from 59 into the temple area.

They only have one turn into the temple area, and they still manage that magnificently, in my opinion.

And my opinion can be wrong.

There'll be both opponents for that.

Uh, but I encourage you all to visit that Mandir or temple to see and come on the busiest day and see how they manage that temple.

I think it'll bring sanity to the community, even the traffic will be controlled because they will have somebody to manage the traffic that is happening there.

And I'm a resident of Lambert Lane.

I live there 20 years.

Right?

And I'm now my son goes to Elgin School.

I live still in, like my phone says I'm in Elgin, but I live in Bartlett.

Uh and I'm still here.

So I would I would encourage everyone to take a deep breath, think about you know, visit that small temple where they are all congregating today and see they need a place.

See their need.

And they're not, you know, forcing anything, they're redesigning their plans, accommodating and how accommodating and how cooperative and how helpful this group is going to be for the community.

That's the community has to think about.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um next up is Jessica Astrug, then Jeremy Carlson, um, and then we've got Linda Searcy after that.

Hi, my name is Jessica Astrog, A S T R U G.

I reside at 816 Beach Drive.

Good evening.

Thank you for allowing me the moment to speak.

I am here to respectfully ask you to deny the rezoning and development for the proposal at 890 Galt Boulevard.

Based on the LaSalle factors, this rezoning should be denied.

The law in Illinois says the courts don't make zoning decisions, cities do, but courts can step in if a city allows zoning that is unreasonable or harmful.

The lasol factors are what the courts use to decide what, uh, decide that, and several of those factors are not met with this proposal.

Surrounding uses.

The property at 890 Galt is surrounded by established homes and lower intensity uses.

Putting a more intense development here is simply not compatible with the area, especially without its own ingress and egress.

Rezoning would disrupt the existing neighborhood pattern that residents rely on.

Suitability.

Just because a developer wants a use doesn't mean the property is actually appropriate for that use.

There are infrastructure, traffic, access, and fit issues here that show the site is not suitable for the change being asked for despite adjustments made.

This is case in point with a consent decree, which was established in the 1960s, upheld again in the 1990s, and only amended for compatible housing when Oak Ridge was established in the early 2000s.

Public benefit versus harm.

For a rezoning to be justified, the public must benefit more than the residents are harmed.

In this case, it is only public burden.

Traffic impacts, safety concerns, strain on nearby property, loss of neighborhood character, and negative impact on our property values.

When multiple the solve factors are violated, a zoning change becomes legally unreasonable and should be denied.

Beyond Illinois law, we have something even more important Algin Zone Comprehensive Plan, which was created to make sure our growth is thoughtful, compatible, and protects established neighborhoods.

The plan clearly says that the development should match the character of surrounding areas, maintain orderly and compatible land use, support cohesive growth rather than piecemeal reasoning.

This temple with town homes is a textbook example of a leapfrog development.

The temple will be drawing hundreds to thousands of people to one area with no benefit to elegant commerce.

The townhomes, while open to the public for purchase, will be purchased by members of the temple, as stated very clearly by Mr.

Bezos on more than one occasion.

If we approve a rezoning that contradicts the comprehensive plan, we send a clear message that our planning policies don't matter and that any neighborhood can be changed by ad hoc requests, creating a new precedent for all new proposals.

That's not good government and not fair to residents.

Lastly, I'd like to show you a rendering of a 95-foot-tall temple, 500 feet behind our homes from the perspective of our roadway, using AI image generation and actual average house heights in our area to generate the image, since we don't have the rights or copyright ownership privileges to use Umaya's drawings.

As you can see, this does not blend as Mr.

Hanland pointed out with the other 12 religious institutions.

Denying this rezoning protects nearby homeowners, follows Illinois zoning law, respects our comprehensive plan, and prevents arbitrary piecemeal changes to neighborhoods.

In short, saying no tonight supports responsible legally sound planning for Elgin.

I am also providing you copies of the petitions from two neighborhoods with over 200 signatures that still stand in opposition today, despite the changes that have been made.

Thank you for your time, your service, and for protecting our community.

Thank you.

Next up is Jeremy Carlson.

Please let's keep this orderly and going.

Jeremy Carlson and then uh Linda Searcy.

Good evening, Chair and Commissioners.

My name is Jeremy Carlson, C A R L S O N.

I reside at 816 Beach Drive, which is to the I live immediately at the northeastern corner of the property, backing up against what will become the recreation area.

I want to focus this evening on one topic that cuts across traffic scale and credibility, and that's the city's reliance on comparisons to the BAPS complex in Bartlett.

The record describes BAPS as approximately a 336,000 square foot facility, and that figure is used to normalize traffic and operational impacts here.

Even though it represents the gross interior floor square area than the building's footprint height or surface level land use intensity.

It is not what neighbors experience on the ground.

When you measure what actually occupies the land at BAPS and Bartlett, the total footprint is closer to 123,000 square feet when we don't look at gross square feet, with approximately 101,000 square feet that is attributable to non-Mandir structures.

The comparator used throughout the candidate's application therefore inflates the perceived scale as far as it is relevant here this evening by threefold before a single traffic model is even run.

That distinction matters here this evening because zoning decisions are based on land use intensity, not interior accounting, which would be gross square feet.

The similar distortion I have noticed appears in the traffic analysis.

The applicant's own study acknowledges that by 2032, even without this project coming to fruition, the most critical left-hand turns at Route 20 and Lambert off of Lambert are expected to decrease from what is currently a level of service rating of A to F.

Which essentially means it is unacceptable conditions where the vehicular demand exceeds the capacity.

The response to that admission in this case is not mitigation but normalization.

The report concludes that because failure already exists, additional demand will have minimal impact.

Adding traffic to a failing system does not cure the failure, it exports it into the surrounding neighborhoods in the form of over uh traffic overflow.

Parking here follows the same pattern.

The BAPS comparison explicitly relies on a site supporting roughly 1,000 parking spaces with inflow and outflow directly onto a major highway, not through a an intersection shared between the residents and the exit from that area.

I do not know what happened to Diwali.

It certainly is separate from New Year's.

DiWali is 4,000 cars, 4,000 people, uh, as was stated in the uh hearing earlier this year.

That 4,000 people should be taken into account, even if at the 2.65 people per car were 1,300 cars across the course of a day.

If that was for you know 13 hours, we're a hundred cars per hour on that occasion.

The other thing neglected to be mentioned was that that that holiday we're talking about that takes up nine consecutive days, that occurs twice per year, not once per year.

So we're not getting a full picture on holidays here.

Well, you'll have a chance, you'll have a chance to um applicants will have a chance to answer any questions raised.

We'll let the I will concede that I will concede that one of those two occasions of nine days is not as populous as the second stretch of nine, but it is 18 days in total.

That that can be looked up anywhere.

Um I also want to mention that the proposal before you, well, the BAP so the proposal before you relies rather than on you know sufficient parking and ingress-egress on volunteers, temporary restrictions rather than demonstrated on-site capacity, especially for days like Diwali.

Finally, the conclusions depend on event day management plans and enforcement assumptions that are not enforceable zoning conditions.

Zoning approvals are meant to rest on what is built, not what is promised.

Staff has made a recommendation, but under the Elgin Municipal Code, this commission must determine whether the evidence demonstrates that the approval standards have been met, including compatibility with the surrounding uses and adequacy of the public facilities.

While the applicant's own study already acknowledges future operational failure, and where key comparisons are not truly comparable, the record does not clearly establish that those standards have been satisfied.

In that circumstance, this commission has both the authority and the obligation to pause and reflect on what it has been presented.

I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to make comments this evening.

And again, I vote in opposition to the subject project.

Thank you.

Thanks for your comments.

Um Linda Searcy, then Lindsay Mallon, and then uh Michael Cronin.

Good evening.

My name is Linda Searcy.

S is in Sam E A R C is in Cat Y.

I live at 1223 Robin Hood Drive.

As you know, a consent decree exists on the parcel of land known as 890 Galt Boulevard.

The decree has been in effect since 1967 when it initially addressed the potential construction of low quality homes.

Over the years, it has been challenged and modified, example in 1975 for gravel mining, but it has never been vacated.

The property was given an M1 limited manufacturing classification and was zoned industrial for tax and revenue purposes.

Since a consent decree is a court order, it generally overrules, excuse me, overrides any decision made by a local P and Z committee regarding rezoning.

Therefore, if the PNZ committee made a conflicting decision, it would be in defiance of a court order.

A consent degree cannot be vacated unless all parties are in agreement, something the Temple Group has never been able to obtain.

Sherwood Oaks and now Oak Ridge residents have relied on the protection of the restrictions the decree has provided in preserving their residential values and safeguarding the quality of life within their single family environment.

The fact that the new adjacent property owner does not wish to honor the legal commitment is not a basis for setting aside or altering the consent decree.

The temple group's zoning classification has gone from a mixed-use residential religious development to a PCF and a PMFR in hopes that it now checks off all the boxes within the LaSalle factor.

But the P stands for planned, which implies that the proposed development has met all requirements of the special review process.

Though a cursory attempt was made, but too much is lacking.

No true comparison of temples in relation to road access and side size, etc.

A workable traffic management plan, no written traffic parking management plan, only their word that it exists.

Just because someone makes a claim doesn't make it so.

Nothing about this build would benefit the needs of any community but their own.

This could really start a new president.

I oppose petition 425 and 4325.

But of epic concern is the increase in traffic that will be generated along Route 20, Hillard, Lambert, and Shales, as it swells to an even greater vulnerable level, as demonstrated by this past Thanksgiving tragedy.

Therefore, I respectfully request if your response is less than favorable to this zoning change.

Do not render an even preliminary approval.

Vote no.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next up, Lindsay Mallon.

Then we've got Michael Cronid, then Joe Joe Acnello.

My name is Lindsay Mann.

I know it's hard.

I know I know it's the H ran into the N side.

It's totally fine.

I I spell it wrong on phone calls too, just so everybody knows how to spell it.

So our opposing communities have consistently remained civil and respectful throughout this process.

This is not about religion.

This is about safety, and our goal is simple to communicate our traffic safety concerns and the potential impact this project will have on the investments we've made in our homes.

I am an original owner in Oak Ridge, and I appreciate the fact that we were able to build there.

Again, original owner.

But with that, the traffic studies that have been conducted have not been appropriate.

And accident rates in the area have not been fully considered.

We experienced frequent accidents that shut down access to our neighborhoods, including this past Thanksgiving.

I think that my previous speaker talked about that.

It shut down Lake Street for most of the day, which meant that people could not get to their Thanksgiving, could not get home from their Thanksgiving if they were visiting.

There was an entire family in a minivan that was hospitalized.

And while that absolutely is a driver issue, we have we have traffic issues on Lake Street.

We frequently have that area shut down.

During these shutdowns, only about 40 cars can queue on what we're calling, I call it Galt.

It's what I think you had said you go to the car wash.

So that turn that I call Galt that we're calling Lambert, apparently, only about 40 cars can queue there.

We've counted that.

When we have had days when the road has been shut down, neighbors and I have stood there and counted the number of cars that can be on that street.

It's 40.

There's gonna be more than 40 cars coming out of that temple on a big day.

No question.

That is a fact.

During those shutdowns, um vehicles begin cutting through our neighborhood because they think there's an exit, even though there's even though there's a sign that says no outlet, there's cars that whip through our neighborhood, almost picking off our children, trying to find an exit because they're frustrated.

It's already frustrating, it's already unsafe when those shutdowns happen.

Um, so even with effective traffic management, um, those situations will be extremely difficult to manage.

Um, I don't care if you're a police officer because they they manage the traffic when we have those shutdowns, or if you're a trained human that's just waving cars along.

Um snow removal for our subdivision is another area of concern, and I I realize nobody's brought that up yet.

Um, we are on the far east side of Elgin.

We get plows probably the last because we're not an emergency snow route, and I understand that.

We don't need to be plowed out immediately.

We get we get plows when it's needed.

Um, when those holidays happen on those days, what's gonna happen?

Um so we are definitely in a lower priority tier on the municipal snow removal schedule, and I'm not giving the guys a hard time.

They're doing the best they can do.

Guys or girls, I don't know who's doing the thing.

Um, also do the car wash traffic that regularly uses Galt Boulevard or Lambert as we're calling it.

Um, it's typically an area where people actually park on the side of the road to dry off their vehicles.

It's a problem.

I stop there and I say this is not where you dry off your car.

First of all, it's because they're gonna get hit, but second of all, that's not where you dry off your car.

Um, so I'm I'm kind of my own police force in that.

Um, additionally, the projected number of attendees has not been accurately represented.

I'm sorry.

Uh, when compared with attendance at surrounding temples, information that's publicly available through those temples on social media, these projections appear significantly underestimated.

Um we we talk about 12,000 people in a holiday, and that's at a smaller temple.

We don't think we're gonna get a larger population.

This is basically like seeing the biggest ball of yarn on the side of the road when you're on vacation.

Uh the holiday data that has been shared reflects reflects only a limited number of holidays and does not capture the full impact of all observances, observances that will occur at this temple.

And while we have appreciated the QA sessions that have been held, they have not been moderated in a way that promotes clarity, respect, or constructive, a constructive path forward.

We would like to understand how the attendance and traffic numbers presented were generated.

Overflow parking has also not been adequately addressed.

Due to walkability and ease of access, we're saying this is a private property.

What makes my street not accessible?

If it's walkable and everybody wants to park on, you know, in front of my house, and that's private property.

How do I manage that property that I have?

Um so basically the overflow parking, if needed, is likely to spill into our subdivisions, and we have no recourse.

We have no recourse to that because we have open parking on our streets, which I appreciate.

Please don't take that away from us.

Um again, as an original owner in the subdivision, I do not agree with this build.

I would be happy if that would have been completed as the second phase of our subdivision.

Um, and for these reasons, I respectfully ask the city to deny approval of this build in order to protect the safety of the current residents, the stability of our property investments, and the tax-paying community that already resides here.

And also, I'd like to know if there will be fireworks because that's illegal.

Thank you.

Um next up, uh Michael Crown, and then we've got Joe Knello, and then next after that, uh I'll come back to that after I have some time to contemplate.

Michael Cronin, 824 Beach Drive.

Uh, I'm an original owner since 06.

I'm gonna live on the gate, apparently.

I live at Beach in Persiven, so I'll be the gatekeeper, apparently.

Um, I know in previous uh meetings or whatever, the zoning board members were invited to come to our subdivision, okay, to maybe take a tour of what it looks like.

And I know I I work a lot, so I don't know who made it and who didn't.

I will tell you on that tragic accident involved on Thanksgiving.

It took me 40 minutes to leave my subdivision.

I mean, it's it's a real problem leaving Lake Street.

Uh I also work in construction and I set the bridges up and down 20.

And we all know 31's been a nightmare for a while, right?

And in previously, if I remember correctly, um it's been stated that most of the visitors from this will be coming from the east, and then the traffic will be forced west.

Now, it's also important to know that there's a big plan here for shales in Lake Street.

It's gonna be what seven, eight-year project for an overpass to be put in.

You know, that's on top of having a five or six-year construction project.

You know, I mean this just doesn't fit.

And I'm gonna echo what everybody else says right here from the subdivision side.

Um I recognize that you guys made attempts, you know, to try and make things work, but most of these, you know, religious, you know, churches, everything around, they have some age where you know they were built up before the subdivisions were.

So I mean we follow HOA rules, we have certain guidelines we want our community to move in.

I picked my corner lot because of where it's backed.

Okay, I didn't, you know, I didn't sign up to live by a six-year construction project, you know, a work in construction.

I don't want to come home to construction.

So I'm just gonna ask that the zoning board and then the commissioners, you know, you vote in favor of the community that's paying their tax bill that has been here, and you know, do the right thing for the homeowners.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh next up is Joe, and then uh next after um next up is is ROB.

That was gonna be my guest.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.

So go ahead.

Good evening, commissioners.

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to express myself.

I'm gonna present a slightly different point of view, and I'm not gonna be redundant with all the beautiful comments that I've heard these guys talking about.

I love my neighbors.

I lived in Chicago once.

These people are wonderful.

So I'm really representing not just my wife and I am a disabled veteran.

What's going to happen to them?

What are you going to do with the deer and the coyotes and the raccoons that live there?

I don't know the number, but I will tell you it's a great number.

So I am a disabled veteran.

I'm also 81 years old, and I continue to work as an ordained hospice chaplain.

Religion has no business in this argument.

I don't have any disagreement with anybody's religion.

And I don't want anybody to disagree with mine.

But when I approach patients, I don't push my religion on them.

When people are at the end of life, they don't want to have somebody preaching to them about what their religion should be.

My commitment to people at the end of life is that they have peace and beautiful connections with their families.

I got three points to make.

When that area is developed, how are we going to be able to see the rainwater?

It accumulates, you know, it looks like a lake when there's a heavy rain.

Where is that water going to go when that's all developed land when it's all asphalt and concrete and buildings?

So I just want to point out that uh this isn't about religion.

This is about what's going to happen to this beautiful community.

I look out my porch at the animals, I look through my back window in the winter, and I do I have so much peace.

I have a disability that can only be treated with peace.

Can I live when I see the track?

You know, cars don't drive through this neighborhood at 20 miles an hour.

They drive through this neighborhood at 40 miles an hour.

I don't think that's going to change by bringing a religious institution here.

I think people are going to continue to drive at 40, 45, 50 miles an hour through our neighborhood.

Because these are lovely people.

Now, so many people here have already studied it legally, financially, uh, geographically, and their arguments are beautiful.

But think about this.

We're people, we chose these homes because we want peace and contentment.

And where is that gonna come from when we crowd it like we're planning to do here?

Generally, we have we have a we have a uh we have a ceremony before that flag.

That flag is I fought for that flag.

That flag means so much to me.

And to see it sitting here, and no reference to it.

That's not religion.

That's up represents every single person in this room, including over here.

It represents all of us.

What we're talking about is let's have a place where the diversity in this group can live under that flag in peace.

We want peace, not war.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um next.

Uh we'll go next thing.

Thank you.

And Rowdy, do you have comments?

Yes, just all of my concerns have been addressed already by my neighbors, but I also want to add one thing, those two exits that we have.

That's all we have.

And it has never been any discussion about opening up other exits in the back of us.

I mean, thank you.

Thank you.

Um, next up is Sarah, uh Sarah Sidekei, Sidiki.

And then after that is our A R I J R.

Um, and then M O S I'll come back.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Good evening.

My name is Sarah Sidiki.

I've lived um in the Oak Ridge community in Elgin for almost 20 years.

Also an original owner.

Um, and I've lived in Elgin for 25 years.

I've raised my three kids here.

Um, I have lived at this subdivision before we had um actually the street light and this the traffic light where we only could make a right on shales.

So we've been through a lot, and I'm sure all the other original owners are in the same boat as me.

Um, of course it wasn't easy, but I do want to let the record show that regarding the current petition, I'm not in support of rezoning this property at the entrance of my subdivision.

Um, there are many concerns, but even after all the changes present presented um by the temple, a very important reason for not rezoning the property is still the traffic and safety.

Reducing the size of the project does not change the temple community's needs and doesn't reduce the number of members that'll be coming for services.

Their members are their members.

Um Oak Ridge is landlocked, has no outlet other than Hilliard.

Hilliard should not be considered a road, but more of a byway that connects our neighborhood to Lake Street.

It's just the entrance to our neighborhood, and it can't handle the traffic or the load of such a large institution that will have waves of traffic that exit um basically into our exit and enter into our entrance.

Um it's not the same as a neighborhood because we have no exit out of there, other than that one street Hilliard.

The applicant proposes that all traffic coming from the development will make be making a right onto the byway hilliard, and then only a right turn on Lake Street, which means going west when they exit.

The applicant also indicated that 70% of their visitors originate from the east and need to return back to the east.

And all these people will not only be, I'm sorry, will be not only looking for intersections to make U-turns at, creating a danger on Lake Street, but also will be rerouted back to the traffic light of Lambert and Lake, which is at a high critical safety tier.

Even if our residents are given the right of a way to exit, about four cars maybe can fit from where Galt meets Hilliard.

I still see that this will block our residents from even be moving forward because the Lake Street traffic never stops to let these cars in.

And both of these intersections are considered at a critical safety tier.

I know that it was mentioned that it wasn't by IDOT, but I looked it up as we were sitting here, and as of November 2022, which was a study done by IDOT at WW.us 20 at shillstudy.org.

It says there that they are at a critical safety tier.

Um, saying this, our only entrance from going east on Lake Street is at Lambert and Lake.

And again, this intersection is at a critical safety tier.

Also, once the Shales Parkway intersection project is completed, um, which I'm sure you're aware of with them making that into um not a traffic light, but an exit.

Um, our Lambert and Lake intersection will be the last stoplight before people begin to drive 70 miles per hour or more, like they do once they pass Shales Parkway.

We need you to consider safety and danger that comes from the over congestion of traffic in this area.

We are worried for our families and our community.

We're worried about situations that may require emergency vehicles to not be able to come into our neighborhood or leave our neighborhood.

We're also worried about being delayed in entering or exiting our community due to the community larger than ours that will be using our small entrance as a roadway.

Buildings that have hundreds and thousands of visitors do not and should not exit into other exits or enter into other entering entrances.

They should have their own exit onto a major road, and for a property development of this magnitude, it's impossible to come up with a safe plan for entering or exiting due to the critical tiers of traffic in this area.

Please vote no to allow the rezoning of this property.

Our development with waves of hundreds of thousands of visitors adding to the congestion on Lake Street and blocking our neighborhood traffic cannot logistically work in this space due to the infrastructure of our landlocked neighborhood.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Um so next up is uh the uh person the the the address is 812 Beach Drive.

Thanks.

Um and then we've got uh Charlotte Miller and Jocelyn Miller, and um just a reminder, please.

Um if your statement or your comments have already been uh stated, um please either you know say uh something that's a little different or also feel free to pass if your comments um and statements have already been made.

So hi, my name is Arthur Moshayevsky.

I'm guessing I gotta work on my spelling a little bit on M-O-S-I-E-J-E-W S K I.

I live at A12 Beach Drive.

Uh, been living here about seven years.

We've got two small kids, daughter and a son.

Uh I want to say, you know, this place is beautiful and great, but what is trying to be put in here is gonna be difficult to live with.

Uh traffic, everything that goes on, you know.

You got a cars coming in and out all the time.

Uh with the car wash, kids want to go see, kids want to go explore.

Nobody pays attention to what goes on over there.

There is a stop sign, people blow it all the time.

It's a safety hazard.

Putting so much traffic into one place just because somebody wants to benefit from it, it's just gonna be bad for everybody else.

It's gonna benefit one person, but that's about it.

Everyone else that lives here that's been living here, they're gonna have to deal with it daily, and it's not because they want to, it's because they have to.

You're gonna have problems getting in and getting out, and it's never gonna end, and it's gonna be unstoppable until everybody starts leaving.

What's gonna happen with the neighborhood then?

Everyone's been here happily here and for a while, but everyone's gonna have to leave because they're not gonna be able to keep up with everything.

Um so thank you for hearing me out.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right, uh, next up, uh Charlotte Miller and I know I'm just uh making sure making sure everyone's everyone's got it going.

Um Charlotte Miller, Jocelyn Miller, and then uh Michelle Bach is next.

Okay, I'm Charlotte Miller, C H A R L O T T E Miller, M-I-L-L-E-R.

So everybody's talking about traffic, and I'm gonna do a little bit about that too.

Traffic jams and overcrowding on vehicles on Route 20 will create major problems in Elgin and Bartlett, and that will affect how people live and how the city operates.

The problem so the problem slows down travel times and uses more fuel, creating more hazards that harm the planet and human health.

Heavy traffic slows down the delivery of goods and the services, which reduces business output.

Rising vehicle numbers make the situation worse.

So there are ways to solve the traffic problems.

According to IDOT, promoting public transportation, is that an option?

Carpooling initiatives, again, is that an option?

Non-motorized transportation.

That sounds pretty dangerous.

Um, use of alternative routes.

There are none for us.

Developing parks and ride facilities, again, how is Elgin going to protect us?

When you go to exit, and you take Hillard to Lake, and you're going to make a right turn.

The first thing you see before you even look at the traffic, because you're going south, is two crosses where people have died.

That's what we look at every day when we exit that.

You go down to the west, you're going towards shales.

And what are you going to see now?

After Thanksgiving, more crosses.

This is a very, very dangerous area.

We need to protect that area.

The distance, the distance from Gault to Lake Street on Hillard is 300 feet by Elgin's map.

300 feet divided by 18 feet, the part the uh length of a regular parking spot is for 16 cars, non-moving cars.

Cars moving, IDOT says that would be eight.

So eight cars can leave between Gault and Lake Street at a time.

I understand that the plan is that the residents of of Oak Ridge should be using Lambert, but what if we need to go west?

Now we're making a right and we're getting we're getting behind all this traffic that's already coming out on Hillard.

It's really not it's really not a great plan.

And I think that you have to consider that for our neighborhood.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And I live at the same address as Jocelyn.

Thank you very much.

Hi, I'm Jocelyn, um J O C E L Y N Miller, and I live at 874 Oak Ridge.

Um I appreciate you all dedicating your time to be here and hearing us all out.

Um, from my review of all of the paperwork, the traffic study may have been revised with new anticipated numbers for the temple community center community center sorry center, the visitors, which I didn't really hear talked about too much now that apparently there's gonna be some open to the public and the residents, but a new traffic study which was never produced, despite the board specifically requesting one at the last zoning meeting.

The new traffic study would have shown the car wash traffic due to this being built after the traffic study.

It would have shown the increase in traffic due to residential developments created west, Elgin, South Elgin, Pingree Grove, Hampshire.

This combined with the previous concerns about the project size, where the proposed townhomes remain significantly above the city's permitted square footage for the land, and the developers' blanket request for future approval of any use on this land should signal exactly the kind of bait and switch scenario that this project invites.

The city of Elgin should take these issues seriously before recommending any zoning changes for this location.

The traffic numbers being used to justify this project are also misleading.

The comparison for to a residential complex, the size of Oak Ridge being in that area is exaggerated and does not reflect the actual in-and-out traffic this development will generate.

This development will actually create more.

We cannot assume 2.65 people will be in each car.

We know what happens when people assume you can be coming home from work and just going straight to the temple.

You can be coming from your house, and there may be some more people in the car, but still a church further down Lake Street, West Ridge Community Church, actually, which was mentioned by the applicant, has less of an attendance on Sundays, yet has police to direct the traffic to ensure the safety of all.

Why does this development only find it necessary on their largest holiday?

And if the number of visitors exceeds expectations, as it often does, what is the contingency plan?

Since so many comparisons have been made to BAPS, I would like to mention that they had 12,000 people on their last major holiday as stated by major news outlets and their own social media.

What is to be said when this happens at this location?

The word maximum gets mentioned a lot when there is no guarantee that it is actually a maximum.

What are the plans when cars are backed up onto Lake Street because drivers turn directly from Lambert and Hillard?

What people should do and what they will do are two very different things.

If Hillard becomes a primary access point, the constant stream of vehicles will block the entrance and exit for the existing community every single day.

What happens when the left turn light at Lambert backs up as it already does?

I regularly have to wait until the light turns yellow to make a safe turn because so many trucks and cars run that intersection, and I'd rather not risk my life doing so.

With the future removal of the light at Shales and the forced right turn from the development down to Route 20, what are the plans for the people that need to go east?

They'll be using the next exit to turn around to travel east.

We will be dealing with the same traffic regardless.

So the traffic is still going to remain an issue.

What happens when there's a traffic accident on Lake Street, especially once the expansion projects adds the median in front of Hillard, removing the ability for police to direct cars to turn left from Hillard, which is currently only allowed during emergencies.

Where is the protection for the existing neighborhood when the drivers start cutting through the residential streets speeding around the community, trying to find alternative exits during traffic blockages?

Where is the safety for the people who are ready live here?

These are not hypothetical concerns, they are real everyday issues that will be amplified by this development unless they're addressed before any zone changing, any zone changes are recommended.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, you're on the phone, sorry.

Um, Michelle Bach.

And then um next after that is uh Susanna at let's see.

Three 320 Green Feather.

Yeah.

Okay.

Hi, good evening.

My name is Michelle Bach.

I reside at 1006 Biltmore Drive in Elgin.

I am a 20-year resident of Castle Creek.

You're hearing from a lot of people who are in Oak Oak Ridge and Sherwood Oaks.

I am on the north side, and I'm an original owner who has been there since 2005 when Lambert was originally constructed for our neighborhood to be able to exit our brand new community.

Castle Creek is divided between Elgin and Bartlett.

It is primarily a Bartlett neighborhood with a very small portion, 54 of our homes fall within Elgin.

We we use this intersection, right?

I'm not gonna be redundant to what everybody has said, but I completely feel what every one of these people have talked about for our community safety.

I bought this house and moved in in November 2005.

I have raised my children, I have taught my children to drive through this neighborhood, which is frightening because as experienced drivers, anyone of us who uses this intersection knows how dangerous that intersection is and how critically important it is that we pause, even though we get that green light, we have to pause because there is nobody there enforcing it.

City of Elgin rarely comes to the east side for us, just as people have talked about for snow removal.

We rarely see police.

We have a very nice safe community, which is lovely that we don't have this high need for police, but I sure wish that the police were there when we sit there every single time and watch the people blow through this intersection.

My husband and I were almost killed for the first time.

My first time almost being literally losing my life at that intersection on October 24th.

I was crossing through the intersection from my side going to get a car wash before I started a road trip journey.

And one of our neighbors, which is a neighboring trucking company, he had to wait.

The trucker had to wait to make his turn until all of the traffic stopped.

The trucks on our side, they also experienced the same concerns that we deal with.

So he made his turn.

I had the green light for a while by the time it was my turn to go straight.

Everybody should have been well stopped on Lake Street, and we proceeded to go through the intersection.

Just at that moment, thankfully, my husband yelled for me to stop because that a truck was coming without stopping.

This is a safety risk for anybody who's uses that intersection.

Our community members, our existing community members, just as it would be if a temple was built there.

It is just not set up.

That residential side street is not set up to support any additional traffic, especially of this volume of traffic that the temple will bring in.

Another thing, those of us who live there, we see what happens when there's these accidents.

We're talking about a 1.1 mile stretch of road from Naperville Road to Shales.

That stretch frequent accidents, right?

We have the curve that goes around Villa Olivia by Bartlett.

The traffic comes through both of our neighborhoods.

They have no idea how to get around when Lake Street is shut down.

How's that gonna work when you have all these temple members trying to get out, in addition to our community members who are just trying to get home?

It is something also that has not been notated.

Has there been any discussion with Bartlett with the village of Bartlett?

That intersection, right?

Lambert and 20.

It's kind of a blurry line there.

We frequently have Bartlett coming in and using that.

Bartlett sometimes patrols over there as well.

So I believe the intersection itself is owned by Elgin, but there is a blurred line.

And the intersection safety is something that I think needs to be reviewed with the village of Bartlett.

There's no, it doesn't seem to be that there's good communic communication between Bartlett and Elgin to help each other out when there's an accident.

If there's something going on at if there's something going on at Shales, there should be Bartlett trying to help.

Elgin should be calling Bartlett and saying, can we get your help?

Like, let's work together, let's not have this going through a residential neighborhood.

Let's stop it at Naperville Road, or better yet, detour at 59, right?

Major thoroughfares instead of people seeking ways around these accidents.

We are taxpayers.

I would hope that this commission would be representing your taxpayers first.

This is a non-for-profit organization that's coming in here.

I'm not a tax expert, but I would encourage you to think about what kind of tax revenue, if any, would be coming in from this organization.

So I ask you to please support your taxpayers.

Think about your residents.

These are residential communities, and this intersection simply cannot support this.

It is going to be very dangerous when the construction is going on.

I'm not sure how the emergency responders are going to get to us on the east side of the community, right?

My parents live in Oak Ridge, so I'm doubly vested in this because I moved my 84-year-old parents to be there.

All I have to do is make the light to get to them if they have a safety emergency.

When things happen, like that horrible accident happened on Thanksgiving, you're not going anywhere.

It's a parking lot.

So please think about the safety.

This is only our only concern is about safety.

And this is just simply not the place to build this.

It's not that we don't support this.

It is just not the fit.

There needs to be a place where they have their own exit, right?

An entrance, just like BAPS.

Okay.

So please support your residents and your taxpayers and think about our safety.

Think about if if this was an intersection that you were dealing with, would you want this going into your neighborhood?

Another thing that I want to end on, I read, I read staff's notes.

It says, as specified in the city's comprehensive plan, quote, the neighborhood commercial land uses provide goods and services to local residents and serve day-to-day needs.

Uses may include grocery stores, professional offices, retail shops, and local service providers.

Development within neighborhood commercial areas should be compatible with and reflect the scale and character of the surrounding neighborhood.

Mixed-use development should be encouraged within neighborhood commercial areas.

End quote.

So that is what is written in the comprehensive plan.

Pause and think about that.

I do not think this proposed development provides goods and services or serves the day-to-day needs of our local residents.

Therefore, it should be rejected based on the city's comprehensive plan.

And this certainly, certainly does not reflect the scale and character of the surrounding neighborhood, which this is adjacent to.

So for that reason alone, it should be rejected.

So I urge you to please oppose this.

And thank you for supporting your residents and taxpayers of the city of Elgin.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Suzanne Keller, 320, Greenfeather Lane.

Elgin.

What I wanted to focus on is actually the size of this facility.

I don't know about you, but it's very hard for me to visualize 84,000 square feet.

I mean, whatever.

So I did some comparisons, particularly in light of what the gentleman said about integrating churches and religious facilities into different communities.

Everybody knows that one in London.

Clearly well defined, very well integrated.

Biggest difference, it's only 32,000 square feet.

The footprint is so small you could get two of them into this facility.

Then there's another one.

Notre Dame, Paris.

600 years ago, of course, there wasn't anything there but a big field, too, just like here.

But they've got a big cathedral there now, and it is only with a footprint of 64,000.

Considerably smaller than this one.

What does somebody need that much space for?

It does not fit with the character.

I have to really agree, it doesn't fit with the character.

And even though I don't live in that neighborhood, I walk by there every day.

I mean, it just doesn't fit.

It doesn't seem right.

And thank God I don't have to drive over there.

But um that is my big concern.

What?

This is huge, and I really have to emphasize what other people are saying too.

The attendance estimates here for that larger building, they seem grossly underrated.

Underestimated.

Thank you.

I thought my hands are combine the two Susans together.

What was the last name?

Oh.

Okay.

Uh yeah, go ahead.

Okay.

Um, I'm not gonna go over the traffic issue because everybody's talked about it.

Could you state your name for the court reporter?

Sorry.

My name is Susan Moore, M O H R.

I live at 972 Oak Ridge Boulevard in the townhouses, Elgin 60120.

Um, I'm not gonna state again what the traffic is going to do and how dangerous it is.

I'm gonna talk about the safety of the people and the residents using this property.

Um eight plus decades, it has been my duty as a grandmother, a mother, and a good friend to warn people of the dangers and disasters that could happen in many hard learned uh lessons in my life.

Um this issue is about the safety of all Castle Creek Oak Ridge and Sherwood Oak residents as well as the attendees and members of the temple, which are all bordered by the railroad tracks that cannot be crossed at any time, and especially during emergencies.

God forbid that a derailment would occur as it did on 12525 in Chicago, Illinois, where five tanker cars tilted for no reason that they have determined yet, and they had to get the people out and make sure there wasn't a hazmat issue or a fumes issue.

What would we do if we had to take this small road funneling out of the area and get 700 people out of the temple or out of the all the residents out of the town homes?

Castle Creek, all these properties and all these townships are bordered on the one side by the railroad track.

If that railroad train tilts over or something happens, how are they gonna get 700 plus people quickly out of this area?

They can't cross the tracks, they can't go anywhere.

Please, and and another thing I have heard, and I don't know if it's true, that there are a lot of fireworks displayed during the holy days and during the the different um celebrations that the temple has.

What is going to happen if you take down all the trees to all those embers and ashes that will land on people's decks and roofs?

Is there is the temple going to have some kind of fire insurance provision if they burn down my house or the house next door or set a deck on fire?

That's that's really all I have to say.

We want names, we love the city of Elgin with its racial, political, and religious diversity.

This is not about any of those things.

This is about safety of the residents.

And please consider what the town is today and what was planned by the people of the past and continue with that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

We're gonna take a five-minute break.

Um those are our next three.

So let's go ahead and get started.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

My name is Bob Stroma.

S T R A.

I'm at 61.

Oh, one second.

Sorry.

I want to make sure your mic's on.

That's off.

Go ahead.

I think it's, I think we're good.

Okay.

Oh.

She's not there.

Sorry, we don't have a court report.

We don't have to be here in America.

I guess we're missing a lot of people.

We better wait.

One track mine.

If city staff is all over the phone.

Sorry.

I do the same thing at home.

I clear plates before they're done eating.

Oh, we're waiting on Martin.

No?

Okay.

All right.

We can go ahead.

Sorry about that.

No problem.

My name is Bob Stroma, 621 Versailles Drive, Bartlett, Illinois.

Last name's STRAMA.

I don't want to repeat a lot of things that everybody else has said, and I kind of gone over of you know talking about the safety and everything else, although I am going to talk about it a little bit.

I mean, one of the things is that I think that you know, all of you that are sitting here and that are listening to the information that's being provided by everybody, probably have a lot of questions.

One of them is how do you go from a 240,000 square foot facility down to 89,000 square feet uh square foot facility?

What happens?

Where where is everybody then?

If it takes, think of the number of people that would have to attend a 240,000 square foot facility.

You have 25 to 45,000 members to support it.

You cut that by a third.

You go down to 12 to 15,000 people.

Where did the rest of them go?

Are they really not going to show up?

And even the 12 to 15,000 to square that.

And by the way, some of these numbers and things that I'm throwing out here, you it's pretty readily available on research for fundraising and everything else for facilities like this.

So you take that and you go, where did everybody go if they're not going to show up?

So is this like a it's like a health club that everyone pays memberships to, but nobody ever shows up for on a weekend, or they never show up during the week?

Because there's gonna be a lot more traffic.

I know everyone has said it, everybody's talked about it in the dangers of Lake Street.

You know, and one of the things is is that while a self-funded study, you know, they're inherently biased, right?

You guys didn't do the study, right?

The city doesn't do the study.

The state did a study, and the state says it's bad.

It says it's critical on the list, right?

But a self-funded study, they come back and we take the numbers that are given.

There's gonna be 400 cars, we look at it, we go, hey, you know what?

Yeah, it's not gonna be that bad.

Traffic won't be bad at all.

No problem at all.

But when the reality of it is, the reality is there's gonna be a lot more people going in and out of there.

The reality is that there's a lot more members that are gonna be attending there.

The reality is of all of this is that maybe that the people that are making the decisions on some of these things and that are putting the studies together, are basing it off the information that they're given, but it's not off a real numbers.

So, you know, I don't want to belabor all this stuff, and I want to keep it really short because there's quite some long ones, but you know, one a couple of the things that you really have to look at or think about is that what are gonna be the real what's the real membership numbers and how many people are really gonna be attending.

You look at what has been said, but the numbers don't jive with what it's going to take to operate a facility of that size and that square footage.

And what's gonna happen is is once the door is opened and somebody gets it approved and they start construction, they're going to be back.

It's going to be we need to increase the size.

We want to add another building.

We want to do this.

When that starts to happen, that's where those numbers and where all those people are gonna be able to come in.

Lake Street cannot support traffic going east or west, entering that.

There is no right turn lane you can put in going westbound.

You cannot extend that.

They're not gonna be able to widen the road there coming from the west, that left turn lane.

They're not gonna be able to extend that a mile to like let traffic back up to be able to enter, let alone leaving that area.

So, you know, again, not to belabor the safety point, but you know the one thing that we have to think about is that there's lives at stake.

There's real people's lives at stake that are driving every day.

I enter and exit off of Lake Street.

Dump trucks, semi-trucks, they're running that light every single day.

Whether it's Saturdays, whether it's Monday, whether it's Wednesday, it doesn't matter what day it is.

They're all running that light.

You know, one of the things like that uh you think about while it sounds great that we're gonna put a facility that you want to put a facility where there's some open land, and you want to use that land for something good.

The problem is is that you're also endangering the people that currently live that play their drive that raise their children in that area by adding more traffic to that intersection, and there's nothing that can be done.

We're that that intersection intersection is already at capacity during rush hour, it's at 80 to 90 percent capacity according to IDOT during regular day.

It's not gonna change.

Nothing's going to it's not going to get better, and even a gas station that you're talking about putting in there would be a disaster in that intersection.

It's not gonna get better.

So whatever that tries to go in right there, that is not conducive.

Lake Street's not straight, it's got curves to it, both coming both coming both ways.

It's dangerous, and you just you're not gonna be able to resolve that issue.

So I thank you for your time, and you know, take that into consideration that the reality is is that there's gonna be a lot more people and a lot more cars than I think that what's being talked about.

Thank you.

Um next up is Jack and Bergia.

Come on up past because we talked about the road on lane three.

Okay, all right, appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, we're we're gonna go through the list first, and then we will um if there's any other public comment, we'll go through those.

Um next uh Karen is the same.

Okay.

Uh next up, uh, we have Barbara um contorno, yep, that's right.

And then after that is Sylvia Young.

Uh my name is Barbara Contorno, C-O-N-T-U-R-N-O, and I live at 971 Oak Ridge Boulevard in Elton.

Um, I wasn't gonna get up and talk again because everything's been said so eloquently by everybody, but um, I just wanted to remind that we um that what we're about is they're asking for a lot of zoning variances, and even though everything was downsized, instead of now putting 10-pound potatoes in a five-pound bag, they've got it down to eight pounds of potatoes, and you can do studies, everything else, but again, that that safety thing, driving out and seeing those crosses and the trucks.

You can make only one.

I I wait sometimes to make a left to go into Lambert, and you can't go, oh, there's a yellow light, it's safe.

Trucks are barreling through on the red lights.

I'm tired of leaving there and going, do I have to um drive around grass uh glass because there's another accident?

So my understanding with zoning variances is that um a hardship must consist of the properties unique conditions, but it can't negatively impact the public safety.

It has to maintain the general intent and spirit of the zoning ordinance, and this isn't even zoned for residential there, and it should not harm the surrounding property values.

Um that's to be determined, but that could be an effect too.

So I I hope you guys um vote against this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um next up, Sylvia Young.

Um, thank you.

Um, and then uh next up is Catherine Catherine Thompson.

Uh 981 Oak Ridge.

Okay.

Uh and then the next person is also at 981 Oak Ridge.

Okay.

Um, and then uh let's see the next person on the list.

I believe first name starts with an R, last name, maybe Hey, 992 Oak Ridge.

Okay.

Greg Weiner.

And then after that is Joanne Herdrick.

Yep.

I'm Greg Weiner.

I live at 875 Oak Ridge Boulevard.

Obviously in the Oak Ridge community.

I'm also for uh to be clear.

I'm also the uh board president of the community homeowner association.

Um and uh I'm representing myself in this in this conversation, just to be clear.

Not not the board in overall.

You know, I'd like to say that um I don't want to get into the traffic studies, we've already talked about all that.

I think I think the point to keep in mind here is that you know there's a lot of concerned people here that are coming in to you for what they believe is gonna help us, right?

And help our community.

You know, those are paid consultants, right?

They're gonna give you all the things exactly as that you need to see them in the way that they want you to see it, right?

And we're just here, right?

We live here in this community, and it's we don't really have all the the the all the resources and money and time, but the reality is that we are Elgin, right?

We have lived, most of us I've been in, I I'm an original homeowner.

I am I'm the winers and I live next to the cleiners, you know, which is really annoying, by the way.

Um but just take it from the perspective that you know we're here to to really give you and show us show you our concerns as a community, right?

And I know that's hard.

Sitting here for hours listening to this is that's tough.

And I've I've done this kind of work before, but I would just say that you know, please take into account that you know there's this isn't a battle or a fight, it's about a community concern.

Uh there's never you know, we have board meetings.

Well, I can't get these people all to come to those board meetings.

You've done far better than I ever had.

But but this has energized this community.

There's a lot of concern here.

Believe me, they would not be here if they weren't.

I can't get them to come to the board for anything.

I can give free food.

But please, if you would at least consider what what they're what they're asking you to do.

And that's all I have to say.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Um next we've got uh Joanne Herdrick, 842 Oak Ridge, you pass.

Okay.

Okay.

Um and then next, uh Dave Swanson.

I'll be quick.

Uh Dave Swanson, S W A N S O N, like the TV dinners.

Um, and I live at 243 King Arthur Court, and I've been there for almost 40 years.

Um I just want to reiterate a couple of points.

I read recently that the city of Algin is considering a 25% increase in the ta property tax levy for homeowners.

I would suggest that that might be a consideration as to whether this property gets pushed aside with a religious exemption or stays on the tax rolls, even as undeveloped, they're still paying taxes.

Number two, I would ask you to look at this plan as the foot in the door plan.

They're gonna say, oh yeah, we only want this, but as other people have said, they're gonna come back somewhere and say, Oh, we gotta have another building, we gotta get rid of all that outdoor green space.

We don't need that, we need more worship area, we need a bigger temple, and we'll build it there and then tear the old one down, something like that.

And thirdly, one discrepancy I kind of noticed.

They talk about how they're gonna control the traffic with their volunteers and by working with the police for the for the high traff for high traffic, but then they say, but we don't have a set time like most churches where there's gonna be high traffic, it's spread out over the whole day.

They're gonna have a policeman there all day long.

I don't think so.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Um next up is uh Mike Lepresti.

940 946 Oak Ridge.

Okay, and then um we've got Lauren Iverson.

Okay, well, well, first of all, Lauren Iverson, uh, 1714 Belcourt Lane in Elgin.

Uh, we're in the Castle Creek subdivision on the other side of 20.

Um last time when I was here, I mentioned that I take a common sense approach to just about everything, or I try to.

I don't have degrees, I don't have experience, I'm not an educated man in this stuff.

I'm trained in business.

Um I don't know traffic studies, I don't know all these things, but what was interesting in the conversation today, which hasn't been addressed yet, so this is new stuff so exciting, is that the study officially degraded the intersection of Lambert and 20 from critical to now as a medium or high or whatever it was from 2024 to 2025 when this study was redone.

I didn't see any change.

I live right there.

My backyard looks out at that intersection.

Nothing was changed.

So I had to ask myself, why did it change?

What caused it to go from a critical to less critical?

What changed was the construction further down on 20 that reduced the flow of traffic.

That's what caused it to get better was reduced traffic.

Now we're talking today, the construction's gone.

It's gonna come back up again to where it was before because that's what people do.

Path of least resistance.

We've also talked a lot earlier today about new additional traffic coming into the intersection, whether it's coming directly in or turning around and coming back through because the people live east and they're going west to get out of there.

Either which way it's more people through the intersection.

So it's gonna go back to critical and then jacked up even higher.

That's a problem.

Um also wanted to talk about a little bit about the fact that we're talking about how they're gonna try to prevent it with repainting lines, increasing left-hand turn lanes, changing to a left hand only on the light.

That's not gonna stop trucks come from flying through the intersection.

Repainting, restructuring the existing space is not gonna fix the problem.

The whole thing's gotta get redone.

That's not being addressed.

They're just trying to put lipstick on a pig and make it work.

And that's not the fix.

The fix is to redo it.

One last thing just to kind of talk about a little bit, is during this time I've been speaking.

Equivalency, probably what, three or four more cars would have turned on to Lambert or turned on to Lake during this time I've spoken, based on the traffic increase from this project.

Consider that.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right.

Um I've gone through the list now.

Um, so if there is anyone uh anyone out there, I'm looking right at you, sir.

Um so uh if you want to come forward and uh state your name for the uh court reporter Paul Brown.

I live at 820 Beach Drive.

I I do like temples, they're rather beautiful.

I have a lot of people visit me from out of town, and we always take them to the temple.

The problem, gentlemen, this temple that doesn't belong there.

You will simply decimate our home value.

If you could address the commission, sir, please.

Oh, sorry.

So by putting this here, you will simply destroy our subdivision.

I look at this earlier.

This house, no one will buy this.

No one will buy this house.

Do you understand?

No one will buy this.

This does not belong there.

Simply put.

Thank you.

Um other comments from public.

If so, please come forward, state your name.

And share your thoughts.

My name is Nirao Patel.

Uh I'm a community leader and also represent the Hindu community in United States.

Uh, it takes us uh 528 years to build our own Ram Bandir in our own land.

And this is only one and a half year we are battling with this community who has already decided for the last 20 years not to have anyone come in this piece of land.

Not anyone.

Today we are, maybe tomorrow, somebody else, they will be here the same way.

Environmental issue, traffic issue.

Somebody is missing those coyote, and someone is missing those deer.

So this is not this is not one time that uh what Hindu community is facing this kind of issue.

Uh this is a deep, deep uh hate narrative against us.

And uh I think uh Okay, everyone, let's stay uh stay calm.

Let's I think their issue is a genuine to Sir.

Just please please comment on the petition.

Yes, strictly the position.

This this issue is a very genuine look like because they've been keep complaining about the traffic.

Even this temple will not come there if some other business comes, or uh there will be nobody still, the issue is very common.

And I think city has to think about some alternate way for these people as well, not only for us.

I think uh we decrease the the the size of the temple, the size of the total building, because we choose that we're gonna keep our existing one would be supposed to be sell it and move it over here, and that is the reason this the size has been uh smaller.

Uh some of the studies they have bring it on it, and it shows that uh our our festivals are double the size, the double the the uh the days.

Uh I think they they need to refine this.

And at this point, you guys, we are thinking you guys as our judge.

And uh take a wise decision.

This been happened uh not just only us, maybe some other one might have tried before too, and they might try in the future too.

So find some solution that this won't happen again.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Okay, is there any other members of the public which wish to speak?

Okay.

Um with that, um I've got a few things listed um that came up, I think.

Yeah, I'm gonna close the public comment uh portion of the hearing right now, and then I'm gonna look if there's anything.

Maybe staff if you if you want to go through anything that came up for you and please.

Well, the only thing I'll mention is that there was questions about fireworks.

Yeah.

Um, I think that's something that the applicant should be uh addressing.

Um other than that, there's been a lot of conversations about uh general traffic study.

I think uh uh the staff is comfortable with the traffic study as it is and the data that was provided, the counts that were conducted and how it all reflects in there.

Um I'm missing something, please uh I I I had uh some comment, and this might be more for the applicant, but um comments about trash removal and um the water infiltration and saturation, so might want to best be pointed towards the applicant.

At the end of the day, the the the development will have to comply with the stormwater ordinance requirements, so that will be addressed at the time of final uh submittal when they propose final engineering and final planet subdivision.

And if I may just clarify, um there were inquiries about if this site was slated for the phase three of Oak Ridge residential subdivision.

We have heard that in the past.

I was not able to confirm that during the meeting, but it is reasonable to assume that uh the land for this site was annexed in 1966.

Uh the land to the east where the Oak Ridge subdivision is currently there, that was annexed in 1990, and then the subdivisions, uh the Oak Ridge phase one and phase two were then platted in early 2000s, and I believe at that time there were considerations for this site to be some type of phase three, but um I have not been able to confirm exactly out and number of units and all that.

And I guess one more item, and then I will defer to applicant.

But question about the gate um locked for emergency vehicles.

I vaguely remember that coming up at the June meeting.

Um but just want to clarify that.

Well, yeah, so the the normally you you would provide connectivity and connections.

That access would be then gated.

What that means is that it is provided uh as a second exit in case of emergency.

So when there's a gate, there's also a what's called a lock box that the fire department has access to.

So it carries keys too.

And carries keys too.

So fire department can't access through that gate by by opening the lockbox and only the fire department.

Um fairly standard practice, but any gate that crosses a fire access into any property, any site anywhere.

Uh so that that is a proposal to address neighborhood concerns.

Okay.

Um and now I want to give the chance to the applicant.

If if there wasn't anything that you addressed in your earlier remarks, um, you know, feel free to come forward and uh address those.

But want to make sure you know we don't need to enter anything new, but just if if there's anything that wasn't previously mentioned in your um comments that you want to uh speak to, I want to give you the chance to do that.

Thank you.

This is not meant to be argumentative, just responsive to some of the comments.

Um you've had you've heard a lot of comments that I think have been uh based on emotion and not uh on professional evidence.

Both the staff report and our own professionals have testified as to traffic and planning.

Uh one of the uh comments was that this doesn't fit in our neighborhood.

Demir, could you put up the aerial that shows the railroad tracks to the west and the while he's getting that?

So what is what is the neighborhood?

I mean, you're making a zoning decision, and so is it consistent with the neighborhood, etc.

etc.

What is the neighborhood?

Well, this is our site, industrial safety plan, just a recently improved industrial park right here, and you know the Oak Ridge subdivision here, and then uh the county subdivision here.

Um what's our neighborhood?

It's not just this, which is what you think it would.

I mean, all we've heard is down.

Sorry, can you please go back to the microphone?

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Uh if you could come back to the microphone, please.

We gotta make sure that everyone can hear you and the people that are watching online um can hear you as well.

Yeah, could I have that very large face?

Check, check.

Thank you.

So the neighborhood, ladies and gentlemen, is the neighborhood, and this is a transitional zoning plan with an institution, i.e.

the temple, adjacent to tracks and industrial, and with town homes adjacent to town homes, and with this, you know, uh our site plan, but six acres and probably six or seven hundred feet between the temple and the uh south line of Sherwood Oaks.

So it's transitioned, you've heard it a million times, and the neighborhood is not just Oak Ridge, it's what I just said.

Um it's ironic that Oak Ridge was developed as a townhome community, and Route 20 was there and those roads were there.

Um how come?

Uh, how come Castle what's it called?

Castle Creek across the street in Elgin, the same thing, those are relatively new subdivisions.

They all connected to Lake Street.

Um, how come they they think that was okay and this wouldn't be okay?

Uh there's discussion about deer and raccoons.

Um that's not a zoning consideration.

Well, um I appreciate it.

Let's let's just go and let's yeah, well, I'm trying to make an I'm trying to make the point.

I I I understand, but if we could make the point without um making a point out of it.

It's a rebuttal.

Okay.

But I will there was a there was uh picture.

That picture that was shown to you a minute ago with the house and the temple.

I mean, if you'd like our uh our land planner could tell you how distorted that is because that home must be, I don't know, up there in the temple is here, and there's hundreds of feet between it.

So it was not out of it was not in scale at all.

Anyway, I'll conclude by saying we think we've met all the standards.

This religious edution uh really is entitled to their treatment here and uh thanks for mentioning at the beginning we really cut this project down trying to do our best.

So thanks.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Um with with that, um we will uh look to staff for any additional comments.

Any closing comments?

Nothing further to add uh to add it.

The staff uh does rec we believe that the standards have been satisfied and therefore staff recommends approval subject to the conditions outlined in the package.

Is there a motion from the commission?

Um I move to approve petitions 42 days 25 and 43 days 25, subject to the terms and conditions outlined in our packet.

Is there a second?

Is there a second from the commission?

As a so can I clarify the point?

So as just clarification here, we need to make uh a motion, and then if we a second in the motion, then we can go through you can vote up or down on the motion.

There also could be an instance where there's no second, and then the motion fails for lack of second, and then we would wait for another motion.

Yeah.

All right.

Uh seeing no second, is there another motion?

Is there another motion?

Uh I I second.

You seconded the original motion.

And just to clarify, Commissioner Jones, that that was the motion is to approve subject to the conditions in outline of the packet.

Thank you.

And then the second.

Commissioner Goscott had a second.

Okay.

Correct.

I don't know if the chair wants to open up for any discussion prior to motion.

Yeah, I do.

Yeah, I have discussion.

It is it's a beautiful project.

I mean, it is definitely a great project.

Just knowing the area, I think that's the biggest thing.

That's what I have the issues with when you said something else is gonna go there and they're still going to worry about it, that's probably true, and maybe nothing should be there.

That area, in my opinion, just being very familiar with it is not good.

So that's my discussion, and I am gonna vote against it.

Oh Commissioner Olson.

I'll echo that a little bit.

I absolutely agree with um with everyone here that you guys have done a great job on this petition, scaling it back, making it more doable for our community.

Um, but I think there's nothing wrong with the zoning or the the planning of that directly, but I think that until iDot makes some significant changes to that area that there shouldn't be any residential religion industrial development on that site at all.

Um I think that that area is just way too dangerous for any amount of additional traffic.

Uh we're seeing problems out west along Route 20 near Plank Road where we've added tons of development, and now we're 10 years away from a realistic solution to um uh better the traffic flow that goes through there, and I don't want to see something like that continue um on this side of town either.

So that's my remarks.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bruble I I uh I do want to reiterate that um I do appreciate the redesign.

Um that is really impressive.

I like how you put the uh parking along the railroad.

Um I thought that was uh uh thoughtful.

Um I've spent the better part of today um googling sizes of different things so that I could have a visual um idea of what's gonna actually be erected here.

And even if I combine the square footage of all the things I Googled, this is still larger.

And I I will echo um what my fellow commissioners have said that maybe nothing should go here because I do think that that is a dangerous area.

Um I go to Toyota to take my car.

I hate it.

I I hate traveling that road.

I've actually switched to St.

Charles and I go to Toyota and St.

Charles to avoid that area.

So um that's all I have.

But thank you for the redesign.

I appreciate that.

And um thank you.

Commissioner Jones.

Yeah, I I do believe the petition meets um the standards that were set forth and and complies with it.

Um so I will be supporting it again on this one.

I do appreciate the rework of the plan.

Um and I am a person of faith.

I feel like anywhere we can add more faith into our community is not a bad spot.

I realize it's tight over there, but I do believe that they meet the requirements of the petition.

Thank you.

And I agree with Commissioner Jones too.

I do believe that they uh meet the requirements um and appreciate the thought and the conversation that went into the development of the application.

And you know, at the end of the day, if nothing should go there, then the consent decree should stand.

Um and that's where I think the decision kind of ultimately lies is in the consent decree.

Um so with that I would be voting in favor of the application.

Um we've had the discussion.

Is there any more conversation from the members of the commission?

And if not, um I'll accept uh or we we still have the motion and the second on the table.

Um call the vote.

So call the vote so a motion to approve with the conditions outlined in the packet.

Commissioner Jones?

Yes.

Commissioner Gasca.

Yes.

Commissioner Abu Ali?

No.

Commissioner Olson?

No.

Commissioner Rubel?

No.

And Chairman Millermouth?

Yes.

So the motion fails for lack of majority, so it's three votes in favor, three votes against the project.

We'll move to city council without a recommendation.

All right.

All right, thank you, everyone.

All right, um, we still have a meeting to run.

We still have other things on our agenda.

So if you uh unless you want to stay, um, we do have a public comment portion at the end of the um hearing.

So please leave quietly so we can continue conducting our business.

Um and with that, uh, is there any other business before the commission?

Yeah, we're gonna speak.

There are any public comment.

Not related to the petitions.

Anything else?

Okay, thank you.

Um just to address the thing about the city.

That's a bit.

No, it's not up.

No, nothing on nothing on petitions.

It's it's outside, yeah.

Sorry, it's it should everything else.

Yeah, appreciate it.

Hold on, thank you.

Thank you, sir.

All right, I will go ahead and close the public comment.

Um just a reminder, we're still meeting.

If you could please uh you could take that take out conversations outside, please.

Please and thank you.

Oh, sorry.

And then uh summary of uh pending development applications.

Yeah, right, sorry.

So um there has been an influx of new applications.

It's quite overwhelming, but we'll manage it.

Um but that's good.

Okay.

So with that the city council will consider uh the final ordinance approval for the approvements that are Kimball Middle School, the the text amendment that was presented last month, and also the transitional housing facility.

All those all three of those items received uh favorable vote by the city council at the last meeting.

They still have to uh uh take the vote on the final ordinances at the next council meeting on that.

Um we have received some interesting applications.

There's a new quick trip gas station proposal at the southeast corner of Fleetwood and South McLean.

There's a new light industrial building uh on the in the industrial park north of Airport.

Um there is some movement on the uh phases of the Waterford subdivision that should be coming in early next year.

Charles Road that will it's a fairly fairly small industrial building but it's it's new development in that area that's not very common so we're kind of excited about that um and I think that's probably it uh the next meeting is on January 5th uh that's Monday right after the new year's uh I'm sure we will have some applications there so if there's any questions I'm happy to answer any questions for staff all right uh next item is uh adjournment so there's a motion to adjourn.

Move to adjourn.

Second second staff please call the roll.

Commissioner Olsen yes commissioner abwali yes commissioner Gasca yes commissioner Jones yes Commissioner Ruble?

Yes and Chairman Wildermouth?

Yes.

We are adjourned.