VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
PLAN COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES
JULY 2, 2024
CALL TO ORDER
Commissioner Mark Bozik called the meeting to order at 7:00pm.
ROLL CALL
In attendance: Commissioners Anna Tuohy, Tom Lenkart, Alex Negro, Richard Newell, Mark Bozik, and Doug Botkin.
Not in attendance: Chairman Mike Brackett; Commissioners Aaron Anderson and Scott Branson.
Staff in attendance: Community Development Director Nathan Darga.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
- Approval of Plan Commission Minutes dated April 2, 2024.
Motion for approval was made by Commissioner Tuohy and seconded by Commissioner Newell. All in favor. Motion approved.
PUBLIC HEARING
- Petition #24-10 (119 Butterfield Rd): The petitioner, Derek Knuth, requests a Special Use to allow Motor Vehicle Sales on the property located at 119 Butterfield Rd in North Aurora, Illinois.
Motion to open the public hearing was made by Commissioner Negro and seconded by Commissioner Botkin. Motion approved.
Community Development Director Nathan Darga introduced Petition #24-10 (119 Butterfield Rd). Darga shared the property is zoned I-1 Limited Industrial District and was approved for a motor vehicle service use in 2020. In 2020, the use was considered a special use, but the petitioner pursued a text amendment to allow the use as a permitted use in the I-1 district, which was ultimately approved by the Village Board. Darga said the owner would like to sell vehicles that they work on and would need a dealer’s license from the State, which requires a sign off from the Village that the use is allowed in this zoning district. The sale of motor vehicles would fall under motor vehicle dealership which is a special use. Darga showed the site plan, which indicates approximately 5-9 cars a month would be parked up front and would be their sales area on site. The owners would also clean up the site by paving the rear lot with more parking spaces. The Village’s parking standards require two (2) parking spaces per bay plus one (1) space per 500 square feet of office space. The sales area would require one (1) parking space per 1,000 square feet of public display area. Altogether the zoning ordinance would require 28 parking spaces. The property currently has 34 spaces. Darga introduced the petitioner and welcomed them up to the podium.
Petitioner Derek Knuth of Red’s Garage shared they would like to sell cars on top of being a full service repair shop. The idea would be to buy broken cars, repair them and sell them. Knuth said they really enjoy being in the Village and this would allow them to stay at their current location instead of opening a second location or possibly moving elsewhere to sell vehicles.
Commissioner Tuohy said the parking lot is currently really tough to maneuver and was wondering if dedicated drop off spots will be on site with the new design. Knuth said once the back lot is paved it will open spots in the front and they can reorganize the lot more efficiently. Commissioner Lenkart asked since the lot is already pretty full, where will people looking to buy a car park and when will the back lot be paved. Knuth said the plan is to pave the lot immediately or before winter at the very latest. Commissioner Lenkart asked if there will be separate office for financing. Knuth said most car sales are planned to be less than $10,000 so there is no plan of doing any financing in house at this time. Commissioner Negro had no questions.
Commissioner Newell said his question was already answered regarding paving the rear lot. Commissioner Botkin asked how many vehicles will be parked ready to be sold and asked what happens if the whole parking lot turns into a sales lot. Knuth said service customers are the number one priority. Darga said the Ordinance will limit the number of designated spots on site for sales so they will need to be contained to that area. Commissioner Bozik asked if the site has any stormwater or other lot coverage concerns. Darga said the parking lot in the rear would not trigger a stormwater pond. Commissioner Bozik asked if there are any conditions for the Special Use. Darga said staff recommends approval and there are no conditions in the report, but the designated parking spaces for sales can be added to limit the number of parking spaces on site. Commissioner Lenkart said he would recommend adding paving the rear parking lot as a condition as well. Commissioner Tuohy asked if there were any calls form the public regarding the petition. Darga said there were none.
- Petition #24-11 (937 Oak St): The petitioner, Erick Cooper, requests a Special Use to allow an Educational Facility, Commercial on the property located at 937 Oak St in North Aurora, Illinois.
Community Development Director Nathan Darga introduced Petition #24-11 (937 Oak St). Darga shared the petitioner is requesting to have a driving school for teenagers to teach them how to drive regular cars. Darga said they are looking to go into 937 Oak St, which is the Cakery’s old site and the space is a 1,100 square foot unit. Darga said this is a special use is because any commercial educational facility is a special use in the B-2 zoning district. Although this particular use may not have impacts, the zoning use includes other schools such as a welding school , CDL driving schools, etc. which may have more impacts and that is why this is considered a special use. Darga said they are looking to have up to 35 people in a classroom at any given time and have four (4) vehicles on site for training. The existing parking lot has 215 parking spaces, and the code requires 18 parking spaces for this use so it will meet the parking requirements. Darga introduced the petitioner and welcomed them up to the podium.
The petitioner Erick Cooper and his wife Jennifer said they currently have a driving school in Campton Hills, which has been operating for four years. Cooper said they are looking to expand their business and move to North Aurora. Cooper said they live in the Geneva/Batavia area and believe this area is a great place to expand to since there is not another driving school in the Village. Cooper said they offer both in class instruction and behind the wheel instruction for teens along with private lessons with adults. Cooper said they are a triple A approved driving school, which is the only one in Illinois. Cooper said the curriculum is up to date and some of the best compared to what we have seen out of other driving schools. Our employee base are top quality individuals, and many have law enforcement and educators backgrounds. The business aspect follows everything the Secretary of State requires and/or mandates.
Commissioner Botkin asked how does the onsite lecturing work. Cooper said it’s a mix of lecturing PowerPoints presentations and teaching the rules of the road. It’s a basic classroom setting. Commissioner Newell asked if all vehicles are equipped with double brake pedals and how many cars will be on site. Cooper said each car is equipped with two brake pedals and 2 to 4 company cars will be on site at any given time. Cooper said it took a few years to get to four vehicles at their other site. Commissioner Negro asked if it is a year round operation. Cooper said it is year round and during the school year classes are taking place at night and on the weekends. In the summer, there are classes during the day. Cooper said no vehicles will be parked or idling in the rear of the building and the only time that door would be used is if an instructor is starting a behind the wheel shift.
Commissioner Lenkart asked about a dropping off area for classes. Cooper said classes are two hours long and the students would be dropped off and pick them up. Commissioner Tuohy asked if the school could administer road tests for the State and what type of cars will be used for behind the wheel instruction. Cooper said yes, the State has recently allowed private schools to do the road tests and the current vehicle types are Honda Civics and Kia Sportages, which none are electric. Commissioner Bozik had no questions. Darga said staff recommends approval with no conditions.
Motion to close the public hearing was made by Commissioner Tuohy and Commissioner Newell. Motion approved.
- Petition #24-09 (Amendments to Title 17 of the North Aurora Municipal Code): The Village of North Aurora requests text amendments to Title 17 of the North Aurora Municipal Code (Zoning Ordinance) amending provisions regarding permitted and special uses and other corrections and clarifications.
Motion to open the public hearing was made by Commissioner Botkin and seconded by Commissioner Lenkart.
Community Development Director Nathan Darga introduced Petition #24-09. Darga said about every 3 to 5 years the Village reviews the list of permitted and special uses to ensure they are still relevant, are located in the places the Village wants them and if anything needs to be added, removed or combined in the list. Darga said he will summarize each section. Many of the changes are combining similar, the same or all listed as special uses.
Darga said in Residential Districts, Chapter 7, assisted living, independent living and nursing homes are now one category and remain special uses while the use for hospitals was removed. In Business Districts, Chapter 8, mixed-use was added as a special use. Darga said that in the B-3 District, which includes mostly everything along 31, has some residential and mixed-uses in it and the Village is looking into pursuing a mixed use building in Block 1 in the future. However, mixed-use is currently prohibited in B-3 with the current code. Darga said Entertainment and Recreation uses have numerous categories currently. The new category combines all of those uses into Entertainment/Recreation Facility, Indoor and Entertainment/Recreation Facility, Outdoor.
Darga continued with Motor Vehicle Repair would be split into a major and minor category. Minor would be an oil change, tires and brake shops while major would be transmissions, body shops and engine repair. Also included in this text amendment is a definitions section, which will match up with many of the new uses and existing uses. Commissioner Botkin asked if this will be subjective. Commissioner Bozik asked about electric vehicles and if that would need to be separate. Darga said the definitions for both of these use types has been updated and do a good job distinguishing the two, but there is always a chance for a gray area. Darga said cannabis categories were changed to have it under C for cannabis instead of A for adult-use and the bar use was added since the current code has it under cocktail lounge. Darga added that staff brought in a lot more modern terms and definitions. Darga said it will help reorganize uses and definitions while keeping most uses the same status of permitted, special or prohibited. The names and categories of uses were also redone to have each use chapter read in the same order.
Darga said in Industrial Districts, Chapter 9, data center use was not listed anywhere or defined. Data centers would now be listed as special uses due to the power and water demand. Light, Medium, and Heavy industrial definitions were also cleaned up. Food uses for food processing, bottling, production, and sales were combined into one category and made them all special uses due to the high water use and possible odors. In Specific Use Districts, Chapter 10, such as O-R and O-R-I districts are also reorganized, and categories match the other three previous chapters.
Darga said in Use Standards, Chapter 11, the standards have been modified. In residential use standards only, mixed-use standards were added or changed. Outdoor and Indoor recreation use standards were modified and match the use type in the use tables. New use standards for entertainment and recreation were added and include exterior lighting, live music, alcohol, etc. Another use staff modified was contractor office, which was difficult to define. Some contractor offices are well maintained with an office space and parking lot while others can have unmaintained yards and overfilling parking lots. The contractor yard use type has been removed and is now only allowed as an accessory use to a contractor office. The use standards for contractor office mention any contractor yards need to have a landscape plan, be located in rear yard, and have a screening plan.
Commissioner Lenkart asked the difference between R-3 and R-4 district. Darga said R-1 and R-2 are single family homes with larger lots and R-3 and R-4 are smaller lot sizes or higher density homes such as townhomes or apartments. Commissioner Lenkart asked about daycares and schools. Commissioner Lenkart asked the difference between O-R and O-R-I. Darga said O-R is Office Research while O-R-I is Office Research and Light Industrial. Darga said Mitchell Rd warehouses are in the O-R-I district which would be typically newer industrial buildings, but with operations and storage inside and not outdoors. O-R is just without the light industrial and the Village has a few properties zoned O-R which are mostly located on Sullivan Rd near the hospital. Darga added many of the larger projects come in as a PUD so they will be special uses regardless. Commissioner Lenkart asked about the mixed use. Darga said standards were put in to say the Village expects some ground floor retail to be considered a mixed use building. Commissioner Lenkart asked about parking standards for residential and home based businesses. Darga said there is a home occupation use and use standards in the Village. Commissioner Tuohy said some HOA regulations also help prevent parking overflowing into the street. Darga said there are also parking standards in the Zoning Ordinance and Municipal code, which include parking on an improved surface and other location standards.
Commissioner Lenkart asked why administrative fees for cell tower antennas was removed. Darga said it was old language and all fees should be taken out of the Zoning Ordinance including in Appendix B since the fees were outdated and the Village has fees in another section of the municipal code. Darga said this admin fee has never been collected so it is being removed, but the Village has lease agreements on the water towers that generate revenue. Darga said these chapters and sections have a lot of changes since it has not been updated in a long time. One section not mentioned is Chapter 13 for parking. Parking will be changed in the near future to match the uses in this text amendment and will be a future text amendment.
Commissioner Tuohy said she likes how everything is combined with this redline and how the definitions are up to date such as laboratory and hookah lounge. Commissioners Botkin, Newell, and Negro had no questions. Commissioner Bozik had a question regarding the community residence use and how assigning the number of occupants allowed in a structure may be problematic. Darga said community residences is a state specific use and typically follow group home guidelines. Commissioner Bozik asked if the use can be a special use instead of a permitted use. Darga said the smaller community residence are allowed in lower density districts and larger community residence are allowed in high density districts. Darga said based off his experience other communities who have special uses for this use have to notify neighbors who don’t want the use and it gets voted down, but the municipality tends to get sued since the use has to be allowed per state guidelines. Darga said the Village also already has use standards for this use. Commissioner Bozik said he would prefer the community residence use be a special use so additional review and conditions could be added. Commissioner Lenkart said he would be concerned of a potential lawsuit if it was a special use. Darga said he will talk to the Village Attorney regarding the topic.
Motion to close the public hearing was made by Commissioner Tuohy and Commissioner Botkin. Motion approved.
NEW BUSINESS
- Petition #24-10 (119 Butterfield Rd): The petitioner, Derek Knuth, requests a Special Use to allow Motor Vehicle Sales on the property located at 119 Butterfield Rd in North Aurora, Illinois.
Motion for approval of Petition #24-10, as presented by staff with the two added conditions regarding paving the rear lot and restriping the entire lot according to plan and imposing a nine (9) car maximum for the sales area, was made by Commissioner Lenkart and seconded by Commissioner Botkin. Vote: Tuohy – Yes, Lenkart – Yes, Negro – Yes, Newell – Yes, Bozik – Yes. Botkin – Yes. Motion approved.
- Petition #24-11 (937 Oak St): The petitioner, Erick Cooper, requests a Special Use to allow an Educational Facility, Commercial on the property located at 937 Oak St in North Aurora, Illinois.
Motion for approval of Petition #24-11, as presented by staff, was made by Commissioner Negro and seconded by Commissioner Tuohy. Vote: Tuohy – Yes, Lenkart – Yes, Negro – Yes, Newell – Yes, Bozik – Yes. Botkin – Yes. Motion approved.
- Petition #24-09 (Amendments to Title 17 of the North Aurora Municipal Code): The Village of North Aurora requests text amendments to Title 17 of the North Aurora Municipal Code (Zoning Ordinance) amending provisions regarding permitted and special uses and other corrections and clarifications.
Motion for approval of Petition #24-09 with the added condition of reviewing the community residence use as a possible special use was made by Commissioner Lenkart and seconded by Commissioner Newell. Vote: Tuohy – Yes, Lenkart – Yes, Negro – Yes, Newell – Yes, Bozik – Yes. Botkin – Yes. Motion approved.
OLD BUSINESS – None
PLAN COMMISSIONER COMMENTS AND PROJECT UPDATES
Darga shared Fortunato is almost open. The owner picked up the liquor license this week and had a final inspection this week as well. The owner said he plans to be fully open next week. Commissioner Negro asked about the Starbucks monument sign location. Darga said the owner of Fortunato told Starbucks about it when they were building it and Starbucks corporate said they needed the signage so that is why it is there. Darga added that Riverfront Ram Truck Dealership is about a month or so away from opening and selling vehicles out of that site.
Darga also added the fire station building is moving along and is hoping to be open in November. Darga said the Village has swapped deeds with the Fire District, so the Village technically owns old fire station one. Commissioner Newell asked what dictates putting a sidewalk in and referenced that along the east side of Pinecreek Dr north of Butterfield Rd does not have one. Darga said there could be a few reasons, but staff will talk to Public Works about it. Commissioner Lenkart asked about the old BestBuy site in Towne Center. Darga said Slick City should be opening soon at the old BestBuy site which is an indoor slide amusement park. Darga added Kids Empire is going in over by JCPenney which is an indoor recreational use with slides and other activities, which targets a younger age group compared to Slick City. Darga shared Crave should be ready to open soon, which is near Brother Chimp.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn made by Commissioner Botkin and seconded by Commissioner Lenkart. All in favor. Motion approved.
Respectfully Submitted,
David Hansen
Planner
