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Plan Commission Minutes

VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
PLAN COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES
APRIL 2, 2019

CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Brackett called the meeting to order.

ROLL CALL
In attendance: Chairman Mike Brackett, Co-chairman Jennifer Duncan, Commissioners Mark Rivecco, Anna Tuohy, Tom Lenkart, Connie Holbrook, Mark Bozik and Doug Botkin. Not in attendance: Commissioner Aaron Anderson.

Staff in attendance: Village Administrator Steve Bosco, Community & Economic Development Director Mike Toth and Village Clerk Lori Murray.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. Approval of Plan Commission Minutes dated November 6, 2018
Motion for approval made by Commissioner Lenkart and seconded by Commissioner Rivecco. All in favor. Motion approved.

PUBLIC HEARING
1. Petition #19-01 (361 Sullivan Road) The petitioner requests the following actions on the subject property:
1) Map amendment to rezone the subject property from the O-R Office Research District to the B-2 General Business District
2) Special use to allow an Animal Hospital and Veterinary Clinic
3) Variance to allow a parking lot to be located less than five (5) feet from a side lot line.

Chairman Brackett opened the public hearing. Those who were to speak at the hearing were sworn in at this time. Chairman Brackett then closed the public hearing.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Petition #19-01 (361 Sullivan Road) The petitioner requests the following actions on the subject property:
1) Map amendment to rezone the subject property from the O-R Office Research District to the B-2 General Business District
2) Special use to allow an Animal Hospital and Veterinary Clinic
3) Variance to allow a parking lot to be located less than five (5) feet from a side lot line.

Dr. Stephen Juriga, owner of River Heights Veterinary Hospital in Oswego, addressed the commission. Dr. Juriga is one of 150 Board-Certified Veterinary Dentists in the United States providing referral veterinary dental services for 400 animal hospitals in the region, as well as Brookfield Zoo and Shedd Aquarium.

Dr. Juriga has offered these referral dental services in the Veterinary Dental Center (VDC) located within River Heights Veterinary Hospital in Oswego for the past 15 years. In 2017 he added an associate (second veterinary dentist) and now has a staff of ten. River Heights Veterinary Hospital is a busy, 4-doctor general veterinary hospital and can no longer accommodate both practices. They are looking at the I-88 corridor for their additional office for their referral dentistry business. The volume of work is fairly small. Each doctor would have 4 to 5 surgical patients a day.

Michael Matthys with Lindengroup Architects addressed the commission. Matthys noted that their company specializes in animal care facilities and have done over 200 animal hospital projects. The petitioner is asking for a map amendment to amend the zoning district from OR to B2. This will allow them to ask for a special use for a veterinary care facility. Current setbacks required for streets are 35 feet. The existing house is set back 87 feet. The proposed addition would be located behind the existing structure. Both side yard setbacks are at 10 feet. The east side setback is 28 feet and the west side where the parking is located is 47 feet. The required parking is 16 spaces which will be provided. Matthys said that parking will be located where it is currently, but in order to adhere to the aisle and depth of the parking spaces that are required, will need to push the parking lot closer to the lot line. Parking setback required is 5 feet. In order to get parking to work with a 24-foot aisle and 18-foot depth, it leaves 6 inches to the west property line.

Matthys noted other features of the building:
*Front porch will be part of the waiting area
*Windows will be replaced.
*Fenced in patient relief area to the rear.
*All dogs in the area will be supervised and on a leash.
*Proposed building will be a 2-story, 4600 s.f. clinic and the addition off the rear will be 2,480 s.f.
*Building includes a waiting room off the front, 3 exam rooms, a dedicated procedure room, x-ray room and other support spaces.

PLAN COMMISSION COMMENTS
Commissioner Duncan said she liked the design and liked that the business would be keeping the character of the house.

Commissioner Lenkart asked if the neighbor to the west had been notified that the parking would be located 6 inches from the lot line. Community & Economic Development Director Mike Toth said that he had not heard anything back from the property owner and the public hearing process requires that all property owners within 250 feet be notified. Lenkart asked about snow removal. Toth said he assumed the snow would be pushed to the north. Lenkart asked if the extra building could be used as employee living quarters. Toth said the business operator indicated that it would be used for office space storage or hosting an internship program in which the intern could stay on site. Lenkart asked if the signage meets requirements. Toth said that according to condition #1, the Veterinary Dental Center sign on the west elevation cannot be there right now due to residential. As long as the property to the west is being used for residential purposes, the wall sign would not be allowed. If the business to the west becomes an office building, the wall sign would be allowed. The rest of the signs would need to meet the district standards for the commercial district signs for B2. Lenkart said he was in favor of the plan.

Commissioner Tuohy asked if the ramp for the business is ADA compliant. Answer was yes. Tuohy asked if there is ever an instance where an animal would need to be boarded. Dr. Juriga said that if an animal needs to be observed overnight, it would go to a 24-hour facility since his business is not a boarding facility. Juriga noted that there was an incident last year where an animal was kept overnight due to weather. However, there is no personal boarding so the animals are not kept overnight. Tuohy asked how the facility would be handling medical waste. Jariga said it would be picked up by a company by the name of Stericycle. Tuohy was in favor of the plan.

Commissioner Rivecco questioned why all four lots not be rezoned instead of just the one. Toth said the properties could be rezoned to the OR district eventually.

Commissioners Holbrook and Botkin said they were in agreement with the plan.

Commissioner Bozik asked if there would be any exotic animals at the location. Dr. Juriga said there are no exotic animals. He goes to Brookfield Zoo and Shedd Aquarium for those services.

Motion made by Commissioner Botkin and seconded by Commissioner Lenkart to accept the Staff’s findings of facts and variation.

Motion by Commissioner Lenkart and seconded by Commissioner Botkin to move the recommendation forward to the Village Trustees. Roll Call Vote: Lenkart – yes, Botkin – yes, Bozik – yes, Duncan – yes, Tuohy – yes, Rivecco – yes, Holbrook – yes. Motion approved.

ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn made by Commissioner Rivecco and seconded by Commissioner Lenkart. All in favor. Motion approved.

Respectfully Submitted,

Lori J. Murray
Village Clerk

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