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Plan Commission Minutes

VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
PLAN COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES
JANUARY 7, 2020

CALL TO ORDER
Chairman Brackett called the meeting to order.

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

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 5, 2019
Motion for approval made by Commissioner Anderson and seconded by Commissioner Botkin. All in favor. Motion approved.

PUBLIC HEARING
1. Petition #20-01 (Lot 3 – Randall Crossing): The petitioner requests the following actions in the B-2 General Business District, Planned Unit Development:
a) A Special Use to allow a Major Change to a Planned Unit Development with deviations.
b) Site Plan Approval

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

Ed Roberts, representing the developer and Randy Mueller of Mikols Construction were in attendance. The project will be a 3-story mixed use building in the Randall Crossing Subdivision. The project will include 13 studio and 15 one-bedroom apartments.

Community & Economic Development Director Mike Toth said that there are two requests. One is a special use for the major change in the PUD. The developer is looking to go from a restaurant pad site to a mixed-use commercial component. The required parking is 67 spaces which the developer meets.

The first deviation of the plan is the 35-foot height limitation. The developer is looking to go to 38 feet for the overall building height to accommodate parapets in the roof. There are also setback deviations. The only deviation needed is to accommodate the south portion of the property. The step back set back is an additional setback required per the PUD. It requires 1 additional foot of setback for every height over 25 feet.

There is a conflict with the existing easement. The petitioner is not requesting the building be placed in the easement. If this is approved by the Village, one of the conditions of approval is that they would do an easement abrogation, which means they would go back to the actual plat of easement and redraw it to fit within the confines of the building.

Staff is recommending approval of the special use. Part of the consideration is the site plan as well.

Chairman Bracket asked if the 67 parking spaces would be only for residential. Toth said no, they would also include commercial parking. Brackett asked what separates the commercial and residential parking. Toth said nothing. Brackett said he could see that as a problem.

Parker Grabowski, owner of the Turf Room, said that after seeing the plans, he was fine with the way it is laid out since he was not in favor of having residential right up against his business.

Toth noted that the petitioner has been told that Lot 4 will not be used for residential and that it will remain commercial.

There were no further questions or comments and Chairman Brackett then closed the public hearing.

NEW BUSINESS
1. Petition #20-01 (Lot 3 – Randall Crossing): The petitioner requests the following actions in the B-2General Business District, Planned Unit Development:
a) A Special Use to allow a Major Change to a Planned Unit Development with deviations.
b) Site Plan Approval.

Commissioner Duncan said that she likes the idea of mixed use. Duncan asked if the extra height being requested is for aesthetic reasons. Answer, yes.

Commissioner Botkin asked, in reference to retail space #1, if the entrance is to the North. The Petitioner state that the entrance is to the north elevation and there is an access door to the patio which will be fenced off.

Commissioner Lenkart asked if the trash area for the entire building would be on the first floor. Answer, yes. Lenkart asked if the trash area would be kept cool in the restaurant area. Answer was that they have discussed a filtration system and looked at ventilation. Lenkart suggested the village follow up on this to make sure there are no issues.

Commissioner Anderson asked about the labor profile. Answer was that there would be a mix of union and nonunion workers. Anderson said the reason for his question was because there have been some recent projects that have been going on for months and it is a non-union project. Anderson said that with his personal experience, things get brought online faster when projects use unions. Anderson asked about the timeline for the project. Answer was some time in the spring. Anderson noted his concern regarding only having three handicap parking spaces for the parking lot. Toth said that the state requires an ADA spot for every 25 spaces. This project is ahead of that with the 67 spaces and three being handicapped. Toth said there is opportunity to incorporate additional ADA spaces that will not affect the number of spaces.

Tuohy clarified that the project is all rental and not rent to own. Roberts said that was correct. Tuohy asked about the average rent. Roberts said approximately $1200/mo. Tuohy said that she shares all of the same concerns about dumpsters. Tuohy asked what type of retail businesses the petitioner envisions for the space. Roberts said a café but not sure about the retail businesses at this time.

Chairman Brackett said that the Commission can codify for Lot 4 as far as what types of businesses are not desired. Village Administrator Steve Bosco said that the more restrictions that are placed, the more likely there will be vacancies.

Tuohy said regarding dumpsters, if there a special handling to dispose of grease. Roberts said that the hotel has a grease trap and there is no mess. Roberts said he was not concerned about grease in the trash area other than what goes into the containers and those are picked up on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Commissioner Rivecco asked if Retail #2 will be plumbed with a grease trap in case a second restaurant goes in. Answer, yes.

Bosco said, for the record, that in no way would you ever say that just because the Plan Commission or the staff or the current developer or current code says you can’t have anything but commercial there, it is never a 100% guarantee. The code says it can’t have anything but commercial now but the village board might decide otherwise since they can override the code.

Motion made by Commissioner Lenkart and seconded by Commission Botkin to accept the changes in petition 20-01 including building height deviation with the exemption for the elevator shaft. Will also permit the proposed setbacks on the front, rear and both sides. Roll Call Vote: Commissioner Lenkart – yes, Commissioner Botkin – yes, Commissioner Duncan – yes, Commissioner Anderson – yes, Commissioner Tuohy – yes, Commissioner Rivecco – yes. Motion approved (6-0).

Motion for approval of the site plan made by Commissioner Rivecco and seconded by Commissioner Tuohy. All in favor. Motion approved.

PLAN COMMISSIONER COMMENTS AND PROJECTS
Aurora Packing – Five phase redevelopment at Aurora Packing. The current building will be torn down and made into parking. They have purchased the property to the south and will be putting up a brand new building.

New Pump Station – Submittal from Fox Metro to do a new pump station on west side. This will come to the Plan Commission in March.

Veralife – Toth said that sales of recreational marijuana after 5 days was almost $11 million in the state. Brackett asked if Verilife is planning to move to another location. Toth said that they are planning to sell at another location.

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

Respectfully Submitted,

Lori J. Murray
Village Clerk

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