VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING
TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2006
7:00 PM
CALL TO ORDER
Village-President Hansen called the meeting to order.
ROLL CALL
In attendance: Trustee Shoemaker, Trustee Berman, Trustee Herlihy, Trustee Gaffino, Trustee Herwig, Village-President Hansen.
Not in attendance: Trustee Mitchell
AUDIENCE COMMENTS
Steve Sabo said that he copied an article from the newspaper because Elburn took a stand on an issue he was here to address. He asked the board to think about a development of senior housing in the high retail area.
Kurt Richter was here on behalf of Cardinal Fitness. It is opening up in town and there is concern as to how the Amusement Ordinance would be assessed. He is here to get some feedback. He doesn’t understand how a health center gets placed under the amusement tax.
1. MESSENGER LIBRARY FINAL SUBDIVISION PLAT
Village-President Hansen removed this from the agenda.
2. BANBURY GROVE REDUCTION OF BOND FROM $41,538.80 TO $6,000.00
Mike Glock said they knocked this down to $ 6 thousand dollars.
Consent agenda.
3. PAYMENT TO FOX VALLEY WEST PROPERTIES, INC. FOR $115, 521.37 FOR HEALY PROPERTY RECAPTURE FOR THE SANITARY SEWER
Sue McLaughlin said that the attorney requested an updated review. It was recommended to be paid at this time.
Consent agenda.
4. ORDINANCE AMENDING THE SEWER RATE PROVISIONS
Sue McLaughlin said this is just a water rate wording change. Wes is reviewing the code book, and he is finding things to correct. There are two sections that need to be cleaned up.
Consent agenda.
5. ORDINANCE REGARDING PAYMENT OF OBLIGATIONS OWED TO THE VILLAGE AS A CONDITION OF THE ISSUANCE OF PERMITS AND LICENSES
Sue McLaughlin said that in the code book it allows them to withhold building permits if the applicant has any outstanding obligations with the village, and we are looking to strengthen that.
Atty. Drendel said that this is written expansively, and may not be easy to enforce.
Trustee Herlihy said that he does not want to pass the ordinance if the enforcement is not as soft as the ordinance reads.
Consent agenda.
6. ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 16 OF NORTH AURORA MUNICIPAL CODE REGARDING SUBDIVISION AND PRESERVATION OF TREES
Sue McLaughlin said we took the existing tree ordinance and tightened it up. We took provisions from other municipalities, and hopefully this will allow us to enforce it better.
Mike Glock said there are three or four trees that we removed from the allowable list.
Trustee Herlihy wondered if the power line buried within five feet was the trunk or drip line. He said that everything should be drip line. He said he was asking for a six foot tall evergreen be at the top of the list. He wants to know if they should be more mature. He wondered if there were any oak tree versions that can fit the list.
Trustee Gaffino wanted to know if we could make the fines stricter, and also have incremental fines that base the fines off of the size of the tree.
Staff said they would look into it.
Atty. Drendel said that you can get an arborist to say how much a tree is worth and then the fine would be triple of the trees worth.
Trustee Herlihy wanted to know if we have to define what kind of soil gets placed with the tree.
Mike Glock said that he never had that problem.
Atty. Drendel said he can clean up the language and submit it for the next Committee of the Whole meeting.
7. NICOR GAS ORDINANCE – RENEWAL OR FRANCHISE AGREEMENT
Sue McLaughlin said that the current agreement expires in February. They talked about shortening the length of the agreement. Nicor says they do not make 20 different agreements for 20 municipalities, and they are presenting the agreement as is. She said there needs to be one correction to change verbiage to Mike Glock’s title.
Village-President Hansen said to put this under new business with the corrections.
8. SECOND AMENDED JURISDICTION BOUNDARY LINE AGREEMENT WITH BATAVIA
Village-President Hansen said we should not be compensating Batavia, but the township.
Jim Bibby said that the city is going to build the intersection. All the cost for Deerpath Road is being taken by Joe Keim.
Trustee Berman said we should be in favor of this because it is allowing something to happen, and this has opened up a new area of the village that hasn’t been considered in the comprehensive plan.
Jim Bibby said that we are in a take it or leave it position with the boundary agreement amendment.
Trustee Herlihy said that he’d rather see this written as a provision of the existing boundary agreement instead of a redefinition.
Atty. Drendel said that in terms of language the first eight sections are identical, and the only new section is section 9.
Village-President Hansen put this under new business.
9. REDUCTION OF WINDSTONE LETTER OF CREDITS # 3065543 FROM $158, 970.05 TO $52,920.50. & LETTER OF CREDIT #3065907 FROM $474, 087,40.
Jim Bibby said that Windstone was begun in 2004, even though it is not rapidly being build out. These credits are long over due. He said these balances are very conservative.
Consent agenda.
10. DISCUSSION OF COMPREHENSIVE MASTER PLAN
Village-President Hansen said that the goals and uses are very well illustrated.
Trustee Herlihy wanted to know if the planner was going to do a summary presentation.
Pete Iosue of Teska Associates said this document was created after meetings with the plan commission. The plan commission approved the draft that they have. We have 90 days to reject, accept or send back. There is a meeting set on January 16th to go into the nuts and bolts. He said what they did was a complete update. They left the formatting similar. They updated the goals and objectives. He said the environmental factors were light. They incorporated bike plans into the plan. He said state law regulates some issues that the Plan Commission addressed.
Trustee Berman said that he feels some things need to be changed. On page 18 he said it talks about the fourth deep well for 1997. He thinks that needs to be updated. He said on page 42 there is deep well discussion, but it is already there and it needs to be updated.
Iosue said that he will make sure that it reads well.
Trustee Herlihy said that the only thing he picked up on was medium residential on part of the map, and he said he thought that we changed that. He said that he doesn’t want the plan saying something different from the ordinance. In the back it discusses environmental factors. Trustee Herlihy said that the staff as well as the board should do a thorough examination of the plan to make sure there are no mistakes.
Trustee Hansen said we will discuss this further at the joint meeting.
11. DISCUSSION OF EXTRA SPACE STORAGE SPECIAL USE FOR A PUD AND OUTSIDE STORAGE
Trustee Berman wanted to know is there any reason to go against their recommendation.
Atty. Drendel said from the legal standpoint, if we are going with the recommendation it would be incumbent to send it back to them before making a decision. There were things the Plan Commission discussed that were consistent as far as the TIF plan goes. But one finding is that it wouldn’t fit with the surrounding area. He said that although they are accurate our ordinance allows for storage in that B2 commercial area, and we can‚Äôt say it fits in the area. He said to send it back to them.
Village-President Hansen said that they should be addressing some of the issues that we have.
Trustee Berman said the plan commission has taken the time and given the effort, and now we should go with what they recommend.
Village-President Hansen said we can send it back to them with more direction.
Village-President Hansen said to put this on the joint meeting agenda for discussion.
12. PAYOUT REQUEST FOR LINN COURT STREET IMPROVEMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $21, 548.06 TO GENEVA CONSTRUCTION CO.
Mike Glock said we are ready to close it out.
Consent agenda.
13. PAYOUT REQUEST #5 FOR OAK STREET AND ORCHARD ROAD IN THE AMOUNT OF $21, 548.06 TO GENEVA CONSTRUCTION CO.
Consent agenda.
14. SET DATE TO DISCUSS ACTIVITY CENTER USAGE
Village-President Hansen put this on the February 6th Committee of the Whole agenda.
15. DISCUSSION OF MINUTES: VILLAGE BOARD – OCTOBER 10th, 2005, VILLAGE BOARD/ COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE – OCTOBER 19th, 2005 & VILLAGE BOARD MEETING – NOVEMBER 14, 2005
Consent agenda.
16. AMUSEMENT TAX DISCUSSION
Trustee Herwig said that this was passed back in 1997. It was because of a decline in sales tax revenues. He wants to review the ordinance in order to decide what is a definition of amusement activities. He said there is a section with physical fitness. He thinks we should revise this ordinance.
Trustee Berman was wondering if we could see what surrounding municipalities are doing.
Atty. Drendel said no one but East Dundee has an amusement tax.
Village-President Hansen wanted to know why we can tax physical therapists since they are licensed. We are not allowed to do that.
Dewayne Williams said that he recommends suspending the enforcement of the amusement part of the ordinance until it has been revised.
Village-President Hansen put this under new business.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: THREATENED LITIGATION & PERSONNEL
A motion was made by Trustee Herlihy to adjourn to executive session and seconded by Trustee Herwig. All in favor. Motion approved.
A motion was made by Trustee Shoemaker to adjourn the Committee of the Whole meeting and seconded by Trustee Berman. All in favor. Motion approved.
Respectfully Submitted,
Joseph P. Lowery
Village Clerk
