VILLAGE OF NORTH AURORA
VILLAGE BOARD MEETING
APRIL 14, 2008
CALL TO ORDER
Village President Hansen called the meeting to order.
ROLL CALL
In attendance: Village President John Hansen, Trustee Dale Berman, Trustee Mike Herlihy, Trustee Bob Strusz, Trustee Mark Gaffino, Trustee Linda Mitchell, Trustee Max Herwig.
Staff in attendance: Village Attorney Kevin Drendel, Village Administrator Sue McLaughlin, Management Analyst Wes Kornowske, Community Development Director Scott Buening, Finance Director Bill Hannah, Public Work Superintendent Mike Glock, Village Engineer Jim Bibby, Police Chief Tom Fetzer, Fire Bureau Chief Mark Bozik.
AUDIENCE COMMENTS
Marty McCoy, 1693 Waterford Road, North Aurora, IL – Mr. McCoy addressed the Board on behalf of North Aurora Together with five (5) major points.
1. North Aurora Together looks forward to the eventual development of the Oak & Orchard property and understands the need for and supports commercial development in order to increase the Village’s tax base.
2. Development must be harmonious or it is self defeating. If commercial development is not carefully guided and subject to community input through our elected officials, quality of life will be compromised.
3. Placing conditions is not hostility. It has been said that the rejection of special uses and economic incentives last May was a hostile act. It is the norm for communities to place restrictions on developments and to ask for conditions from developers in writing. The entire reason annexation agreements exist is to hold parties to an agreement to make sure future development is harmonious and to give communities protection against improper or unwise development.
4. Steps are not stops. There has been a sense created that the site plan approval and other formalities will be a real opportunity for the community, through their village board, to balance development. This could be inaccurate. While any future applicant would have to go through steps to get approval, if a business fits the permitted uses, they could build by right and any effort to stop them would open the Village up to legal action. If the Village Staff and Board feel that there will probably be a need for special use or variance, then inserting such conditions into the annexation agreement would not be a difficult matter.
5.
