City of Highland Park Plan and Design Commission met Oct. 18.
Here are the minutes provided by the commission:
CALL TO ORDER
I. At 7:00 PM Chair Hainsfurther called the meeting to order and asked Director Fontane to call the roll.
II. ROLL CALL
Members Present: Quinlan, Bruckman, Kerch, Moore, Hainsfurther
Members Absent: Hecht
Director Fontane called the roll and declared a quorum present.
Staff Present: Burhop, Fawell, Fontane
Student Rep.: None
Corporation Counsel: Martinez
Council Liaison: None
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
September 20, 2022 Regular Meeting
Chair Hainsfurther entertained a motion to approve the minutes of the September 20, 2022 meeting. Vice Chair Moore motioned to approve, seconded by Commissioner Bruckman.
On a voice vote, the motion passed unanimously.
IV. SCHEDULED BUSINESS
A. Public Hearing #2022-SUP-008 for a Special Use Permit to allow an Animal Clinic or Hospital land use; to include Design Review and zoning variations, as appropriate at 661 Central Ave.
Chair Hainsfurther motioned to continue this item to November 1, 2002. Vice Chair Moore so motioned, seconded by Commissioner Bruckman.
Director Fontane called the roll:
Ayes: Quinlan, Bruckman, Kerch, Moore, Hainsfurther
Nays: None
Motion carried 5-0.
B. Public Hearing #2022-ZTA-001 for a Zoning Text Amendment to modify Chapter 150, the Zoning Code, to add regulations pertaining to required bicycle parking standards, vehicle parking reductions for developments providing bicycle parking, internal parking lot pedestrian circulation systems, and requiring development connectivity to existing/planned trails and multi-use paths.
Planner Fawell made a presentation for the above item including request for feedback, project background, proposed text amendments, required bike parking, required bike parking: multi-family developments, required bike parking: rate, required bike parking: rec. short-term design requirements, granting parking reductions, internal parking lot pedestrian paths and connections to trails/multi-use paths.
Chair Hainsfurther asked if this was for long and short term or one or the other. Planner Fawell stated it was for short term.
Commissioner Bruckman asked about design and if there were any examples from other suburbs.
Planner Fawell stated the suburbs they surveyed break it into short and long parking. Schaumburg has an extensive bike parking requirement. There is some flexibility in cities in terms of bike racks. They were making sure all the dimensions was there with the clearance and the short and long term.
Commissioner Kerch stated he was not familiar with Move HP.
Planner Fawell stated Move HP is an updated to the City’s bike walk 2030 adopted in 2020. It is a City plan done with the assistance with assistance of the Active Transportation Alliance. It is a regional non-profit that works to improve conditions for bicycle, walking and transit. They work with municipalities in developing plan such as these. They put together the complete streets policies. There are a lot of different levels they looked to. It is a guiding plan the City depends on as they look to planning the infrastructure. It recommends specific intersection improvements and trail connections. It goes into the zoning code to promote how we can bicycle and pedestrian safety and accessibility.
Chair Hainsfurther stated this could be included in the packet.
Planner Fawell stated there is a link at the bottom of the memo.
Commissioner Kerch stated they are working on more fronts than just the text amendment.
Planner Fawell stated Move HP focuses on all spheres of the City, planning, public works, home improvements, and the public hearing process.
Director Fontane stated Active Transportation is an advocacy group that had some model complete streets policies and other things referred to in it. It was adopted by Council in October 2020 and part of what they are doing is implementing the plan. There are advocacy groups that have provided standards or suggestions. They have an active transportation plan which is a sub-plan which was approved for their family friendly bikeways program. There are several approaches they have taken to support bicycle and alternate transportation including walking. The Bike Walk 2030 plan was the predecessor to Move HP.
Commissioner Kerch asked if Clavey Rd. was done in accordance with those plan. Director Fontane stated Clavey was in the hopper.
Commissioner Kerch stated they do not do much incentivizing. The idea of doing this by incentivizing and developers get the short shrift.
Chair Hainsfurther stated the zoning ordinance is very incentivized because you get a bonus for units. He asked if they had talked to developers and received their input.
Director Fontane stated they are not talking about a lot of parking and the current code already has incentive in it. It is too burdensome and rigorous. It is not worth it and they are talking about a couple of spaces. The plan called for an incentive that can be used as opposed to all the overhead to you have to do to get it. Staff is proposing a simple way to do it. Bike parking is going to take up room and be located in the garage for a multi family building. Commercial parking is not long term and is the short term bicycle parking. The covered, secure location for long term or overnight parking would be in a garage and take up some room. Highland Park is largely a built out city and there is not a lot of room. Developers fill out the room in terms of the land area and it will come at some cost in terms of land. They want bike parking. It is not so much and there will be fewer cars, but rather they are encouraging to use bikes and to have places that recognize that cycling is part of the transportation effort. Can they exchange some parking for bike parking as a reasonable exchange for adding another requirement to the code that they do provide long term parking. If you have two spaces taken up you would lose a dwelling unit which is not a great exchange.
Commissioner Kerch stated this does not work on a micro scale. On the townhome project that just passed it would make no sense to have bike requirements. If they are granting a special use permit to a store front they are not going to require them to have bike spaces.
Commissioner Kerch stated absolutely on existing trail ways. He thought the landscaping was an overreach and was leery of dictating that kind of detail. It looked like very good reasoning to apply to PUDs which are bigger. He wondered if this was putting the bike before the horse. There is not a lot of infrastructure for biking around Highland Park.
Commissioner Quinlan stated he read Move HP and it is a robust planning document. It is a 60-page document which was revised from June 2019. It is a very thorough document. The 10:1 ratio is universal for 10-car spaces. Commercial is a big umbrella. There are 19 tables. He thought it would relate to how much traffic is being generated.
Chair Hainsfurther stated different uses needs different requirements. Commissioner Quinlan stated they had a lot of uses.
Chair Hainsfurther stated if there is a business on Rt. 41 is someone going to ride their bike to that and some may. If you take car dealerships is there a reason to have bike parking in a car dealership.
Commissioner Quinlan stated he reviewed the 2018 design guideline and there was not anything relating to bike racks. He asked if they wanted a special area for downtown.
Director Fontane stated that was focused on the built environment not so much the accessories. They have a 2016 streetscape plan that talks about design and they are implementing a 10-year capital plan for publically owned bike racks. They want to do some outreach to businesses that night be good locations for racks. They are doing the downtown racks this fall, trash receptacles and fixed and removable seating.
Commissioner Quinlan stated it sounded like they had reached out to local municipalities. He was interested to see what staff was excited about. There was a lot of work that went into Move HP. There is a group called the Intl. Assn. and this is what they specialize in. They would be good to reach out to for best practices.
Vice Chair Moore understood it was one long term bike space per three units with a minimum of five spaces. In particular units you may have two or three or four bikes and maybe you need more. When they talk about the paths through the parking lot and that needs to be codified as to what is a large parking lot. Regarding the landscaping requirements along the bike path, she thought they would not want to see landscaping along both sides. She thought there should be a way to escape, if needed. She wanted to be able to see who is there and get away. She mentioned the necessity of each business to provide a parking space and she thought it was excessive in the main business district. If there is not a city space within ‘x’ number of feet they need to provide one. She mentioned the schools, but maybe that was covered elsewhere.
Director Fontane stated it is one space for every 10 vehicle parking spaces.
Chair Hainsfurther stated in multi-tenant shopping centers you would want to aggregate those.
Chair Hainsfurther thanked Planner Falwell for her presentation. He wrote a note about landscaping trails and whether it is a safety issue or not. He was thinking about people hiding behind it. It would be nice to have landscaping, but it needed to be prescriptive as to the nature of it. He was hesitant about grant reductions in parking spaces for multi family buildings. They often seem to be pinched for that. They can look at McGovern House where there is not enough parking for the tenants and they are parking on the street. They are not giving up a car to have a bike six months out of the year. That is not happening. The majority of people in Highland Park have one car per adult. Reducing parking for multi-family was worrisome and will it cause a problem somewhere else. In the city it is an amenity that developers are selling to the tenants. He did not know if it needed to be incentive based because the market may be driving that. He wanted more information about this from other communities. He thought the parking regulations needed an overhaul because a lot of the commercial spaces are over parked. He agreed with Commissioner Quinlan that it needs to be use based and there are places people are just not going to ride their bike to. They should be aware of that and figure it out. He did not want to make the code more complicated. Land banking spaces seems silly and he was in favor of getting rid of that. He mentioned the location of short and long term bike parking is an issue. At Saks they have bike parking but they are under the first floor ground floor parking. They are not losing spaces. They are areas in multi-family where they can provide bike parking without impacting the parking. He agreed with connectivity in a parking lot, but not sure 5’ is enough depending on the lay out of the parking. If you have head to head parking and a 5’ strip in between with the overhangs you will lose the 5’. They have to be aware and plan for the overhand. There are plans that say if you do not have a wheel stop, you have to have a walk that is bigger. If you have a wheel stop and the overhang is compensated for in the depth of the parking space then you can have a lesser area. What does that do to the landscape requirements inside of a parking lot. He would not like to see conflict or they are taking up so much room that it becomes silly. If you pass a lot of the lots they are not full. Home Depot lots are never full. In the summer they put plants and trees in front. That is because they are required to and they are not interested in buying more land. They should take a look at this. The trail connections do not always make sense. If he is going to Audi he is not riding his bike there and there is no reason to have a connection to the trail along the ComEd ROW. It is not something you can paint with a broad brush and say it is applicable everywhere. On the commercial side they need to realize there are employees who ride bikes all year long because they do not have cars. They need to find a way to set aside some for employee parking. If they do a performance specification for the bike rack that says it has to be easily lockable that is acceptable. But if they say you must use this kind of rack that was not right. They do not want to be prescriptive for a private developer.
Vice Chair Moore stated employees might ride their bike to Audi. She stated there is no way to get across Rt. 22.
Chair Hainsfurther stated there is a signaled crosswalk. They have to be judicious. On a planned unit development you would have some ability to dictate it.
Commissioner Quinlan stated in the Move HP plan there is a pared down version of the 2030 plan with emphasis on east-west connections.
Chair Hainsfurther stated he lives in the Highlands and driving down Old Trail is taking your life in your hands and there are a lot of blind curves. It needs to be improved. He would like to see something in the public benefit package about trying to get some these developers to pay for protective bike lanes.
Commissioner Quinlan mentioned connecting to existing green ways. Chair Hainsfurther stated they need to identify those.
Commissioner Quinlan asked about transportation requirements for new developments. Has asked if there was any discussion about making EV charge stations a requirement for new developments.
Director Fontane stated there are lots of groups looking into EV charging. Commissioner Quinlan mentioned streetscaping.
Director stated they have a 10-year capital plan related to downtown streetscape and amenities.
Commissioner Quinlan asked if he could read this.
Director Fontane stated yes. In 2015-16 they did a concerted planning project to look at the downtown in terms of streetscape. It is a comprehensive plan and was about $19 million estimated for the entirety of the downtown. It included trees, tree infrastructure, irrigation, nice infrastructure including furniture and pavers for the entire downtown. Given budget constraints, Council asked them to dial it down and come up with a subset that could be done. It its entirety it would be probably be $3 million to do. The charge was to look at the downtown and come up with an estimate of what that might be.
Chair Hainsfurther stated they can thank Bob Piper for his vision of what downtown Highland Park should look like.
Director Fontane stated they did very well with the streetscape.
Planner Fawell stated they can explore comments about reductions and thinking about only allowing non-residential uses and employee bike parking.
Chair Hainsfurther stated they could codify that and come up with a ratio.
Chair Hainsfurther motioned continue to November 15, 2022. Commissioner Kerch so motioned, seconded by Commissioner Bruckman.
Ayes: Quinlan, Bruckman, Kerch Moore, Hainsfurther
Nays: None
Motion passed 5-0.
V. OTHER BUSINESS
A. Next Regular Meeting - November 1, 2022
Planner Burhop stated there are two public hearings, one that was continued for an animal clinic and an application for the Woolbright Development by Fulton Development. They had a pre-app in June.
B. Case Briefing - None
VI. BUSINESS FROM THE PUBLIC
VII. ADJOURNMENT
Chair Hainsfurther entertained a motion to adjourn. Vice Chair Moore so motioned, seconded by Commissioner Kerch.
On a voice vote, the motion passed unanimously.
The Plan and Design Commission adjourned at 8:10 PM.
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