Village of Bartlett Committee of the Whole met Aug. 16.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
CALL TO ORDER
President Wallace called the Committee of the Whole meeting of the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Bartlett to order on the above date at 7:19 p.m.
ROLL CALL
PRESENT: Chairmen Deyne, Gandsey, Gunsteen, Hopkins, Suwanski, President Wallace
ABSENT: None
ALSO PRESENT: Village Administrator Paula Schumacher, Assistant Village Administrator Scott Skrycki, Human Resources Director Janelle Terrance , Management Analyst Joey Dienberg, Economic Development Coordinator Tony Fradin, Finance Director Todd Dowden, Public Works Director Dan Dinges, Assistant Public Works Director Tyler Isham, Public Works Engineer Bob Allen, Interim Planning & Development Director Kristy Stone, Head Golf Professional Phil Lenz, Police Chief Pretkelis, Village Attorney Bryan Mraz and Village Clerk Lorna Giless.
BUILDING & ZONING, CHAIRMAN HOPKINS
Bannerman’s Site Plan and Special Use Permit
Chairman Hopkins introduced the item.
Chairman Gunsteen asked if they have addressed outdoor smoking areas in the seating area.
Mr. Maqsood stated they have a dedicated smoking areas to the south side of the building, by the Bocce ball and bags area.
Chairman Gandsey asked what month the outdoor events would go through. Mr. Maqsood stated it will depend on weather but October is the goal. Chairman Deyne asked what the time frame for construction was.
Mr. Maqsood stated they are hoping for sometime in September and it will take about 9 months. We want to be ready by May or June of next year.
Chairman Suwanski stated she believed planning and zoning had an issue with the loading and unloading of the trucks.
Mr. Maqsood stated they widened the area on the side where the trucks are coming in. Additionally, most of the deliveries are done early in the morning, so they can park by the front door if needed.
Chairman Suwanski asked where the employee parking area is.
Interim Planning and Development Services Director Kristy Stone stated it is on the north side of the building. It has its own private curb cut.
President Wallace asked where the fence goes.
John Eggersdorfer, Architect for the project stated that if you start from the corner near the stage, there is a solid fence that runs to the property line. It is a 6-foot-high fence that will prevent people from parking on the street and listening to the concert. There is another aluminum picket fence around the back that will provide a nicer view of the pond.
President Wallace asked if the area in front of the stage will all be grass because it could be problematic if its rainy. He also asked if the stage was permanent.
Mr. Maqsood stated it will all be grass and the music will be moved inside if necessary. He also stated that the stage is permanent.
Chairman Gunsteen asked if staff has looked at the exit hardware and how they get out. When it gets crowded, is there enough exits and what are you using to prevent people from coming in and still be able to get folks out in a quick manner.
Ms. Stone stated there are multiple gates near the stage area and two to the east. They all have hardware that is designed to have people exit and not for entrance.
Chairman Hopkins asked to have the designated smoking area highlighted in red with the dimensions for when it comes back for a vote.
Mr. Maqsood said they are excited about the project and he thinks it will be a nice area for people to come and enjoy the music.
Chairman Deyne stated the Planning and Zoning Commission also did a great job on this project.
The item was forwarded on to the Village Board for a vote.
Cannabis Dispensing Center Text Amendment
Chairman Hopkins introduced the item.
Ms. Stone stated she knows there was some possible confusion about the downtown overlay district. There are some zoning districts like Main St. Plaza where the Harris Bank is located that are zoned B-3. However, because it is in the downtown overlay district, it would also be prohibited because it was in the downtown overlay district.
Chairman Gunsteen asked if we think a complete overlay of the entire downtown is overly restrictive.
Chairman Deyne stated that’s what he thought initially after looking at how large the overlay district was. He likes it to be a Special Use and thought restricting it entirely is too extreme. He stated he did not think there would be a traffic issue because of this use.
President Wallace asked how many cars per day they would get.
Speakers: Steven Malitz, Town Center Owner
Paul Lee with Dispensary33
Stephen Cioromski, property manager and broker.
Mr. Lee stated he thought they would receive between 200 and 400 customers per day. They could be there as short as 3 minutes and up to about 10 minutes.
Chairman Deyne asked about their hours of operation.
Mr. Lee stated they are typically open from 9:00am to 9:00pm.
Chairman Gandsey asked why this area was more attractive vs. Rt. 59.
Mr. Cioromski thought the Bartlett Town Center was good because of the Metra, across the street from the police station and the center needs life. Many municipalities were sending these places to their industrial parks initially.
President Wallace stated his biggest concern are lines. There are 100’s of people in line to get in.
Mr. Lee stated they have a lot of experience, especially in 2020 with huge crowds and having to deal with them. They have a lot of strategies to deal with that, as well as pre order pickups in order to get customers out the door. We have a mindset where we want to help people and make sure the retail experience is a good one for our customers. Currently, they can do 1,100 customers on a Friday in 800 square feet with virtually no line at all.
Chairman Gandsey asked if they still have lines out the door at their Lincoln Park facility.
Mr. Lee stated they do not.
Chairman Deyne asked where they are thinking about locating.
Mr. Cioromski stated its about 3,700 square feet behind the Marco’s adjacent to the hallway leading to the rear of the building.
Chairman Suwanski stated that St. Charles does not allow it in their downtown, but they have one on North Ave. right in the open. She asked if they are responsible for their own security because they referenced the police department nearby.
Mr. Lee stated they are.
Mr. Cioromski stated when he first began representing the center he felt like the Metra and the police station would be helpful to have nearby. He gets push back for these types of uses and he thought a police station across the street would give people peace of mind.
Chairman Deyne clarified the location and asked about the 1,100 customers on a Friday.
Mr. Cioromski stated the 1,100 people are in more dense areas like the west loop and Lincoln Park.
Chairman Deyne stated he came in there with an open mind and when we start talking about the volume of people in that location, he gets a bad taste in his mouth.
Mr. Maltiz stated the 1,100 people are in their Chicago locations.
President Wallace stated we are talking about traffic and sometimes he can even have an issue parking on a Friday night at Bannerman’s.
Mr. Malitz stated they have plenty of parking in the rear of the building.
Chairman Suwanski stated that we should acknowledge that we have an apartment building that still hasn’t gone up yet, a train merger that will potentially cause some issues in the downtown area and we have another project we have been discussing that is going to bring a lot of traffic into the downtown area too.
Chairman Hopkins stated you bring up some good points but we are not talking about a specific sight plan, just if we are going to prohibit this in the downtown area or not.
Chairman Gunsteen stated that being that you are selecting the downtown area, is the state still requiring you to have onsite security at all times.
Mr. Lee stated yes.
Chairman Gunsteen asked how they would keep their customers from using the product in the parking lot or as they are sitting in their car. He has some reservations about the amount of traffic and making sure there are no issues for our residents.
Mr. Lee stated we have some of those issues around their stores. Their security guards are forced to go to each point and secure those areas. If there are people smoking or trying to smoke in their cars, the security guards are told to stop that since on site consumption is not allowed. He also wanted to clarify the 1,100 number. That is the number of people they can process in 800 sq.ft. without much of a line at all. He is not saying that is the number of people coming to this location. They believe they know how to handle large demand and make sure people are in and out in a quick manner.
President Wallace stated I’m sure you have some numbers as far as what you built your business plan on.
Mr. Lee stated they are expecting between 200 and 400 per day.
Chairman Gandsey asked if we have any estimates on the number of people that go to the downtown bars or what we are expecting with More Brewing.
Chairman Deyne asked if we vote for the text amendment, include no dispensaries in the downtown overlay districts, is it still a Special Use and could someone could come back in and petition the board to come in.
Attorney Mraz stated it is not allowed the way the ordinance is written. The board would have to add a provision in the text amendment to include it as a permitted use in the downtown overlay district.
Chairman Deyne stated he doesn’t want to prohibit it in the downtown, just make it a Special Use.
Attorney Mraz stated a Special Use by case law, is a permitted use. It may be more onerous and you may vote down the permitted use, but in litigation that may not stand so there is not as much discretion granting or not granting a Special Use.
Chairman Gunsteen stated he personally thinks the overlay district is too restrictive but his opinion is that the B-1 district should be restricted and the police department adjacent to any B-1 district. He doesn’t think it’s fair to the residents there to put a marijuana dispensary there. He also would not want to see it along Railroad Ave., but that’s just his opinion.
Chairman Suwanski stated that when we brought this up in March the petition was pulled then staff asked the board to look at the 1,000 feet restriction and we decided to go with what the state allowed. We decided to open up to our other business districts in town but we were not comfortable at that point to allow it in the downtown overlay.
Chairman Gunsteen stated there is plenty of areas downtown or if there was a strip mall without residential above it.
President Wallace stated his biggest concern is the traffic.
Mr. Lee stated in the West Loop we have residents above our dispensary in that location and we are very good neighbors so they do not mind being above it. We try to eliminate anyone smoking out front of the dispensaries because we have cameras and that is where you will get caught. These places are visited by a lot of people and are frequented because some people use it as a medicine and go on a daily basis, but they are also filled with a bunch of law-abiding people who are not going underground, they are coming to the legal places to get the product.
President Wallace stated he agrees, but it doesn’t fix his problem with that many cars going in and out of a small area. He asked what percentage of sales that are edibles and non-smoked products.
Mr. Lee stated edibles and vaporization account for about 65% of sales and they are growing every year.
Mr. Malitiz stated they have smell scrubbers and all of it is stored in sealed packages.
President Wallace stated anything that is controlled by the state will probably change over time and they may even allow smoke rooms in the future where you can try it on site.
Chairman Hopkins stated the biggest issue he sees is item C of the text amendment, everything else seems good. He stated Chairman Gunsteen would like to go back to the drawing board and carve out some of the downtown overlay district and allow some areas downtown to permit it. He asked if it can come back to committee again and discuss item C.
President Wallace stated to assist the people here tonight, he doesn’t want it in that area. He has nothing against their business, but he is concerned with the traffic and how it will affect downtown residents and businesses.
Chairman Deyne stated he thinks the downtown overlay district is too large and we need to evaluate where these would be properly located. He has a bad taste in his mouth about this and he thinks we need to be concerned about the amount of traffic and separate that from other uses.
Chairman Gunsteen stated they have limited parking in the downtown area, all in the B 1 area. The Bartlett Town Center looks like it has a lot of parking, but we have a lot of residents there. If that retail center was full, there would not be enough parking for the residents. That is not a parking problem he wants to put on those residents. He has no problem having this traffic problem in another area of town, but he thinks it should be situated outside of a residential environment. If it was a low density use in this particular unit, it might work better, but they are a successful, high density use and he doesn’t want to put that strain on the residents.
Chairman Hopkins stated this will go back to staff to do some further evaluation on carving out certain areas to be permitted.
Village Administrator Paula Schumacher stated that we have several centers with residential above, and asked if the board also wanted to include that component in the analysis.
Chairman Hopkins stated he believes so.
President Wallace stated they will be adjourning to Executive Session to Discuss Security Procedures and Public Safety Pursuant to Section 2(c)8 of the Open Meetings Act.
Chairman Deyne moved to adjourn the Committee of the Whole meeting and that motion was seconded by Chairman Suwanski.
ROLL CALL VOTE TO ADJOURN
AYES: Chairmen Deyne, Gandsey, Gunsteen, Hopkins, Suwanski
NAYS: None
ABSENT: None
MOTION CARRIED
The meeting was adjourned at 7:58 p.m.
https://www.bartlettil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/12727/637981363166630000
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