Good evening, everybody. Welcome. Nice to see a big crowd here.
We'll call this meeting to order for the July 21st, 2025 regular meeting for the Village of Buffalo Grove Board.
And if you'd all join me with the Pledge of Allegiance, please.
Thank you all for that.
And if the clerk would please call the roll.
President Smith.
Here.
Trustee Johnson.
Here.
Trustee Richards.
Here.
Trustee Cicero.
Here.
Thank you Madam clerk we've got one set of minutes to approve tonight and I will entertain a motion to approve the
minutes from the June 16th 2025 regular board meeting. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on those?
any corrections? Seeing none, clerk please call the roll.
Johnson? Aye.
Richards? Aye.
Cereo? Aye.
Johnson and Warrant? Aye.
Warrant Check? Aye.
Widenfield? Aye.
Motion carried. Thank you. Item three is approval of Warrant,
Warrant number 1383. Mr. Black?
Thank you. Thank you.
For the general fund, we have payments of $1,661,469.38.
8 cents parking lot fund three hundred and forty three dollars and fifty-five cents debt
service fund four thousand ten dollars and sixty-two cents late cook to fund six hundred
ninety seven thousand four hundred fifty nine dollars and fifty cents capital projects
facilities two hundred seventy three thousand one hundred fifteen dollars and thirty two
cents capital projects vehicles and equipment one hundred fifty four thousand four hundred
$161 capital project streets one million three hundred seventeen thousand six hundred and thirty five dollars and thirty four cents
water fund
one million two hundred and thirty seven thousand eight hundred sixty six dollars and thirty seven cents Buffalo Grove Golf Fund
Seventy seven thousand one hundred ninety dollars and twenty three cents
Arboretum Golf Fund one hundred twenty eight thousand three hundred sixty six dollars and ninety two cents
Refuge Service Fund seventy six thousand eight hundred fifty six dollars
information technology fund $109,847.69, central garage fund $103,203.21 and building maintenance
internal service fund $89,910.49. We have three payrolls for the period ending June 15th,
$2,025, $1,881,988.89 for the period ending June 29th, $1,179,506.81 and for the period
ending July 13th, $1,191,415.79.
total warrant 1383 is $8,293, $231 and 32 cents. Thank you. Thank you, Chris.
Trustee Cicero entertain a motion to approve warrant number 1383, please.
I move to approve warrant number 1383 in the amount of $8,293,231 and 32 cents.
Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion on the warrant? Seeing none, clerk, please call the roll.
Johnson. Aye. Sirio. Richards. Aye. Sirio. Aye.
On the hundredth. Aye. Otrick. Aye. Eindfeld. Aye. Motion carried. Thank you. Under President's report, two items for me.
I'd like to acknowledge the passing recently of Bobby O'Reilly.
Bobby O'Reilly was the Buffalo Grove trustee from 1979 to 1987.
We'd like to send our condolences to her family and friends.
Item two, I've got the opportunity of a lifetime for all of our residents.
Next Tuesday, July 29th, from 5.30 to 7.30, right here in this room, you've got the opportunity to use your creativity and your vision to help us determine what Clove Park is going to be for the next several years and for many years after that.
So please, we need your engagement.
We're looking for all public input.
And again, it is an open house format,
and I've been informed that there's going to be some good refreshments as well.
So please, next Tuesday, 5.30 to 7.30, right here,
continuation of our public engagement for Clove Park.
With that, we'll move on to item 5, the Village Manager's Report.
Thank you, Mr. President.
You really just made Nicole Wood's evening.
I mean, she's so happy to hear that plug for Clove Park.
But equally as important, I would like to call on our
Board of Fire and Police Commissioner, Chair Ed McKee,
as well as Chief Cain, who will be administering the oath
for our newest firefighters here in the village of Buffalo Grove.
Thank you. Good
evening. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to stand before you this
evening for another exciting event in the history of the Buffalo Grove Fire
Department. Tonight President McKee will administer the oath of office to the
fire department's three new hires. Firefighter EMT Timothy Heatley, firefighter
paramedic Patrick Murray, and firefighter paramedic Nicholas Walski.
Firefighter E.M.T. Heatley is a U.S. Navy veteran and a former emergency room nurse.
He graduated McHenry County College's Fire Academy last Friday.
This evening his badge will be pinned on him by his wife, Anson.
Firefighter paramedic Patrick Murray joins the Buffalo Grove Fire Department after serving
with the Lake Zurich Fire Department.
He is a 2014 graduate of the Elk Grove Township Fire Academy and a 2016 graduate of the Highland
Park Paramedic School.
Patrick's badge will be pinned on him by his mother.
Firefighter Paramedic Nicholas Wolski joins the Buffalo Grove Fire Department after serving with the Spring Grove Fire Protection District.
He is a 2024 graduate of the McHenry County College Fire Academy and a 2025 graduate of the McHenry County College Paramedic School.
Nick will learn to regret this, but his badge will be pinned on him by myself.
I'd now like to have our new firefighters and their family members come forward and
then I'll turn them like over to President McKee to administer the oath of
office to our newest members of the Buffalo Grove Fire Department.
All
right, thank you all for coming up and I'd like to thank the background team
that helps us so much as we evaluate candidates. We have such a great
department and you can see the family that's here to welcome you and they
will do a great job of grooming you and helping you become successful in
our department. So again, welcome to the department.
Basically, for taking lives in property,
as I just said, the duty of firefighting for the night is to best of my ability.
Congratulations.
And then we have the oldest chair for you to sign over here.
Thank
you.
Okay.
Thank you, Chairman McKee.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chief Cain.
And welcome to our new firefighter paramedics.
And I believe that's the end of the Village Manager's report.
It is, thank you.
And we will move on.
There is no special business tonight,
or is there any reports from trustees tonight?
Seeing none, we'll move on to the Consent Agenda.
Item 8, all items listed on the Consent Agenda,
which are available in this room this evening,
are considered to be routine by the Village Board
and will be enacted by one motion.
There will be no separate discussion of these items
unless a board member or citizen so requests,
In which event the item will be removed from the general order of business and considered after all other items of business on the regular agenda under new business.
If the clerk would please read the consent agenda.
Thank you. Resolution 2025-21, adopting intergovernmental agreement with the Joint Emergency Management System, JEMS.
Ordinance 2025-79, authorizing the certificate of initial acceptance for Tesla.
Ordinance 2025-80, authorizing the certificate of initial acceptance for the clove.
Ordinance 2025-81, authorizing a development improvement agreement with the Malnadi Organization, LLC, for the Lume-Malnadi's patio addition.
Ordinance 2025-82 approving a special use for a non-academic school at 727 Hastings Lane.
Ordinance 2025-83 approving a right-of-way access agreement with Level 3 Communications,
LLC.
Ordinance 2025-84 approving an amendment to the PUD and preliminary plan for Epicure
Dining at 720 Westlake Cook Road, Ordnance 2025-85 approving a right-of-way access agreement
with EZ Fiber, Texas, LLC, Ordnance 2025-86, an amendment to the preliminary plan for a
deck at Lumilnotties 85 South Buffalo Grove Road, Ordnance 2025-87, authorizing execution
of a contract with Hydrochem Systems, Inc.
for Automated Truck Wash at 1650 Lake Lighter Lane.
That ends a consent agenda and staff recommends approval
of all items on the consent agenda.
Thank you, Madam Clerk.
Is there anybody on the board
that would like any item removed from the consent agenda?
Seeing none.
Is there anybody from the public
who would like any item removed from the consent agenda?
Seeing none, I will entertain a motion
to approve the consent agenda.
So moved.
Second.
Discussion?
Seeing none.
Clerk, please call the roll.
Johnson?
Aye.
Richards?
Aye.
Cesario?
Aye.
Vattenheimer?
Aye.
Bochick?
Aye.
Oidenfield?
Aye.
Motion carried.
Thank you.
Consent agenda is approved.
We'll move on to Item 9, ordinances and resolutions.
And Trustee Bochick, I'll entertain a motion
to approve Resolution Number 2025-22.
I move to approve Resolution 2025-22,
approving the adoption of amendments
to the Personnel Manual
for the Village of Buffalo Grove Employees.
Second.
We have a motion and a second.
Ms. Goldbach.
Good evening.
Board of Trustees,
this evening before you for consideration
as an amendment to the Buffalo Grove Personnel Manual
In an effort to maintain internal equity and consistency in the administration of employee
benefits, staff recommends the incorporation of one additional floating holiday per calendar
year for all non-represented employees.
The purpose of this additional floating holiday is to allow employees to use it for personal
observance including Juneteenth or any other significant cultural, religious, or personal
dates of importance to the individual employee. This amendment to the manual aligns the benefits
of non-represented employees with those negotiated in recent labor contracts. At this time I'd
be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you, Katie. Any comments or questions for Katie?
Seeing none, clerk, please call
the roll.
Johnson.
Aye.
Richards.
Aye.
Cisterio.
Aye.
Ottenheimer.
Aye.
Hi.
Mocha.
Hi.
Wydenfield.
Hi.
Motion carried.
Thank you.
Thank you, Katie.
Trustee Wydenfield, I'll entertain a motion to approve ordinance 2025-88, please.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I move the adoption of ordinance 2025-88, which is an ordinance authorizing an engineering
services agreement with Hampton, Lenzini, and Renwick as contained in your packet
and subject to final approval by our legal counsel.
Second.
We have a motion and a second.
Ms. Schwab, welcome.
Hi, thank you, everyone.
Thank you.
Good to see you all tonight.
This contract will provide critical staffing coverage
during the engineering division's leadership transition
and support the increased development
and infrastructure project demands.
Hampton, Lindsay, and N. Renwick were selected
based on their experienced team members,
their flexibility, and their cost-effective approach
and to ensure continuity of services
while permanent hires are recruited and onboarded.
STAC recommends approval of a six month time
and materials professional service agreement with HLR
for engineering support not to exceed $300,000.
I just want to point out this is a not to exceed
and it's only as needed.
So whatever services we are provided is what we will use
and we're going to be assessing weekly
what our needs are for the project coverage
and development needs.
And this time I'll answer any questions.
Thank you, Brigitte.
Comments and questions, trustee Otenheimer.
Thank you, Mr. President.
So you hit on my key point, six months and not to exceed 300,000.
I'm going to ask you to look into your crystal ball.
Do you have any idea are we going to come close to 300,000?
Because that sounds like a lot of money
for a six-month period.
It does.
And I honestly don't think so.
This is a very aggressive ask, I'm aware of that,
but we're also wanted to plan for a worst case scenario.
I can already see that this week
we're not gonna need 40 hours of service from them.
So it'll be kind of ebb and flow.
There's some weeks that we might use more
and there's some weeks that we might use less.
They've also proposed a different level of staffing.
So we have some higher level senior staff members
as well as some new entry employees that can provide some of the more simpler services
or we need them to look up resources for us, provide background support for different projects,
they'll be able to do that instead of paying someone high level money.
Thank you.
Trustee Caesarea.
I would just like to echo that and say, you know, I saw the number and I'm like,
it seems like a lot, but full support for doing it this way, right?
because we don't know what we don't know.
We're trying to cover for somebody who's very talented
as you're remaking the department.
Right? And looking at that,
I understand there are a lot of moving parts.
So full support for arranging the moving parts.
It was just something we're all cognizant about, obviously.
Thank you. That means a lot.
We are trying our best to maintain continuity.
So thank you for noticing.
Thank you, Trustee Boček.
just really quickly we have a couple of different engineering firms and I guess
my concern and totally trust you I just want to get your pick your brain on this
we have a couple of different engineering firms how do we prevent sort of
gaps in the scope I mean is each one kind of identified by a particular
project you know what I'm saying so this particular contract is for the
development reviews and capital program infrastructure support needs the
consultants that we've hired to address those specific projects will still be
running those specific projects this is more ancillary items that are coming up
that we may not have anticipated it's change orders happening in the field
typically that's something that myself or the former village engineer would
review for approval and giving the staffing changes and the need to kind of
spread ourselves. We have somebody else who's qualified to kind of review that
as a check them balances to the consultants that we have. Okay now I
totally I totally get it and I just wanted to make sure at least for my
information that I understood what the difference was. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Thank you for your proposal.
It is a big ask, but you know what?
It's a good problem to have because we have so much going on.
We have so many developments that are coming in right now that it's needed,
and it's a good problem for us to have, so thank you.
Thank you.
There's no other comments or questions.
Clerk, please call the roll.
Johnson.
Aye.
Richards.
Aye.
Osirio.
Aye.
Ottenheimer.
Aye.
Ochek.
Aye.
Thank you. We have no unfinished business. We'll move on to item 11, which is new business
There's a pre-application discussion for Kenley residential development and
Miss Woods is on her way
Good evening.
Good evening. Thank you
And
my homes is the contract purchaser of approximately 35 acres at
16 5 2 3 16 7 3 7 at the Kissick Road in unincorporated Lake County
The proposed development called Kenley Subdivision will include 152 townhome units which will
include a floor plan that will feature first floor primary bedroom as well as 37 single
family homes.
The proposed plan is drawing from the design principles of the link crossing development
which is just north of this project and that will include various elements such
as rear-loaded townhomes, bicycle and pedestrian connectivity, and a centralized open space.
It aligns with existing, surrounding, and future land uses, zoning, and comprehensive
plan concepts.
At this time, the developer is requesting a zoning of R7 and is proposing a density
of around 5.12 units per acre, similar to Waterbury Place.
The plan features two access points along AptiKissick and as well as internal roads,
thereby aligning with the village's future vision for corridor access.
Keloa has reviewed the conceptual plan and it indicates the existing roadway can accommodate
the traffic generated by this project and recommends a cross access via Margate Drive, which will
continue to be evaluated as part of this project.
The project will require annexation, a residential PUD, zoning map amendment, applied of subdivision,
preliminary plan, and potential variations from the zoning and sign codes.
The appropriate school districts and park district have been informed of this project
as it continues to evolve and prior to the require public hearing the
developers seeking comments from the village board and a referral to the
planning zoning commission. Now I'd like to introduce Margaret Ganko, hopefully I
didn't, all right I'm afraid I mispronounced the last time, who'll
provide a brief overview of the project. Thank you.
Good evening. Good evening.
I'm Margaret Ganko. I'm an attorney with Saul Ewing LLP and we
represent MI Homes. You may recall that we were before you on May 19th to present
Highbury Club. We appreciate the opportunity to be back this evening and
to introduce a new and exciting community that we're calling Kenley. We're
excited to share our vision with you and look forward to your input as we
move throughout the process.
So as you may recall from our presentation on May
19th, MI Homes has been a trusted name in home building for nearly 50
years having been founded in 1976. Over the past two decades, MI homes has also
become an established presence in the Chicagoland market delivering
thoughtfully designed communities tailored to the needs of today's
homeowners. Their portfolio in this region includes a range of high-quality
single-family homes and townhomes. The yellow stars shown on the screen
represent new projects with the blue stars showing completed communities. Here
you'll see here you'll see the Chicago Land Division team for MI Homes. I'm
joined this evening by Anna Sutton who's the Manager of Land Entitled
We're here to answer any questions that you may have.
In light of the ongoing housing shortage in Lake County, we hope this presentation demonstrates
how Kenley has been carefully planned to respond to the housing needs across Lake County. The
community is designated, is designed to offer a diverse mix of housing options that accommodates
households of various sizes, ages, income levels, and life stages.
So here's a map showing the general location of Kenley here in Buffalo Grove.
As shown on this slide, MI has developed or is in the process of developing several
nearby communities.
Kenley is conveniently located near two metro stations, Lake Cook Road and the Buffalo
Grove Town Center, offering access to transit and local amenities.
communities.
This slide shows Kenley in relation to two other MI communities, towns at Barclay
and Hibrary Club. So Kenley was designed with Buffalo Grove's 2050 vision in mind, featuring
open green spaces, central gathering areas, and walkability throughout the community.
So this slide shows an overview of the comprehensive plan for the broader area with
our site highlighted just south of Aptakissic Road.
Here we've zoomed in on the comprehensive
plan as it relates to our site. The west portion is designated for attached single family homes
in the east for detached single family homes. Kenley is designed to align with this vision
with 152 townhomes planned for the west side and 37 single family homes planned for the east.
So this map illustrates natural stormwater flow across the property, which as you can
see moves southward.
And MI Homes has carefully designated the detention of wetland areas to work seamlessly
with the property's natural stormwater flow, creating an environmentally harmonious and
functional landscape.
The site features generous green spaces, including a half-acre open area centrally
located in the northern section.
The green highlighted on the attached slide represents the public street plan to connect
southward to Margate.
This connection aligns with the existing road stub located in the community to the south,
which was originally intended during the development of that community to link to the subject
property providing residents of the, of the, residents south of the site with convenient
access through the development to Aptacistic Road.
road. The road shown in red are private streets that will provide an east-west connection
across the development. There is also an eight-foot multi-use path that continues through the
site to the large open space to the south. To improve connectivity to that open space
to the south, MI Homes is actively working with ComEd to create a walking path across
the ComEd utility quarter, linking residents directly to this open space.
This map
map highlights gas parking areas in red, while 350 gas parking spaces are required.
Kenley is designed to provide 416 spaces exceeding the requirement by 66 spots.
So this image shows the front of one of the attached single-family units in the Expresso
color palette.
Additionally, the end units of most townhome buildings are age-targeted ranch-style homes,
and this is an exclusive design crafted by MI homes specifically for Kenley.
And here are rear and side elevations of the attached single family homes.
And this is the attached single family in the iron gray palette.
And here is floor plans.
And here's the park and open space that's contemplated in between the town home units.
For
the single family portion of Kenley, MI Homes will offer five distinct models
each with four to five elevation options and 10 to 15 color palettes.
With this level of variety, monotony will not be an issue.
The community is designed to reflect architectural diversity and maintain visual interest throughout.
Here are the elevations and floor plans of the various single-family home-detached models.
So here's the landscape plan, which highlights the abundant green space thoughtfully integrated
throughout the community.
From open lawns and gathering areas to walking paths and natural features, every element
of Ken Lee has been designed to support a vibrant, connected and livable neighborhood
that reflects Buffalo Grove's long-term vision. Thank you.
Thank you for your presentation.
Nicole, did you have anything else you wanted to add?
No additional comments. Just would love to hear any comments and feedback from the
Board as it is looking to be referred to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Thank you. Trustee Johnson.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I think this plan is great.
It fits in very well with the existing community, having the single family budding up to existing
single family homes.
I especially like that you're including a ranch style, because we do hear from a lot
of empty nesters that there's nowhere to move to and stay in within Buffalo Grove.
So that's a great asset.
There is one thing I do want to caution.
And I think this is really more for the plan commission and staff.
The continuation of Margate into Old Farm Village would mean opening up a road into a neighborhood
that's been in existence for almost 40 years.
And I think a lot of the original owners probably don't live there anymore and never
knew that that was going to open up.
I mean, they could probably assume it would at some point.
right. So I know that there are other alternatives or we could have two cul-de-sacs butting up
against each other. But I also think that we should really make a very concerted effort
to talk to the residents that are affected, the people that already live on Margate, because
they're used to having a debt on the street. And this is going to change traffic on
their street greatly. And also perhaps people who live along Thompson as well. Because
I think the worst thing would be if people suddenly realize, I live on a through street
and I haven't, this is not what I thought I was buying or where I was going to live.
So I'd rather have them feel informed and be a part of the decision than not be informed.
And you know, if it's the best way to have it continue, then we should communicate that
to our residents.
But I hope the plan commission, I see we have Mr. Sponge here from the plan commission.
And if you could just ask them to really spend some time
analyzing this if it's truly necessary for it
to be a through road or not.
Otherwise, I love the plan.
I think it's great.
And welcome to Buffalo Growl.
Thank you, Trustee Johnson.
I'm just going to make one quick comment about that.
Your point is well noted.
And I do want to allude the fact in projects such as this.
There is, in addition to the public hearing,
the developer does sponsor a neighborhood public meeting to further gather feedback from the
surrounding areas and neighbors. How do people find out about that? We encourage the, so there's
two points of input for this neighborhood meeting. We encourage the developer to utilize the
addresses and mail notices out prior to that meeting, which is a neighborhood meeting. I mean,
And it's as the developer puts on in terms of their structure and format.
And then of course the public hearing, then we'll follow afterwards.
And it follows a similar format in that all property owners within 250 feet of the subject
property get mailed per law.
Yeah.
I don't know if 250 feet is really going to be enough to get all of the data.
We'll work with the developer in making sure that the residents that you're speaking of
are included on the list.
Yeah.
And then, so along with me, perhaps sending a letter, but I mean maybe our communications
department can also do some publicity on social media about these open, like, meetings
that you're having with residents, because at least we can then fall back on, well,
we had this, we asked for your opinion, but just to make sure that people are
aware because this is going to be a big change for them.
Good comments.
We'll look to incorporate that.
Thank you.
Trustee Johnson.
Trustee Boček.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Real quick question.
Probably, Nicole, this is for you.
I don't know.
I think this is just a typo, but I just want to make sure that all the documentation
obviously is consistent.
On the memo, I think that you had prepared.
It has 37 single-family homes and 152 townhomes, but the backup documentation,
Traffic Study and Concept Plan have 168,
unless I'm misreading it.
Is that due to?
Go ahead.
We had originally done a plan that had more units,
and with working with the village,
we decreased the density,
and we just haven't updated the unit count.
I like that answer.
Thank you.
And thank you so very much.
I saw the tagline at the bottom of the floor plans
that talk about all the different color palettes that are available with those options. I think
that's great, again, to prevent monotony codes. I think my last question is regarding sign
codes. What variants would you need from the sign code perspective?
I don't believe we've done a full analysis of all the variations that could be needed.
Usually we wait a little bit to further along. At this point we're just so focused
just in on that the main concept.
I assume there'll probably be some ground signage
that they'll be looking at,
but we don't know the specifics of that yet,
but that will be forthcoming.
Awesome.
Love it, love the open space, love it,
so no issues with me, thank you.
Thank you, Trustee Boček.
Trustee Weinfeld.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Couple of things first.
I wanna tag on to what Trustee Johnson said
because the last time we had a development proposed
for only a portion of this where Margate was a major feeder that actually never
went anywhere because the objections were significant enough not to do it. I
understand that not all the traffic without Margate but planning and zoning
needs to do a pretty thorough job of finding out what the percentages of
traffic that's going to go that way versus the other way. So from my
perspective and I think from people in the area it's going to need to be a
significantly smaller number than the prior project
would have emptied on the market.
So that's kind of,
but that's for planning zoning, sort of.
My bigger issue is how in the world
anybody's gonna make a left turn on the aptochistic road
without being killed.
The speed limit on BG roads, 40 normally means 50,
try to make a left turn off of Brandywine,
take your life in your hands,
which is why people go east on Brandywine,
south on Prairie,
and then east, west on Aptochistic is a way to do it.
But in this case, there's no way to do that.
And I understand that Lake County is sort of the problem here, in that they are the
obstacle to putting in some kind of traffic control device there.
But in all the traffic studies that are done in the planning and zoning, it takes
a look at, I want an understanding of how safe that's going to be.
Because Haptikissie is more about, I see the light ahead getting westbound, I accelerate
to warp factor two in order to make that light at BG Road.
The third, which sounds like not as huge a problem, especially since you folks have made
it a smaller proposal, is the impact on 102 where the taxpayers in that district have already
been smoked a couple of times in the last couple of years, and I don't want to contribute
to the pain and suffering there any more than would otherwise be the case.
If this is something that's actually projected to be smaller, judging by who people think
is going to live there and how we're going to do it, and those numbers are reasonable,
that's one thing.
But again, I would like that to be investigated at planning and zoning simply so that they
look at that and say, what's the analysis here?
Not, you can't do this, but I want to understand what it is before we go send another tax increase
to folks over in 102.
Thank you.
Thank you, Trustee Weinfeldt, Trustee Caesarea.
Thank you.
Just so you've heard it from everybody, right, my number 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 issues
are site access and throughput, right?
I just want to understand how people are supposed to navigate in this site.
With that said, it's a visually attractive plan.
I really like how you embrace the green space and did it in a tough spot, right?
You've got Comet, Cell Tower, and you've done it, I think, in a smart way that keeps
the trails going around.
It has the sidewalk access.
There's a lot of stuff to like there and a lot of green, what, 30% almost.
So all of those things make me excited to see how this goes through the Planning
Planning Zone and Commission. I think visually it's appealing. I like having a variety of
floor plans. So all of those things are virtuous. The challenge of this site is access and throughput.
That's, I would assert probably the reason it hasn't developed yet. So I wish you well
and I wish the Planning Zone and Commission well in review.
Thank you.
Thank you, Trustee Cisario, Trustee Ottenheimer.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Trustee Weidenfeldt, I had three things, three questions.
Trustee Weidenfeldt took care of two of them,
the Apothecistic Road in 102.
What kind of price points are we talking about?
Yeah, so the detached is $850,000 to $900,000,
and then the attached is $550,000 to $600,000.
But those are still numbers that we're kind of playing with.
Thank you very much for your time.
Okay, I think that's higher than I would have imagined for the detached homes, but you know what the market will bear and we'll see. Thank you.
Thank you, Trustee Richards.
Thank you. I guess batting cleanup. Thank you, Mr. President. I won't ask you about access, but what I will ask you to do a little bit more of exploration,
because you will be asked several times about this,
is about the impact of the schools.
I know you've mentioned in the presentation
that you've reached out, or I'm sorry,
communicated out to the schools.
I'm sure they have not responded back,
and I'm sure that Commissioner Moody
will ask you very directly how many students
are we expecting at 102, how many expected at Stevenson,
and I think we need to have good numbers
because this is an amazing community.
It's exciting to build in that area and the schools, they'll tell us that they're already
at capacity so we'll want to make sure we're ahead of that tension long before it gets to
be a challenge.
I'm just going to follow up on that point.
So our normal process is that we village staff, let the school districts know about
this way before it even comes to this point so they have been actually involved when
And it was just really kind of funny to say concept on paper because it's still a concept
on paper.
But well before, and they've been up to date as this has moved forward.
And we will continue to work with them and share with them everything, including the impact
study as well as the project as it progresses as well.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Yes.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Anything else?
Nicole?
That's it.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you for your interest in Buffalo Grove.
We love all the development happening here, so thank you.
I will entertain a motion to submit this proposal
to the Planning Commission.
Thank you.
It's all made.
Thank you, Mr. President.
I move to refer the proposed Kenley residential development
at 1-6-523-16737 Epticus Road to the Planning
and Zoning Commission and nothing further.
Second.
We'll have a motion and a second.
Thank you, Trustee Ottenheimer.
Any discussion?
Clerk, please call the roll.
Johnson?
Aye.
Richards?
Aye.
Serio?
Aye.
Ottenheimer?
Aye.
Oček?
Aye.
Weinfeld?
Aye.
Motion carried.
Thank you.
You'll be moving on to the Planning Commission
and we look forward to seeing you back here.
Thank you.
Okay, new business item B is a pre-application discussion for Riverwalk Apartments Development
at Zero Riverwalk Drive and welcome Ms. Purvis.
Thank you very much, President Smith.
Welcome.
All right, good evening.
So next up on the agenda, we have SFP properties.
They're the contract purchaser of approximately 2.8 acres of land located at Zero Riverwalk
Drive that's just west of the Riverwalk Place Apartments. The site is in the
mixed-use planned development and zoning district and is also part of the
Riverwalk North PUD which was approved in 2003. This 15 acre PUD was intended to
include a six-story hotel on the subject property as well as an eight
story office building and a four story parking structure to the south and a
six-story residential development to the east. Riverwalk Place Apartments
just east of the subject property is the only part of that PUD that
actually ended up getting constructed.
SFP Properties is proposing to construct
a four-story 64-unit apartment building
on the subject property.
The unit mix will consist of 26 one-bedroom units,
34 two-bedroom units, and just four three-bedroom units.
The development would have a density of 22.93 units per acre,
which is comparable to other multifamily developments
in the village.
The 2009 Comprehensive Plan calls for the site
to be a commercial use.
However, more recent discussions related
to the 2050 Comprehensive Plan do recommend that the mixed use designation, which includes
commercial, office, residential, civic, and public uses, be retained.
The proposed project provides an appropriate transition between the commercial uses on
Milwaukee Avenue and the six-story Riverwalk Apartments to the east.
The development will share the two access drives that are already in place for the
Riverwalk Place Apartments.
In addition, the sidewalk networks for the two developments will also be connected
and ultimately that will provide access to the Displanes River Trail. That's just off to the east.
The development would include 106 parking stalls, 12 of which would be enclosed in single car
garages on the ground floor of the building. This is just that shy of the zoning requirement
of 109 parking stalls and will require a zoning variation. The stormwater detention was
contemplated as part of the original Riverwalk North development. However, the stormwater
ordinance has changed over the years, so our engineering team will be working with
the developer to ensure that they do meet the current stormwater requirements.
Staff has reached out to both District 102 and 125 to inform them of this potential development
and the park district has also been notified as well.
In order for this project to proceed an amendment to the Riverwalk North annexation agreement
and planned unit development along with the preliminary plan approval as well as
zoning variations would be needed, the developer seeking comments from the Village Board
tonight and referral to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
I would like to introduce David Schwartz.
He is here from SFP Properties to provide an overview of his plan.
Thank you, Kelly.
Oh, yeah.
I did.
Hey.
Thanks, Kelly.
And thank you guys for hearing it.
Good evening.
You know, as I'm sure you guys know, this parcel has been vacant for quite a while.
And it actually came to us through a landscape designer that we had worked with potentially
on another project.
And he said, I think you guys could be a good fit for this.
And he had a relationship with the owner
and had been working through some different concepts.
And we originally looked at it for townhomes.
And we're informed, yeah, we really
sort of want to cut down on three-bedroom units, cut
down on the impact on the school system.
So we looked for alternative potential uses
because we love the site so much.
Just its general location, its access to the river
walk really sort of flows in very nicely
to the Displains River Trail.
and, of course, all the sort of area amenities, restaurants,
unbelievably great access via Lake Hook Road.
So we kind of workshopped a bunch of different things
and came up with this concept, which
is a single 64-unit building, sort of what
they're calling a tuck under building these days.
So you've got a few, some garage parking
on about half the first floor, and then primarily
surface parking after that.
We sort of designed it with a kind of little central
esplanade, and parking's sort of circulating around that.
We've got exterior electric vehicle charging stations.
And to the west of the building, there's kind of planned
an amenity lawn sort of lounge area.
Hasn't been completely programmed yet,
but it will be some sort of usable community outdoor space.
So architecturally just try to be consistent
with what you'll see commonly in the area
for sort of a four-story, you know,
combination masonry, fiber cement panel.
We're still kind of working through.
It can, it's not a final draft of this,
but we think we'll come up with something nice
that fits in, we try to pick up off the color schemes
of the existing river walk apartments that are there.
Just sort of typical floor plans,
it's really a unit mix of mostly a lot of one bedroom,
over 50% one bedrooms and one bedroom plus 10,
and then you've got a fair amount of two bedrooms
and just a handful of threes.
So designed for sort of young professionals
kind of moving into the area,
and then maybe some downsizing empty nesters as well.
elevator building, so you have an opportunity to get a two or three bedroom in single level
living without stairs.
The elevations, drawn more broadly, and then where SFB properties has been developing through
the years, did a lot of stuff in Buffalo Grove years and years ago, including Donovan's
Glen and Indian Creek and Devonshire, a bunch of other subdivisions, but more recently
we've been doing attached single family rental projects, recently completed in Highland
Park, Mal Prospect, finishing up right now in Northbrook as well, and about to
start in Arlington Heights in a couple months.
Whoops, went the wrong way.
I did want to just float this back out there, the
original kind of townhome plan that we did look at. You know, as we've gone
further and further into our due diligence and received a market
study from Tracy Cross and Associates, the rents we were going to be able to
achieve are making the deal pretty difficult to pencil.
So we're sort of going back and saying this is the concept
we put together and we submitted to staff
and we've worked with staff on,
but we're not sure that we can go ahead with it.
So I just wanted to get possibly some feedback
from you guys in terms of A,
either increasing the density on an apartment style
sort of four story building,
adding maybe another building and some covered parkings,
figuring out a way to increase the density there
and making it pencil in that fashion,
or reconsidering potentially a town home project
that would be primarily three bedroom units,
but with lots of stairs, three story, three bedroom.
So I don't want to throw too much at you,
but just in all honesty, you guys can tell me
you love this project that we proposed
the 64 unit single story four,
and we're probably going to not do it.
I'm not to spring this on staff as well,
this is pretty new that we got the market study back.
Yeah, well, I apologize if it's too much, but I just wanted to be honest and candid and get as much feedback as we could.
Okay, well, did you have anything else you wanted to add?
No, that's it.
Okay, well, we'll go through some questions here and see where we end up.
Trustee Johnson.
Thank you, Mr. President.
In light of your presentation, I do not feel comfortable referring this to Plan Commission
tonight.
I would say it needs to go back to staff for analysis.
It's hard for us to just get something popped up on the screen that's completely different
than what we've been reading about.
Yeah.
No, no.
I mean, honestly, you should probably give feedback for that and then we'll make our
own decision.
understanding that if we're going to do anything but this we would go back to
staff but if we could get a read on this concept just so you know we've all put
the work into it and you know maybe we can rework something with the seller and
come to something that we can make it work since you have reviewed this you
know if you want to give us feedback that you previously thought that's
still useful so you want the board's feedback on the apartment proposal
Yeah, and no feedback on the townhome idea
We're not we're not going to give any feedback on the townhome. Yeah, that's what I'm concerned about because we have we have no facts
Nothing to support anything fair enough. Okay. Yeah, I apologize. We're
We we received the packet staff put a lot of work into the packet which is for these for this proposal
For this apartment complex. Yeah, that's that's all we're going to discuss
Fair enough.
I think you have anything else, Trustee Johnson?
Well, I like the apartment building situated where it is.
I think it's for the target audience
that you're looking to appeal to.
You've got great access to the expressway,
shopping, restaurants.
So I think it's a good fit.
I am a little concerned about the parking,
to be honest with you because you know one person has a party and you're already short
of parking so that would be one thing I'd want the plan commissioned to look at but
you know other than that I'm fine with the plan.
Thank you trustee Waddenfield.
Thank you Mr. President I'm going to try this so yeah in terms of townhouses I got nothing
to say because there's nothing there in terms of the apartments there's a couple
things as I harp on this if you were here you heard me the last time I'm
curious how you think or maybe for the plant commission if we were first how
someone's gonna make a left turn on the Milwaukee Avenue because about the kiss
it gets bad news Milwaukee is worse that doesn't mean it can't be done but I
think it creates sort of if there's a traffic light there great stuff there
is there is then you do that okay the apartments are okay but I want to
make sure I understand that I'm not gonna have I'll be a little blunter
than the village president.
I don't send staff through and the planning commission
through this only so that they can find out
that that's not what you're gonna do anyway.
Yeah, no, that was, I got a little bit ahead of myself.
We're doing some internal discussions
and I shouldn't have shared it at this time.
My only concern is that we can send it
to the plan commission, which I don't have
a problem doing, but I truly appreciate
if your internal discussions say,
Hey, guess what, this is the wrong one,
that you pull a plug before they even have a session on it.
100%.
Yeah, we're gonna do that for,
it's to our own advantage to do that too.
We're not gonna go through that process
and spend the additional money.
We're gonna have to spend to get all the materials
together for the planning commission
if we're not prepared to follow through on the DOA.
I'm not trying to sound negative about this.
I just don't wanna,
we're gonna load up with some heavy duty
lifting as it is.
Lastly, I wanna do is have them do any of it
for something that is like DOA.
I agree.
Okay.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Trustee Bochak.
Just a couple of quick questions.
I mean, I appreciate the fact that the apartments give us product types, home types for young
professionals and empty nesters, which is something that we definitely need.
What do you think the price point is for rent on these units?
So, you know, sort of between around 2000 to up to 4000 for the larger three bedrooms.
So it's sort of the, you know, the broad, you know, about $2.50, $2.60 a foot, across the board generally.
So it's a little bit, it was designed to be a little bit below the price point of something like the clove.
You know what I mean, which is a full sort of more of a mid-rise building, it's a more expensive type of construction.
So we're hoping to be in below them.
Yeah.
Before we get to other questions, just because she hit on a point, Trustee Bochuk hit on a point
about the price point, and you mentioned that that was the reason you were looking to transition
to something else. Why is that?
I mean, just in all candor, you know, we recently, you know, we commissioned a report
from Tracy Cross and Associates, which we do on most of our projects. And the report
came back with rents that were cheaper, less expensive than what we had thought they were
going to be at.
Less than the 2,000 to 4,000?
No, well a little bit less, on the lower side of that, so about 25, 30 cents a foot
less than what we had thought they were going to turn out to be, which made a very
significant impact on the bottom line of the project with construction costs and
everything else got you trust the honor thank you mr. president I appreciate
your candor and your honesty but in light of the fact that we don't have a full
development before us I'm against even sending this to the plan commission until
we know what we have to deal with our staff works very hard our plan
commission works very hard is very diligent but we don't want to piece
know this number one and what you may do on this plan may not comport with
of another plan, depending on what you may do.
So I appreciate it, but I'm against
referring it to the commission at this time.
Thank you, Trustee Atnamer.
Trustee Cesario.
Thank you.
I'm gonna go at this a little bit differently.
I'm trying to view the site and what works there.
And I think the building concept works there
better than singles, right?
Because if you look at what's around it, that fits.
Yeah, and honestly was you know, so a lot of the feedback from staff initially was that the site was a little too crowded and everything too
Much surface area impervious area, so we agree with that. We're just trying to find a way to make it work
Honestly, we love that we love the property. We think it needs to be developed. We think great development will go there
We're just trying to square the circle
Getting some of the pencil, you know and access to that path is just an absolutely monstrous advantage, right?
So I do enjoy that you have single-floor living, the older I get, the more I appreciate single-floor living.
And I think we as a community need more of that.
So when I look at this, I get excited about the concept of single-floor living with access to the path,
with good access to street access, because Riverwalk is already a thriving office building and we do different things.
And an apartment building.
Right.
You know, the F, right.
So, I mean, there's a lot of stuff there to kind of feed into and match up to.
And so you describe that.
I say, yeah, that's a good use for that site.
So that kind of feedback I think you're looking for.
I will say that I have become more comfortable with a little less parking in this kind
of product because it emphasizes the one-bedroom, certainly the two.
With that said, I think the point is well made that, you know, any extras to accommodate events is a win.
It's something important that the Planning and Zoning Commission would look at.
But just as a starting point, I am comfortable looking at communities where this type of product exists and seeing what the utilization is.
Because I appreciate that our code, right, is average, one size fits all.
Well, this is not that, and I'll mention a variance request of three spaces is not exactly
breaking the bank.
So there's a lot of stuff to like here.
So again, there's a lot of stuff to like in this plan, and I'm hopeful to look forward
to seeing it presented.
Thank you.
Thank you, Trustee Cesario.
Trustee Johnson.
Sorry, me again.
So I want to reiterate that I do think this plan does fit in well in this area,
Yeah, but you said something that kind of triggered me thinking.
You said that it's cheaper construction than the clove.
So is it because it's less amenitized?
Yeah, because it's not a fully part.
There's not a platform where there's 100% sort of parking on the first floor,
parking slash retail.
So it's more like a three-story garden style.
It's four stories, and so you can do it in four stories,
and you have some into your parking,
but it's 100% wood construction from a structural standpoint.
As opposed to if you do a full sort of parking deck,
then you have precast concrete and it adds a lot of costs.
Or if you go up more than four stories,
then you go to either steel or masonry
and it adds a lot of cost.
So we tried to come up with a design
that we could keep our costs down
while getting sort of the maximum density
that we could try to accommodate on the site.
So that's why we have the outdoor parking lot
instead of a garage.
And then as far as amenities,
because I know that's very important
to people who rent these days,
is the only amenity the fitness center?
A fitness center and a little lounge
and then some outdoor space.
But that'll have like fire pits
and maybe like a botchy ball court,
a little dog run, that sort of stuff.
Maybe a little playground.
Okay, but nothing major, but you know primarily it's it's not a heavily amenitized building
There's no pool or anything right right so that would then
Call for slightly lower rent
And that's the situation
Outdoor parking right yeah, yeah, okay. Thank you
Okay, well you kind of threw us a curve. Yeah, I apologize for that. I really really should have held that back
I'm not going to speak for everybody on what their decision is going to be, but my guess
is they're going to want to go back to staff with this and not go directly to the Planning
Commission.
You have to work out your issues and see exactly what you're going to bring to us.
You don't sound confident.
If we decide to bring this plan, we may not bring anything, but if we were going to bring
an alternative plan, we would come back before you here.
But I guess I would ask just so we're here and we get some utility out of the meeting
that we evaluate this plan.
And then if we were going to come with an alternative, we'd have to come back to
it.
Yeah, I don't think that's gonna it it's not gonna it's not gonna fly I'll
let you
know we'll let the motion has been called we'll vote on it but my guess is
it's well we'll see oh I understand we'll make the decision and then we'll
clarify that if we were to bring this plan to the plan Commission we would be
bringing this plan to the plan commission with the intent of going
ahead with it we're not gonna go to the plan Commission if we're not we
We're gonna work out our thing internally
before we actually go to the plan commission.
It's gonna cost us tens of thousands of dollars
to put together the additional material
we're gonna need for the plan commission hearing.
We're only gonna do that if we've come
to our own conclusions.
Maybe we renegotiate with the seller
or something else to get the deal to pencil.
We're not gonna go through the plan commission
and then decide not,
and waste everybody's time.
Okay, but we, it's not an effective use of our staff
and our commission for a hypothetical at this point.
If it's going to go through as is, and you want it to be, you affirm that this is the plan,
you'll just have to come in here again and present it.
You know, and if you have another plan that you want to work, that you want us to refer,
you'll come back for that as well.
Okay.
So you figure it out on your end.
Do we want to call the motion?
We do currently I don't believe we have a motion there is not there is no motion. I'd like to make a motion
Did you want us to vote on this to see if it'll go through or do you just want to pull it and bring it back to staff?
Actually, I would like a vote because there is a chance that we say, you know what we've worked it out
We've sharpened our pencils. We think we can get this plan to pencil and then we want to go ahead to the planning commission
Okay, we were able to get that vote. I would take it
Okay. Is there anybody that would like to make the motion to refer this to the Planning Commission?
I'll make the motion. I move that we refer to the Planning Commission.
Okay. We have a motion. Is there a second on that motion?
The purpose of doing the vote, I'll second.
Okay. We have a motion and a second. Is there anybody that would like to speak on this discussion?
Any discussion? Trustee Boček?
Microphone, please.
I completely respect what you're saying. We definitely don't want to waste anybody's time.
Is it possible for us to vote to pass it on to the plan Commission and give him till Friday
to tell us if he's going to introduce a new plan that way nobody's done any work and
We have the approval at hand to proceed or are you uncomfortable with that?
I mean we have our
Friday's well, I if I can speak briefly
You know, as a board, you've been presented with a packet of materials that include a development
proposal, which also includes certain things like traffic analysis and bedroom analysis and
access analysis and things like that that obviously have to be vetted more.
But the concern that I have is that if you decided to pursue an alternate plan, all
of those things change.
And I don't want to necessarily put our staff or our Planning and Zoning Commission
in a position of reviewing material that you as a board
have not even seen or understood yet.
So I understand the situation you're in,
but I also don't really understand
what is being asked of the board to do.
And frankly, I don't believe that this project is right
for planning his owning consideration at this time.
Thank you.
Okay, anybody else wanna be heard on this issue?
We have a motion and we have a second clerk, please call the roll and the motion is to send this on yes or no
Do we send this on to the plan commission?
Johnson no
Richards no
Cicero no no
Ocheck,
no I
Know no, thank you guys and I thought I didn't mean to spring that on you. Honestly. That's in retrospect
in retrospect, I should have just kept that internally
because it's the same evaluation.
Like you could have approved this
and we could have just decided to not move forward with it.
We'd be in the exact same place.
Or if we were gonna do something else,
we'd still be coming back.
Anyway, I apologize for springing that on you guys.
And I thank you guys for the thoughtful consideration.
Thank you.
Okay, we'll move on then.
To public comment.
Public comment is limited to items
that are not on the regular agenda.
anybody from the public like to be heard this evening.
Seeing none we will have an executive
session tonight and the purpose of the executive session is section 2C11 of the Illinois Open
Meetings Act litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the public body.
I will entertain a motion to move into executive session. So moved. Second. We have a motion
in a second. Discussion? Clerk, please call the roll.
Pansum? Aye. Richards? Aye.
Cicero? Aye.
Attenheimer? Aye. Ocek? Aye.
Weidenfeld? Aye. Motion carried.
Thank you. We are moving into executive session at this time.
We will not be coming back for business, and it is 8.07 p.m.
Thank you.