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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/28/2002 P&Z minutes 06-02MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION CASE NO. PZ-06-02 PETITIONER: Hearing Date: March 28, 2002 Joni Beaudry & Eric Jakubowski, Property Owners REQUEST: Conditional Use to allow a circular drive 805 E. Prospect MEMBERS PRESENT: Merrill Cotten Joseph Donnelly Leo Floros Richard Rogers Matthew Sledz Keith Youngquist Arlene Juracek, Chairperson MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT: Judy Connolly, AICP, Senior Planner Suzanne Mas6, Long Range Planner INTERESTED PARTIES: Donald Bender Thomas Manion Eric Jakubowski Chairperson Arlene Juracek called the meeting to order at 7:33 p.m. Minutes of the February 28 meeting were approved, with one minor correction. At 8:15, after the Commission heard two other cases, Ms. Juracek introduced Case No. PZ-06-02, a request for a Conditional Use to allow construction of a circular driveway. She explained that this case would be Village Board final. Judy Connolly, Senior Planner, introduced the staff memorandum for the case. The subject property is an interior lot located across the street from the Union Pacific Rail Road tracks, in a single-family residence neighborhood. The property owners recently constructed an addition on the east side of the house. As part of the addition project, the petitioners constructed a new attached garage and are seeking Conditional Use approval to install a circular driveway. Ms. Connolly pointed out that, in their application, the petitioners state that a circular drive is necessary for several reasons, one of which is that Prospect Avenue is 4-lanes and drivers have a tendency to speed on this street. In addition, the parking restrictions on this section of Prospect Avenue make it inconvenient for guest parking (there is no parking on either side of Prospect Avenue from Mount Prospect Road to Edward Street). Some drivers disregard the parking restrictions and park on the street, which the petitioner states is an unsafe situation because sight lines are obstructed. Ms. Connolly reported that the petitioners state that vehicles will not be parked on the circular portion of the driveway overnight. In addition, they propose to construct the circular drive of decorative materials and retain as many of the existing trees as possible. They state that the decorative materials and landscaping will minimize the impact of the circular drive on the neighborhood. Ms. Connolly said, in order to approve the request, the Board has to find that it meets the standards for a Conditional Use, which are listed in the Zoning Ordinance. To conduct its analysis of the proposed Conditional Use, Planning staff reviewed the petitioners' plat of survey, site plan, visited the site, and worked with the Village's Traffic Engineer. Ms. Connolly described the subject property for the proposed Conditional Use as an 18,872 square foot parcel. The applicant proposes to construct a circular driveway in the front yard. As with other requests for a circular drive, staff evaluated traffic patterns in the neighborhood. In this case, the Village restricts parking on the south side of Prospect Avenue from Maple to Edward Street (two-hour parking) and prohibits parking on the north and south sides of Prospect Avenue from Edward to Mount Prospect Road. lanning & Zoning Commission Arlene Juracek, Chairperson PZ-06-02 Page 2 Ms. Connolly said the petitioners' front yard has 140-linear feet frontage onto Prospect Avenue. The minimum lot width in the RA zoning district is 50-feet. The petitioners lot is almost three times bigger than the minimal width and the circular portion of the driveway would cover 15% of the front yard (30'x140'). This amount of front yard lot coverage is in keeping with the Village's policy of open, ;green' front-yards. Ms. Connolly reported that Prospect Avenue is designated as a collector street from Central Road to Mount Prospect Road and, therefore, is designed to handle greater traffic than a local road. This, coupled with existing parking restrictions, justifies granting the Conditional Use request. Ms. Connolly said the additional driveway and amount of front yard coverage would be in keeping with the Village's policy of maintaining a ;;green" front yard. The circular driveway would not have a negative impact on the adjacent area, utility provision or public streets. The essential character of the neighborhood would not be affected by the proposed Conditional Use, nor would it have any significant effect on the public welfare. Based on these findings, Staff recommends that the Planning and Zoning Commission make a recommendation to the Village Board to approve a Conditional Use for a circular driveway for the residence at 805 E. Prospect Avenue, Case No. PZ-06-02. The Village Board's decision is final for this case. The petitioner, Eric Jakubowski, 805 E. Prospect Ave., was sworn in. He said Ms. Connolly had presented his case very well and he would be pleased to answer any questions the Commissioners may have. Richard Rogers asked how large the home was with the recent addition and complimented him on doing a very nice job on the house. Mr. Jakubowski thanked him and said the house was originally 3,000 s.f. and was now 4,400 s.f. He said it was originally a farmhouse and he tried to keep the original character of the home. He said the driveway he wanted to replace was the original rural cinder type. Mr. Rogers advised him on careful excavating in order to retain the trees. Leo Floros said he considered this the most unique building project in Mount Prospect in many years. Mr. Jakubowski said the design of the 1929 home had taken six months. He also pointed out it is the only single family home to front on Prospect Avenue. Don Bender, 507 South George, was sworn in and said this project was enhancing the neighborhood. He said he had talked to the neighbors and they all liked the idea of a circular drive to prevent parking cars on Prospect Avenue. Ms. Juracek closed the public hearing at 8:31. Leo Floros moved to recommend approval of the request for a circular drive for Case No. PZ-06-02. Richard Rogers seconded the motion. UPON ROLL CALL: AYES: Cotten, Donnelly, Floros, Rogers, Sledz, Youngquist and Juracek NAYS: None Motion was approved 7-0. At 8:55 p.m., after hearing two more cases, Richard Rogers made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Joseph Donnelly. The motion was approved by a voice vote and the meeting was adjourned. Barbara Swiatek, Planning Secretary Judy Connolly, Senior Planner C:\Doctm~ents and Setfings\KDewis. DOMAIN\Local Settings\Temporary Intemet Files\OLK2\PZ-06-02 805 E Prospect CU circular chSve.doc