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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/14/1985 COW Agendai I s Office I. CALL TO ORDER - ROLL CALL II. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES OF APRIL 23, 1985 III. CITIZENS TO BE HEARD IV. NORTHWEST HIGHWAY SIDEWALK IMPROVEMENTS The Village has been approached by a group of businessmen in the 500 block of East Northwest Highway, between Owen and William. For several months now, these businessmen have been working with Village staff seeking improvements to the sidewalk area in front of their stores. They are not interested nor is there a critical need for them to participate in the Facade Program. Addi- tionally, this business neighborhood is not within the Facade Program designation. Thus, the staff was left with the existing policy on sidewalks which requires a 50/50 share. Unfortunately, that policy does not completely recognize that business sidewalks have dimensions substantially in excess of residential neighbor- hoods and the cost for upgrading sidewalks from concrete to paver block and installing certain landscaping strips increases the cost of improvements well beyond what can typically be afforded by a small business at the 50% ratio. On Thursday, May 9, the Village Manager met with five of the six property owners within this neighborhood to discuss a variety of options and costs. We agreed on certain design parameters and some potentials for cost-sharing whereby the businesses agreed to contribute $13,100 towards the project. Staff estimates that the project would cost a maximum of $35,000 and this would make the business contribution to be 37%. While this is a relatively small improvement project, it is an area that contains viable existing businesses that are primarily retail and their collec- tive consensus to move forward requires that the Village give this project serious consideration. The agreed cost percentage at this point is 37% for the property owners and 63% for the Village. The improvements would consist of replacing sidewalks where appropriate, installing paver block within the limits of the budget, creating some kind of landscape strip setback from the roadway and installing a carriage walk along the curb line. I have instructed the planning staff that the total project budget limit would be $35,000 and to develop a design consistent with that budget for general review by the Committee of the Whole and the businessmen on Tuesday, May 14. While this is not a specific line item in the existing budget, the Village Manager's Office is confident that should the Board decide to move ahead with the project, necessary funds can be squeezed from the New Sidewalk Account, the Sidewalk Replacement Account, Parkway Restoration and the Community Development Block Grant. V. PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY ENCROACHMENTS Recently, the Village has received two requests for encroachments to the public right of way. One is for the placement of a Federal Express drop off box in the Kensington Center for Business and another is to pave the parkway within a residential district for parking of vehicles. The Opus Corporation has requested the placement of a Federal Express drop off box on North Wheeling Road. The box would be similar in fashion to a traditional mail box but would have the Federal Express designation. With the concentration of businesses, some of which are multi -national within the Kensington Center for Business, it is not likely that we would have a large number of similar requests within other portions of the community. Opus has agreed in writing that they would request no more such private delivery systems within their development. Based upon the nature of this request and its limited applicability in the rest of the community, staff sees no serious problems with this encroachment. Should the Board agree to allow the encroachment, it is necessary to adopt an Ordinance permitting the encroachment and holding the Village harmless. A staff memo is attached. The second encroachment request is for permission to build a widened driveway approach on the public right of way in front of a single-family residence. In many instances, residents widen the driveway across the parkway without contacting the Village and without value of a permit. In this case, the residents did contact the Village and were told that a driveway approach is limited to 18 feet and that our Ordinances would consider anything wider to be an encroachment. In this request, the uniqueness of the neighborhood, Prospect Meadows, without curb and gutter, may seem less of a problem than elsewhere in the community. Since Prospect Meadows subdivision has no sidewalks, the routine storage of vehicles on what would normally be considered public right of way may have less of an impact than in other residential neighborhoods. Village staff is cautious in approving this request and needs the guidance of the Mayor and Board of Trustees. It may be suitable in neighborhoods such as Prospect Meadows to allow for this kind of encroachment but to extend that permission to other subdivisions with full public improvements would eventually lead to obstructions of the sidewalk and potential safety hazards by reducing sight distances, VI* PUBLIC WORKS FACILITY As requested by the Board, this item is being placed on the Agenda for general discussion. Some members of the Board have expressed an interest in evaluating the need for a new Public Works facility. This matter has been discussed previously by the Mayor and Board of Trustees over the years and a number of alternatives has been evaluated. During these prior discussions, the Board has maintained the policy that the development of a new public facility would require a Referendum. Before the Board can ask the citizens for authorization for a Bond Issue to fund a new facility, it should consider an evaluation of the present facility, its potential for expansion, potential new sites and estimates of cost for expansion or a new facility. Tax increases are seldom welcomed by residents and in order to make a sound judgment, they will need a logical explanation as to the need for such a facility and some specific determinations of the affect on their tax bill, VI I. "MANAGER'S REPORT 1. Lake Water 2. Melas Park Electrical Service 3. TIF Update 4. Sewer Rehabilitation Update 5. Status Reports VIII. ANY OTHER BUSINESS I. ADJOURNMENT DEFERRED ITEMS Citizens Utilities Acquisition Safety Bonus System Traffic Ordinance Sunset Provisions Citizens Utilities Rate Case Funding Outside Agencies