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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/11/2003 DAHC minutes MINUTES DOWNTOWN AD HOC COMMITTEE PHASE II 2nd Floor Conference Room, Village Hall Thursday, December 11, 2003 3:30 p.m. The meeting of the Downtown Ad Hoc Committee of the Village of Mount Prospect was held on Thursday, December 11, 2003, in the second floor conference room of Village Hall, 100 South Emerson Street, Mount Prospect, Illinois. CALL TO ORDER Chairman George Busse called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m. Committee members Laurel DiPrima, Jackie Hinaber, Daniel Lee, Tom Lowe, David Lindgren, Jean Reibel, Jim Uszler and Tom Zander were present. No committee members were absent. Also present were Mayor Gerald Farley, Bill Cooney, Director of Community Development, Mike Jacobs, Deputy Director of Community Development, and Marisa Warneke, Neighborhood Planner. In addition, Mr. Cooney introduced Elizabeth Lespinasse who will be splitting Dan Lee's position on the Committee while Mr. Lee is out of town. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the December 4, 2003 Committee meeting were reviewed and approved unanimously. OLD BUSINESS There was no old business. NEW BUSINESS Review of Strategic Plan Vision Statement and Assumptions Chairman Busse indicated staff had e-mailed all committee members an overview of the 1998 Strategic Plan Vision Statement and basic assumptions that were utilized by the original Ad Hoc Committee in formulating the plan. He stated he wanted to go through each of these items to determine if the Vision Statement and assumptions were still applicable to the downtown area. He read through the Vision Statement and asked everyone if there were any modifications that the committee thought would be appropriate. There was consensus that the Vision Statement still applied, with the only modification relating to the statement that the downtown area should provide areas for hosting events and be "the" central location for cultural and civic facilities. Chairman Busse said he felt there were multiple areas throughout town that provided such facilities and thought that the term "the" should be replaced by "a" so that sentence reads "it should provide areas for hosting events and be a central location for cultural and civic facilities." There was general support for the change to the Vision Statement. The committee then reviewed the five basic assumptions that were established by the original committee. After a general discussion the committee agreed that these assumptions still were valid and there were no changes necessary. The committee then reviewed the preferred downtown uses that were included in the original plan. There was significant discussion regarding what was a preferred use and what was not a desired use in the downtown. After final deliberation, it was agreed that the banquet hall, airline ticket office, and hotel uses should be eliminated and that a grocer and convenience store should be included as a preferred uses. In regards to the "not desired uses", it was agreed that video rentals should be taken off that list since it was a use that would be beneficial to the downtown area and that the "drive through" use should be modified to state "fast food drive throughs". The committee also reviewed the land use priorities for the downtown area that were part of the 1998 Plan. The only modification that was proposed by the committee was that, under Section 2, "Residences in Downtown", "townhomes" should be replaced with "rowhomes". In general, the committee concurred that the majority of the assumptions that were put in place in 1998 were still valid and should be incorporated in the new recommendations. Review of Sub-area #1 Chairman Bus se stated he would like to have staff provide an overview of existing conditions for sub-area # 1 and after staff completed their presentation he would like each committee member to provide their input on what they felt would be appropriate in this particular part of the downtown area. owntown Development Ad Hoc Committee December 11, 2003 Minutes Page 2 Mr. Cooney indicated that sub-area 1 consisted of the small triangular area bounded by Northwest Highway, Main Street, Busse Avenue and the commercial properties on the north end of Busse Avenue between Wille Street and Main Street. He stated this area consisted of a variety of small retail uses that were in various states of condition. He stated that the retailers in this area consisted of the Ye Olde Town Inn, Dugout Militaria, CmTiage House Restaurant, Ye Olde Barber Shop, Hobby Shop, Submarine Express, Meersman Law Offices, and a vm-iety of other small service uses. He indicated that the concept plan called for the complete redevelopment of the triangle area and the rehabilitation of the buildings on the north side of Busse Avenue. The plan called for the demolition of all structures on the small triangle and the construction of single story retail buildings that fronted on Main Street and Busse Avenue, with some additional surface parking fronting Northwest Highway. He stated that the Village did own several parcels in this area but had stopped pursuing acquisition of more properties due to insufficient funds and lack of return on investment. He stated some of the challenges of redevelopment in this area included multiple ownership of some parcels, physical limitations of the properties (triangular shape), creating a pedestrian environment, and overall economic viability of the redevelopment opportunities. Chairman Busse asked that each member provide some insight as to what they felt would be appropriate action in this area. Each committee member provided their insights on sub-area # 1. Committee members Lindgren and Zander leaned towards the complete redevelopment of the area. The remaining members felt there would be value in maintaining some of the older structures in this area and rehabilitating storefronts to improve their viability. The committee discussed various options including closing Busse Avenue between Wille and Rte. 83, providing surface parking in the small triangle area and/or extending the buildings along the Rte. 83 frontage, possibly across Busse Avenue. Chairman Busse asked that the committee members give further consideration to this matter over the next week so that we could wrap up discussion on sub-area # 1 during the first portion of the December 18th meeting. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT There was no Chairman's report. ADJOURNMENT The Committee agreed to hold their next meeting on December 18, 2003. The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, William J. Cooney, Jr., AICP Director of Community Development WJC:bhs