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Minutes - 03/02/1974 - Committee of the Whole- - - - -- - - -- -- - - - ,Nr-- CJ Committee of the Whole MINUTES OF MEETING March 2, 1974 Present: President Howell Trustees Baschen, Rush, wain, Hayes Absent: Trustees Brown, Congreve Also present :Village Manager Carmignani Village Attorney John Teschner Representatives of a Committee of the Village: Mr. Charles Rhodes, Chairman, Zoning Board Mr. Charles Pierson Mr. ,Tames Regas Mr. Al DeYoung Meeting started at 8 :30 a.m. Mr. Rhodes sad up the action taken by the Zoning Board and indicated that in the discussions with the individual committees established in the village for the purpose of reviewing the Hawthorn developrmnt, the real question was: what are the legal problems. Messrs. Pi Of C - 2 - commitment was necessary on.'the part of the people if in fact there was going to be a legal battle because of the long time and the expenses involved. He indicated ;:hat had it not been for the village board, rwe would not have had such a turn out. The board established the atmosphere for such a response. He indicated that two questions that were prominent in the minds of the village board that it was not good to take the position of an island but to establish the ultimate boundaries of the municipality and through governmental cooperation of our neighboring communities and also Dupage County try to implement the over -all plan of the Village of Oak Brook. He indicated that one of the suggestions that had been made was to limit the amount of population rather than the development. He indicated that in his opinion that was not the best alternative. He did indicate that it was the objective of the village board to maintain our zoning ordinance and indicated that the voting record on the part of the village board wauld, in fact, sustain that position. The board,had been 'been asked over and over again to depart from that and their voting record indicated that the village board dial in fact have as its first priority the aaintenance of our zoning ordinance. Mr. Regas indicated that he appreciated the information that was being provided at this meeting but felt that it was important that the village board make their feelings known to the people of the community, that in circulating the petitions, one of the things that came out foremost in the minds of the people was their uncertainty toward the position of the village board. Mr. Howell indicated that again the voting record of the board would have in fact indicated the position of the board, and that the people need only to review the positions in the past in order to establish what the board's thoughts were. Mr. Regas indicated that he and Mr. lDeXoung had divided up the legal questions as they related to the Hawthorn development, each researching the case law on the various matters of disconnection and suit on the zoning ordinance and would in fact prepare briefs and submit those briefs for the village board's consideration. The third point he made was though he understood now the feelings of the village board and felt comfortable their concerns were what happen the next time somebody came in for a request to vary from the zoning ordinance, and their concern as it related to some control of that decision. Trustee Rush indicated that the village board needs input to the board and support of the board as it relates to the zoning ordinance and felt that with that support and input the board could in fact continue to maintain their position. Mr. R Regas once again indicated that the referendum procedure had been his responsibility to review and felt that this was one way of having input into the questions in the future although he indicated that in his research he could not find any municipality that had such an ordinance nor could - 3 - u AMk find the provisions for it in the Revised Statutes and questioned some of the legal points and the definition of when you would and would not hold a referendum. He felt that the people wanted this provision and felt that the village board owed it to them to have this kind of provision available. President Howell responded to that question and felt that in his opinion there were a number of problems. First, what issues would be put to a referendum f Zoning is only one major problem that the village board is faced with consistently. There are other questions also as important as zoning questions and therefore it would be difficult to decide which issues wauld or would not be put to referendum and who would in fact make the decision of what would and what would not. Secondly, he felt that it would be difficult to distribute the information in order to give the people an opportunity to make an intelligent choice. The village board was constantly working on these problems and spent many, many hours in evaluating all of the information available. He fe 1 t that it would be impossible to educate the citizens of the community on any one particular matter unless they were willing to spend that amount of time can each issue. His experience was that this was the case and that people would not become involved and would not do their homework on important matters. The third position was that he felt that if this was the way the muni- pality would be run he would not be interested in serving as its president. Also, some of the other trustees felt that same way; that referendums did not solve the problem. That they felt the responsibility as being the elected officials of the community that if on each issue the people would have to be polled through referendum it would be impossible to administer and operate a municipal government and to handle all the complex problems that come before us. Mr. DeYoung indicated that some of the positions related to the Carol Streams and the change in thinking among village boards as it relates to developments. First of all., economic question as pointed out by Hawthorn, is not a valid consideration,and secondly, the changing attitude of the neighbors such as Westmont, Downers Grove, Elmhurst, etc. are important factors. DeYoung felt that with the change of attitude that the Village of Oak Brook was in a much better position to sustain its development plan. Mr. Pierson indicated that based on the conversation of that morning that he felt comfortable with the position of the village board but again was concerned about the next group that would take this boards place. Also, he indicated that there was no highlight of the good aspects of higher density that had been made, though they highlight the open space etc. they do not deal with the increased densities and the problems that are related +-o increased densities at specific locations. In addition, he felt strong about not needing a P.U.D. ordinance, and felt that a P.U.D. ordi- nance was nothing more than a circumventing of the zoning ordinance and permitted the loosening of building codes, fire protection codes and zoning requirements. His last point of concern was the prt.- annexation agreement which was, in fact, a contract which would accomodate a change in the rules and regulations of relating to development. a 4 Ask Considerable discussion was -held on all of the natters that were contain- ed in the Minutes, and President Howell thanked the group for their concern and their interest and indicated that the village board had in fact employed additional legal counsel which were specialists in zoning matters. -- The representatives of the Committee that were present indicated that Mr. Siegel was in fact a good person to handle this particular matter. Mr. Howell also indicated that the village would be coming out with a release based on the decision of the village board as it related not only to ftwthorn but also it related to the zoning ordinance and the goals establishing boundaries. Meeting adjourned at 10:45 a.m. , KGG /Is \I Respectf ly yours , Kenneth G. Carmignani Vil L.,ge Manager