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Minutes - 05/23/2005 - Committee of the WholeMINUTES OF THE MAY 23, 2005 COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MEETING OF THE PRESIDENT AND BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK APPROVED AS WRITTEN BY VILLAGE BOARD ON JUNE 14, 2005. 1. CALL TO ORDER: The Committee of the Whole Meeting of the Village Board of Trustees was called to order by President Quinlan in the Samuel E. Dean Board Room of the Butler Government Center 7:36 at p.m. The Pledge of Allegiance was given. 2. ROLL CALL: Deputy Village Clerk Carol Harty called the roll with the following persons PRESENT: President Kevin M. Quinlan, Trustees Stelios Aktipis, Jeffrey Kennedy, John Craig, Kathryn Manofsky, Robert Sanford and Asif Yusuf. ABSENT: None IN ATTENDANCE: Richard B. Boehm, Village Manager; Robert L. Kallien, Jr., Director of Community Development and Tracy Mulqueen, President of Greater Oak Brook Chamber of Commerce. President Quinlan commented that as a Committee -of -the -Whole Meeting, not a regular meeting, the dress was more casual and the meeting was intended to be a working session. He added that by law in order for the group to meet together and have a working session it still must be a posted meeting and held in a public forum. In addition, he acknowledged the configuration of the room as being intended to accommodate a working session. He did specify that Roberts Rules of Order still applied, but were somewhat relaxed to allow for the working atmosphere. He added in response to an earlier request that as is typical of any special meeting and committee -of- the -whole meeting the Board did not normally allow resident or visitor comment with the exception of times when experts have been invited to speak to the group. President Quinlan explained that this was a single topic meeting to talk about the very beginning of what was expected to be a long process for the long term redevelopment of the commercial sector and possibly parts of the residential sector of the community. He declared that this was not something to be taken lightly and it certainly would not be taken lightly. He expressed that what was hoped to be accomplished was some semblance of what the long term objectives may be which might give the Village the opportunity to start building strategy and the steps to take to meet that strategy. He felt that it was an opportunity, especially in the current economic climate that exists, for Oak Brook to refocus on its true strengths. He stated that Oak Brook has long been a center for business, a high class residential development and in some minds, although he did not believe that to be the case, this has passed the Village by to some degree. He did believe, however, that the opportunity existed in Oak Brook right now to refocus efforts COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page 1 of 11 May 23, 2005 2. and take advantage of the current climate to go out and tell people why they should be in Oak Brook. He emphasized that the Village still has all of the things that made it great all of these years, but the question was how to use them. He recounted that the Village still has great shopping, transportation access, located very close to Chicago and O'Hare, high end residential which was getting better every day. He reiterated all of these assets still existed in this community. He pointed out that the question that sat before this Board which he expected to be discussed at this meeting and on into other meetings over the next several years was "how do we take advantage of that" to keep the Village the best that it has been. He introduced Tracy Mulqueen, President of what was formally know as Oak Brook Area of Commerce and Industry and was currently known as the Greater Oak Brook Chamber of Commerce, which he indicated had been invited to speak to the group. He reported that the reason she was asked to participate this evening was to provide insight into what the Oak Brook Chamber was planning to do which should provide more tools for the Village's tool bag to decide how to go about making this Village even stronger in the years to come. Ms. Mulqueen was very happy to be invited to meet with this group because so many things were happening and the Chamber wanted to stay connected with the Village. She provided information about her background and indicated that the Board of Directors of the Greater Oak Brook Chamber of Commerce asked her to develop a strategic plan to strengthen the organization, to put them on a new course and to make sure the organization was doing what they should be doing. She explained that the organization had struggled over the years and lost some momentum. She reported that the organization had changed their name to the Greater Oak Brook Chamber of Commerce. She explained that the use of the word Greater indicated that Oak Brook was their primary community, but that the Oakbrook Terrace business community was left unsupported and that a lot of the work done in this area does affect that community and that they also wished to be there for them as much as possible. She added that as part of the strategic plan, the organization wanted to address business needs in a different way. She reported that chambers across the country were gaining momentum, probably because there was more business support in Congress and with the Bush administration and that chambers were attempting to become a more cohesive unit to effect change on behalf of business. She announced that this chamber planned to be a part of that movement. Ms. Mulqueen disclosed that the organization had begun with an internal campaign to change the direction of focusing on small businesses, networking and social activities to a larger job of getting back to their mission, which was business. She communicated that the internal campaign was business first and to make sure that the organization inspires members and other businesses to feel good about being a business. She felt that businesses need advocacy and support and they need to know that decision makers like the Village of Oak Brook and the Chamber as advocates really care about the policies COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page 2 of I I May 23, 2005 2. that were made and the things that were done and how they affect businesses. She added that their new logo of "Business First" will be on all of their materials. She asserted that probably the most important thing the chamber was planning to do was get feedback from area businesses which she has been doing since September. She reported that there was a strong feeling that the organization needed to focus more on Oak Brook, keeping business in Oak Brook since there were high office vacancy rates and not enough customers flowing into restaurants and hotels. She added that their goal was business attraction and retention with retention being their primary goal for the next three years. Ms. Mulqueen advised that the method they were planning to use was through an Economic Development Committee which had been set up and had gained a great deal of momentum because people were excited. She related that there had been past attempts at economic development, but it was felt that because of "politics ", lack of money, etc. it had failed. She felt it was important that everyone was involved and the biggest concern was to make sure that the organization had all the key businesses in Oak Brook represented on the committee. She explained that the make -up of the committee was all of the largest corporations in Oak Brook with representatives at the highest level that could be managed by the companies and representatives from the Village of Oak Brook and Oakbrook Terrace. She reported that the Economic Development Office of DuPage County has been asked to participate because they have an economic development plan in place which may be accessed through their website. She indicated that the Chamber wanted to be sure that as they move forward they were considering what was going on in terms of economic development throughout the county. She added that it had been said that the group at least for the first couple of years would be a "think tank" for economic development. She stated that they did have a very specific purpose that was actually a very broad goal which was to attract and retain business for the Village of Oak Brook. She added that the way they plan to do that was that the committee will develop an action plan and ask and hope that it be supported by the Village. She suggested that the mechanism for that would be a partnership with the Village that would include one or two liaisons from the Village on the committee. She concluded that the Chamber was trying to do a good job for Oak Brook and Oak Brook businesses and felt that their job was to represent business. She asked that if there were any concerns or ideas that they may not have thought about, she hoped that they would be brought to her attention. Trustee Manofsky thanked Ms. Mulqueen for coming and explaining the Chambers mission and she applauded their mission. She reported that she is pleased that she had been appointed along with Trustee Sanford as liaisons to the committee and that they looked forward to working with her and the group for the same goals. Trustee Manofsky indicated that she was aware that the chamber was a subscriber to the census of all companies in Oak Brook and asked if the chamber had plans to send out a survey COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page 3 of 11 May 23, 2005 3. to gauge the level of commitment, contentment, hopes and dreams for the future, space needs, etc. of local businesses. She felt that it needed to be done by a professional to survey people since they knew what questions to ask and how to ask them even though it might be expensive. Ms. Mulqueen responded that the first meeting agenda included proposed issues and activities as had been presented by the business community along with information about ComEd's survey for businesses which was offered at no cost to businesses. She explained that the program was funded by the State and they would take the list of companies and work through it anyway that was asked of them and meet with businesses and tabulate results to provide real feedback from businesses as to what they need from Oak Brook. President Quinlan asked Ms. Mulqueen to go over other tools and resources that will be used. She responded that they had a ready supply of every type of business professional available among their membership. She added that they had a great opportunity through those business relationships to bring resources to the Village, especially if the businesses believe that the Village was supporting them with a joint direction. Ms. Mulqueen reported that a new website was in the works which included all kinds of information about industries, legislative information, profiles of the Village Board and stories that highlight their involvement with the chamber and business. She offered that the Village could use the website to teach businesses about things that need to be shared with business, although she cautioned that it would not be a political forum for editorials, etc., but could be used for news and information. She reported that there would be a section on economic development with links to various websites, reports and information including available office space, training opportunities, mostly information. Trustee Manofsky asked about membership campaigns and costs. She also asked if the membership was how the Chamber was funded. Ms. Mulqueen responded that most of their work was supported through memberships, two major events and a number of smaller fund raising activities. In addition, the Chamber was setting up a 501(c)3 foundation to pay for training programs which made them eligible for grants to provide services. Trustee Manofsky asked if the Chamber had grant writers on staff to help the Village if it chose to go out for a grant. Ms. Mulqueen responded that she had a background in grant writing and provided some insight. Trustee Manofsky expressed concern over the membership drive that many corporations had not gotten the Chamber's message and that it was important to have 90% participation in the Chamber in order for success. Ms. Mulqueen agreed and reiterated the plans that she expected would expand membership. Ms. Mulqueen asked whether the group supported the direction that the Chamber was going. There was positive consensus and Trustee Yusuf summed it up indicating that there was a lot of common ground and hopefully there was consensus to move forward to look at what the Village had to do to make their organization a larger organization COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page 4 of 11 May 23, 2005 2. and by virtue of that bring new business into town, increase economic activity and the whole host of benefits that go along with that. President Quinlan thanked her for attending and indicated that after the Board decided what direction they wished to go in that the chamber would be a big part of helping the Village get there. 3. DISCUSSION OF OBJECTIVES AND /OR GOALS FOR COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT/REDEVELOPMENT IN THE VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK President Quinlan stated that what he hoped would be accomplished at this meeting was general objectives such as whether the Village wanted to see high rises down 22"d street or was the objective of redevelopment to continue with the low rise, single use, or a mixed use. He felt that the objective should be defined on that large a scope and then start to determine what needed to be done and how to use resources that were available to the Village. He believed that something must be done because there was a great opportunity out there not to do something with it. He felt that it needed to be determined as to what the something looked like. Trustee Sanford commented that we were not a community that was in bad shape, we were a community that has watched a lot of development go on down the I -88 corridor. He realized that we did not have that type of building going on, for lack of space or whatever reason, but now that the economy had turned on rental spaces, they were in a lot worse shape than Oak Brook in relation to office space. He stated that one of the concerns he would like to see the Village address was to define the problem, to put together a small group to figure out what direction the Village wanted to go. He felt that we needed to determine what problems the owners and lessors of business see and what the Village can do to make this a more business friendly community. Trustee Sanford asserted that he did not want to see the Village go into a huge concept such as the Lohan plan. He felt that initially the Board need to determine what needs to be done to fill the office space and once those issues were resolved, and then larger issues can be addressed. He offered that a committee should be made up of Plan Commission and Zoning Board liaisons and chairmen of those boards along with the Village Manager and the Director of Community Development to do nothing more than put together a panel to get the information needed. He expressed concern that if the Village started with a major committee all that would happen was to build expectations that would not be fulfilled. He felt that it was necessary to define the issue. President Quinlan reiterated what he understood Trustee Sanford to say was to go ask the question as to what the challenge was and why the buildings were not at 100% occupancy. Trustee Sanford agreed and indicated that Oak Brook was attractive, we want to keep it attractive and keep the vacancy rate better than other communities as well as then determining what other uses and changes we need to look at while defining COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page 5 of 11 May 23, 2005 the problem. President Quinlan commented that the Village has always been in touch with the big businesses in the Village and asked if Trustee Sanford felt that it should broaden our scope to include those leasing smaller spaces. Trustee Sanford responded that he felt that those lessors who were bringing tenants into Village should be able to call on the Village to provide a welcome wagon dialogue with prospective clients. Trustee Aktipis stated that he felt that the Village was at a very critical and important point in the history of the Village and that what we were about to embark on was the most important undertaking that the Village has had over the last thirty years perhaps. He felt that a lot of deliberation needs to be set in place before moving machinery began to accomplish something. He reiterated that it must first be decided what needed to be accomplished. Trustee Aktipis felt that the question as to what the Board of Trustees wanted at this point was premature in the sense that the reference to the plan developed some years ago was a failure in that it was never implemented. He believed that the reason for that failure was because the process used previously and the process we were now discussing began from the top down rather than from grassroots up. He felt that was one of the major flaws and one of the major reasons for the failure of that plan. He asserted that it was necessary to learn from previous mistakes and be sure that we do not repeat the same mistakes. He stated that it meant the Board must work from the bottom up. Trustee Aktipis agreed with Trustee Sanford in creating a steering committee that would have the complete confidence of this Board and that committee could begin the process of putting together the various parts of a mechanism. He reminded the group that he had made some proposals regarding that mechanism that could be used and other ideas could be implemented, but he felt that the Village had to create a machinery or process by which it would get wide input by both residential, as well as the commercial sectors of the Village, have substantial deliberation, arrive at consensus, input from proper consultants, review by Village Boards in the form of working sessions, formal review by them and then the actual review by this Board, having already been involved in the process of selection and look at the final recommendations as they came down the pipe. He added that at that time the Board would know how the Board should respond to those issues because they would have received the test of the community and the input of experts. He felt that this was the process that would lead the Board to success, but he would predict that any other process of attempting to legislate from the top down would not be successful. Trustee Kennedy related that over the past months he had asked a lot of questions of a people and spent a lot of time listening, including Village staff and felt that the immediate problem seemed clear. He detailed that it was a problem that been identified ten years ago in the Lohan study and has been going on since that time which is that the Village has a lot of office space in Oak Brook that is in small buildings built in the 60's COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page 6 of 11 May 23, 2005 3. and 70's and those buildings simply were not designed or equipped to meet the modern needs of the office in a whole host of areas. He asserted that there were a lot of small, obsolete office buildings in this community, they were not competitive with the more modern, larger, mixed use buildings in Oakbrook Terrace and going west on the I -88 corridor. He reported that the vacancy rates were significant and going up. He felt that if the Village did not do something to revitalize and redevelop those commercial office sectors, the best that could be achieved was attracting low end tenants, paying low rents. He felt that the worse case scenario was that those buildings were going to become effectively abandoned buildings in every sense of the term a blight on the community. He stated that the Village needed to do something and that it needed to move expeditiously and carefully, but that the move needed to be done. He suggested that some of those buildings could be renovated into modern 21" century buildings, but a lot of them frankly were too small, the footprints were too small, the cost of renovating was too high in relations to the rents that could be obtained. Trustee Kennedy stated that in his mind the immediate problem was fairly clear, emphasizing that it had been a problem for several years identified by Economic Research Associates which was part of the Lohan planning process. He felt the objective the Board should be setting about was to see what this Village can do and then to do it to facilitate and stimulate redevelopment of those corporate office sectors. He clarified that redevelopment might not necessarily be as office space because it seemed that the long term trend was that the demand for office space was going down as a result of increased productivity and corporate downsizing. He felt that the market for retail was more robust. He summarized that he was not looking toward an effort to greatly increase the office space in Oak Brook, but how to take that commercial sector and turn it into some productive uses which he felt should be mixed retail, hotel, office and perhaps even some residential. He felt that what that required of the Village was probably revision of the comprehensive plan, zoning changes in commercial areas, a look at building and fire codes to take into account changes that have occurred in technology, building materials and tenant demands. He thought that the Village may have to look at facilitating the re- platting of some of those buildings so that they can be reconfigured and combined to build a modern viable office structure or a mixed use structure. He commented that the Village might have to ultimately look at relocating some streets and infrastructure in order to accommodate that. He emphasized that in all of this, as Trustee Aktipis indicated, the Village must be extremely careful in how it impacted residential neighbors and how it affects the character of the Village. Trustee Kennedy agreed with Trustee Aktipis that the process should not be a top down approach, it needed to be a bottom up approach. He felt that the prerequisites of the process were to utilize and respect the statutory roles of the Plan Commission and the Zoning Board who have the statutory authority to recommend changes, respect the authority of this Board and of staff and the expertise that they bring to the process. He added that it must also include the major stake holders in the Village: the commercial property owners, the commercial COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page 7 of 11 May 23, 2005 3. brokers, manager of Oakbrook Center, financiers and the residents so that it was a community based effort. He suggested that how to structure it and kick it off was by creating a task force and begin with a core group of President Quinlan, Chairmen of the Plan Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals and the liaisons to those boards, Trustee Sanford and himself. He added that this group would then make recommendations as to how to flesh out the group of about twelve, thirteen or fourteen people that would bring in the stake holders, a representative group from the community that would look at the strengths and weaknesses of Oak Brook in the commercial office sector and look at the mission of what the Village would like those sectors to look like down the road. He advised that at some point a professional urban planner be brought in. He cited that he had gotten various opinions as to how soon the professionals should be brought in, he felt that at some point it would be advisable to do so and he suggested that during the 2006 budget process it should be considered to include money to bring in an urban planner to help with the process. He asserted that it should be taken a step at a time, very carefully, not rushed into, by starting with a core group task force and expand it based on input from the rest of the Board, the Chamber of Commerce and staff with the process being an open one since it is an Open Meeting Act requirement, encourage broad public participation. He expressed the opinion that the chamber would play a key role in the process such as providing a lot of input on what tenants want, why real estate brokers have trouble locating tenants in Oak Brook, what developers want and another role the chamber could play was socializing this process throughout the business community because he felt that the previous plan did not include the community early enough and all of a sudden the community saw a plan that was somewhat pie in the sky and the community reacted adversely. He wanted to be sure to avoid that. He concluded saying that the Village was aware of the immediate problem of obsolete, small office buildings and felt that this was what needed to be addressed, going very slowly and carefully. He added that in putting together the task force that the Village must be particularly sensitive to include residents from the areas that would be most impacted, such as the northeast quadrant of the Village and possibly Ginger Creek because they are just across the Tollway from the properties along 22nd Street. He added that core group members if it included the Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals and the liaisons, automatically most of the northeast quadrant of the Village would be represented. President Quinlan reiterated what he thought he was hearing about the formation of the group. He thought that the comments indicated that it would not be a group of subcommittees. Trustee Kennedy responded that he felt the key would be to start with the statutory authorities including Chairmen of Planning and Zoning and include the stake holders and representation from the neighborhoods and the community. He felt that a workable group needed to be formed which was probably ten to fifteen people to scope out what the strengths and weaknesses are, where to go, how to get there and then COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page 8 of I I May 23, 2005 3. take the next step. President Quinlan suggested that the voting members of the group should be elected or appointed officials of the Village. He showed concern for having members from the outside who did not have a vested interest. He suggested, however, that those individuals would be good resources for information. Trustee Kennedy agreed and Trustee Sanford suggested that the group could appoint panels with specific tasks to report to the group. Trustee Manofsky also suggested that special guests be invited as needed to be interviewed. She felt that the Village had a lot of real estate brokers who represented buildings in Oak Brook who could provide a tremendous amount of information and also bank owners who may provide information. Trustee Manofsky went on to say that she had a conversation that indicated that the 1 -88 corridor had space that allowed developers to build whatever they wanted, although they too are not fully leased, but that as that land was used up developers would be looking back in the Oak Brook area. She added that we do not know what the future holds, but it was felt that it was good to address issues now since it would be a several year project. Trustee Aktipis felt that one of the prerequisites of having a successful project was to avoid front loading the equation by telling the panels and the experts what the Board wants to see done. He wanted to see the group and panels not have any direction, undertake the task, debate the various options, debate the various possibilities and adjust as the situation adjusts because the Village was at a different era than when the east - west corridor was developed and perhaps there may be a new era for office buildings and the Village might be in a position to offer that type of development or it might be that retail was more appropriate. He stated that whatever the case was he would like to see panels and experts debate all of this and let them recommend. He then expected that the recommendations would go through the statutory bodies and then he would express his views as to which way to go. President Quinlan recounted what he was hearing and asked for a consensus of the Board to create a task force, committee or whatever they wanted to call it, of a smaller group of people to focus on the issues. He would like, however, to give that group a charge of what it is that the Board wants them to do. He felt it was necessary to give the group the question that needed to be answered. Trustee Yusuf commented that he felt it was a parallel, two step processes to create a long term plan and see what was going to be viable, see if the buildings are going to be tear downs, go to retail space, whatever is out there. He asserted that the Village was hurting today and that short term someone needed to be charged to find out what the obstacles to marketing space were today and what the Village could do to make space more marketable. He felt that if there were minor things that could be done, the Village should look to making those changes quickly so that the problem does not get worse and work on long term needs along with it. COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page 9 of 11 May 23, 2005 3. Discussion ensued relative to various examples of debate that would be good topics for the group. However, Trustee Manofsky with agreement from all, stated that Oak Brook still had the premier retail center in the area. President Quinlan asked for consensus, which he received, and named that the committee would be the Liaisons to the Plan Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals which were Trustee Sanford and Trustee Kennedy, President Quinlan, Chairmen of the Plan Commission and the Zoning Board of Appeals per their agreement and Robert Kallien, Director of Community Development and the Committee would get together to decide on schedules, etc. He affirmed that the group would report back to the Board as to how often they would report to the Board with information and updates and to provide opportunities for the Board as a whole. He reiterated that his philosophy for the task force would be the same as liaison assignments that these are the people that delve into a topic a little further, but that did not relieve any member of the Board from the entirety of their job as to be fully knowledgeable. He assured that every member of the Board has a role to play, but that this was just a smaller group that would do the research. Trustee Aktipis said that he would like to participate in the committee due to his experience with the Plan Commission. President Quinlan responded that all members of the Board would play a role and be ready to take whatever action was best for the Village. President Quinlan asked what the charge to the task force should be. He believed that what he had surmised from the conversation was that the question was "what is the problem ", "what is needed" and "are we the problem ". Trustee Sanford reiterated that it was important to define the problem with the input from the commercial sector. It was asked how outdated is the Village Code. Director of Community Development Robert Kallien responded that it was re- codified in 2000 and that the Village of Oak Brook was the first community in the Chicago Region to adopt the newest building codes. Trustee Manofsky asked how our Oak Brook codes compared to Naperville and Wheaton. He responded that our codes were far superior. Director Kallien commented that building codes are not something that are adopted and expect to always be in the forefront of construction techniques. Construction is ever changing and Village staff participates in seminars, etc. to stay ahead of the game. Trustee Craig commented that he agreed with Trustee Kennedy in that the future must be faced or we could be left behind and that mixed use may be the direction the Village may have to go. Trustee Kennedy added that mixed use is an area that the Village needed to hear from developers to see what the people interested in coming into Oak Brook and developing COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page 10 of 11 May 23, 2005 3. areas want. He suggested that from what he had heard that they would probably want some sort of mixed use. He felt that private enterprise was going to do the redevelopment with help from the Village in terms of codes, zoning, etc. President Quinlan questioned whether he was correct by stating that the charge to the task force was that: the Village has too much vacancy, why does this exist and how does the Village fix -it. There was consensus with exception of Trustee Aktipis who felt that the charge was too narrow. He would like to see the statement be broader to include the whole issue of where the Village wanted to go in terms of economic development, real estate development and how residents would input into those two issues. He reiterated that he would like to see the group work with a number of panels that involve both commercial interests as well as representatives of residents in beginning to deal with some of the possible options and the possibilities that are available. Trustee Sanford responded that he agreed that it should not be too narrow, but felt that even if the beginning was fairly narrow it would by its own queries widen out. He did not think that it would limit the scope. He felt that everyone had the same objectives, to keep Oak Brook viable, tax free by having businesses in town and home values go up. He felt that whatever the group started out with, once questions were asked it would broaden itself to the direction where there was a need. Trustee Yusuf agreed with the basic charge stated by President Quinlan and as time went by and more information was provided it could be added to. 4. ADJOURNMENT: Motion by Trustee Craig, seconded by Trustee Manofsky, to adjourn the Committee -of- the -Whole Meeting at 8:50 p.m. VOICE VOTE: Motion carried. ATTEST: s /Carol Harty Carol L. Harty Deputy Village Clerk COMMITTEE -OF- THE -WHOLE Minutes Page I I of I I May 23, 2005