North Cook News

Village of Bartlett Committee of the Whole met April 19.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

CALL TO ORDER

President Wallace called the Committee of the Whole meeting of the President and Board of Trustees of the Village of Bartlett to order on the above date at 7:27 p.m.

ROLL CALL

PRESENT: Chairmen Deyne, Gandsey, Gunsteen, Hopkins, Reinke, Suwanski, President Wallace

ABSENT: None

ALSO PRESENT: Village Administrator Paula Schumacher, Assistant Village Administrator Scott Skrycki, Sr. Management Analyst Samuel Hughes, Management Analyst Joey Dienberg, Human Resources Director Janelle Terrance, Finance Director Todd Dowden, Public Works Director Dan Dinges, Asst. Public Works Director Tyler Isham, Public Works Engineer Bob Allen, Planning & Development Director Roberta Grill, Grounds Supervisor Matt Giermak, Police Chief Patrick Ullrich, Deputy Chief Geoff Pretkelis, Village Attorney Bryan Mraz and Village Clerk Lorna Giless.

BUILDING & ZONING, CHAIRMAN HOPKINS

Proposed Text Amendments for Massage Establishments and Bodywork Approach Businesses

Chairman Hopkins introduced the item.

President Wallace stated he wanted to make a comment. Maybe we did not get this right, he was in agreement with figuratively falling on our sword and starting over, but with that being said, this has been an issue since before he was in office. He will take some blame on the swing and a miss here because he thinks we were all trying to get to a situation where we did not have a reputation as a village that would permit those types of activities happening here. That is no discount to the legitimate massage places that are running a very lucrative business. He thinks it’s right to have staff go back to the drawing board, scrap most of what we had and try to figure out a better solution to the problem that is at hand and something that would take way less of our police departments time.

Chairman Hopkins stated he agreed with that.

Chairman Gunsteen stated he also agreed. His position is still that it should be sent back and looked at as a special use. He thinks that is the best alternative to what we are trying to accomplish.

Chairman Deyne asked if staff could contact the groups Austin Hopkins referred to in the board meeting, for assistance.

Village Administrator Paula Schumacher stated she believes we have the contact information that Austin was referring to and we would be happy to reach out.

President Wallace stated that we have done that before when this came up years ago. Mr. Hopkins and another resident of Bartlett helped a lot during that situation trying to draft some additional text to try to legitimize some of the issues we were having. He thought it was a great idea to reach out.

Chairman Suwanski asked Planning and Development Services Director, Roberta Grill what a special use would entail.

Ms. Grill stated a special use is a permitted use with additional review or conditions placed on it. It’s basically an additional step and allows the Board and Planning and Zoning Commission a chance to review it, ask additional questions, maybe put a time limit in, etc. It’s a more thorough review of an application.

Chairman Gunsteen confirmed that it was a public hearing and stated that more details would come out about the type of establishment it is, whether it’s a chain or independent business, etc.

Ms. Grill stated staff has been discussing with the village attorney, ways in which we can beef up the licensing requirements. We talked about adding conditions of no residency at these locations and we are going to have a very formal code compliance as far as code enforcement is concerned. We are developing a checklist for checking the inside and outside, constant and weekly inspections.

Village Attorney Bryan Mraz stated that when we brought the down zoning ordinance we just talked about, we also brought changes to the regulations, in part because the stated was making changes to whether they were going to license Asian bodyworks practitioners. There was also discussion to put more onus on the landlords of these strip centers. What we have had was certain instances where there was an arrest and then the business was sold to someone else before the process was completed which is the kind of thing we want to avoid. We want the landlords not to just assign these leases to some new business. We had an incidence where the business was sold, we didn’t know about it and they didn’t get a new license. We want to deal with those kinds of issues. With enforcement and amendments to our current regulations, that will be another step in the right direction.

Chairman Gunsteen stated he thought landlords need to take a hard look into who they are renting to and understand that if they do rent to someone like that in Bartlett, there is repercussions.

Chairman Deyne stated that is a tough line to walk because if you run your business, you can’t be there 24/7 to monitor it. Our police have a hard enough time with enforcement. We need to be careful with the owner of the property.

The Committee Adjourned to Executive Session to Discuss Pending Probable or Imminent Litigation Pursuant to Section 2(c)11 of the Open Meetings Act.

Chairman Deyne moved to adjourn the Committee meeting and the motion was seconded by Chairman Reinke.

ROLL CALL VOTE TO ADJOURN

AYES: Chairmen Deyne, Gandsey, Gunsteen, Hopkins, Reinke, Suwanski

NAYS: None

ABSENT: None

MOTION CARRIED

The meeting was adjourned at 7:35 p.m.

https://www.bartlettil.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/12517