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2004-02-18 - Plan Commission - Minutes Board or Commission: ❑ Plan Commission Document Type: 0 A e g nda 0 Minutes Meeting ate: 02/18/2004 Type of Meeting: ❑ Regular Meeting REGULAR MEETING BUFFALO GROVE PLAN COMMISSION February 18, 2004 Proposed Buffalo Grove Bank & Trust,Annexation with zoning In the B-1 District, rezoning of one parcel from R-4A to the B-1 District And approval of a Preliminary Plan, southwest corner of Buffalo Grove Road/Old Checker Road—Workshop #1 Chairman Ottenheimer called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. in the Village Council Chambers, Buffalo Grove Municipal Building, 50 Raupp Boulevard, Buffalo Grove, Illinois. Commissioners present: Chairman Ottenheimer Mr. Smith Ms. Bocek Ms. Kenski-Sroka Mr. Khan Mr. Teplinsky Mr. Stark Mr. Cohn Commissioners absent: Mr. Samuels Also present: Ms. Amy Kurson, Greenberg Traurig Mr. Richard Rushkewicz, Northbrook Bank& Trust Co. Ms. Diana Melichar, Geudtner Melichar Mr. Timothy Doron, KLOA Mr. Steve Trilling, Village Trustee Mr. Robert Pfeil, Village Planner Mr. Greg Summers, Associate Planner APPROVAL OF MINUTES Moved by Commissioner Smith, seconded by Commissioner Khan to approve the minutes of the public hearing of January 7, 2004. All Commissioners were in favor of the motion and the motion passed unanimously with Commissioner Teplinsky abstaining. Moved by Commissioner Kenski-Sroka, seconded by Commissioner Smith to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of January 7, 2004. All Commissioners were in favor of the motion and the motion passed unanimously with Commissioner Teplinsky abstaining. COMMITTEE AND LIAISON REPORTS—None PROPOSED BUFFALO GROVE BANK & TRUST, ANNEXATION WITH ZONING IN THE B-1 DISTRICT, REZONING OF ONE PARCEL FROM R-4A TO THE B-1 DISTRICT AND APPROVAL OF A PRELIMINARY PLAN, SOUTHWEST CORNER OF BUFFALO GROVE ROAD/OLD CHECKER ROAD—WORKSHOP 91 Ms. Any Kurson of Greenberg Traurig introduced the bank team and stated Buffalo Grove Bank and Trust has consolidated three lots at the southwest corner of Old Checker Road and Buffalo Grove Road. At this time two of the lots are in unincorporated Lake County and they have a business classification. They are proposing to put a bank on the site and demolish all of the existing structures. In the interim the bank will operate a temporary facility in the unincorporated parcels. Buffalo Grove Bank & Trust will be a branch of Northbrook Bank & Trust and the Wintrust Financial network backs both banks. This is important because even though Buffalo Grove Bank& Trust is a community bank that will be served by local people for the local community, it is backed by a five billion dollar financial network that consists of nine banks and 34 branches and Wayne Hummer investments and certainly have the financial wherewithal to make a community bank work. Mr. Richard Rushkewicz of Northbrook Bank & Trust noted that service is the big reason for needing another bank in the community. He stated the Northbrook Bank & Trust is already the second largest bank in Northbrook in less than three years. He stated they are already a $280,000,000 bank. He stated they did this by offering programs from the cradle to the grave. They have programs for junior savers, small business programs, charity programs and various others. They feel their service to the community is exemplary and superior to all other banks in the area. For their employees they have a family atmosphere, which translates into better service for our customers. He noted they would be bringing in new property tax after the annexation for the unincorporated lots. They will clean up a nondescript corner with a first class architecturally significant building that will be a low traffic generating business. Ms. Diana Melichar of Geudtner & Melichar stated the site consists of three different lots. Lots 1 and 2 are located in unincorporated Lake County while lot 3 is already in Buffalo Grove. This is a long narrow site and is littered with five buildings, several of which are either non-conforming or substandard. Some of the other problems are the three curb cuts along Buffalo Grove Road, the multitude of impervious surface area and well and septic on the two lots in unincorporated Lake County. Ms. Melichar stated they have located the parking on the north end of the lot and locating the building further to the south. In addition they hope to clean up the curb cuts located along the road. They are also trying to get the building away from the neighboring properties. On the existing site plan there is actually one building that is over the property line and into the residential zone. Elsewhere on the existing site they also have some landscaping issues. Ms. Melichar stated the proposed site shows a professionally landscaped buffer that goes all the way around the perimeter of the property. The parking will be at the northern end. That portion of the lot is very narrow and a building there would not allow for any parking. They are also trying to put in a 6-foot high masonry wall that would run along the residential area. It is a very attractive wall made out of stone and brick and would have some lighting on the bank side of the property. The drive through is put at the portion of the lot that flares out. They are trying to keep the drive through hidden from the street. Ms. Melichar noted the amount of intensity of use on the site is really not much greater than what is on the site now. She noted they would be reducing the building massing on the site by 22 percent. They will also be reducing building coverage on the lot by 45 percent. They do, however, have more impervious surface because they have more parking requirements. She noted they would be proposing detention for the site. Ms. Melichar noted they are certainly improving the site in terms of landscaping. Many of the properties now have no landscaping. Ms. Melichar noted the proposed building is between two distinct areas; the town center and the municipal area. She noted they would try to keep their architecture low at 30 feet because they are adjacent to the residential area. She further noted they will try to build something between the top quality of the municipal area and the commercial areas in order to make some sort of link between the two areas. Ms. Melichar noted they are requesting three variances. One of them has to do with parking. They are providing 26 spaces on the lot right now and they are requesting a variance only in terms of the square footage requirements. They are required to have 38 parking spaces, which is way more than this type of banking requires. They are requesting to provide all of the parking for the facility without counting where there would be no bodies anyway such as the vault. The other variance is for stacking and the last variance is for the landscape buffer. They are required to have a 25-foot landscape buffer. Because the Lake County Department of Transportation is requiring them to put in a turn lane that cuts into the landscape buffer they only have 15 feet instead of 25 feet. Mr. Doron stated he was most concerned about how this intersection worked. He was watching very carefully to see if the stacking would block the bank's driveway. He stated banks are a relative benign traffic use. At their peak hour there are on average about 25 trips in and 25 out. He got this data from regional banks like LaSalle, Northern and Fifth Third. Access was of prime importance so they spoke to the Lake County Department of Transportation who stated they are to design their left turns in accordance with an extension of the left turn at Old Checker and they would grant full access off of Buffalo Grove Road. He noted this site would not preclude any further development to the site. The left turn will be consistent with the left turn at Church Road for the new Concord development on the east side of the street and it will be in a back to back situation with the left turn lane at Church Road. Mr. Doron noted this is essentially a one-way circulation. The site is constrained, as there is very little depth to the first two lots. The third lot gives them the depth to orient the drive through away from the street. There will be one-way circulation in and out with a two-way re-circulation aisle. You will be able to circulate into the drive through lanes or a by-pass lane and circulate back out onto Buffalo Grove Road or go northbound back and re-circulate onto Old Checker. He stated they have 45-degree angle parking stalls with a 13-foot wide aisle to back out in. Mr. Doron stated this is a very good use for this corner because anything else that would go on this corner would probably be a higher intense usage. This works very well for parking and landscaping. He noted they are asking for a variance for the parking. He noted they went to four other banks both regional banks and their facility in Northbrook and found the highest parking accumulation count was 16 at any given time over a 12 hour period. Therefore, they feel that 26 spaces are more than adequate. As far as stacking he noted many towns require an enormous amount of stacking and yet banking has changed over time. They divide stacking up by lane and they rarely have found anything even approaching a car per lane. They are under a car per lane in actual demand and they do not need that kind of enormous stacking as was noted in reviewing regional banks. Mr. Doron noted in summary that they have great access off of Buffalo Grove Road. They were thrilled that they could plead their case successfully to the Lake County Department of Transportation. They have excellent access off of Old Checker and they will eliminate the situation of backups into the intersection. They have good site circulation and 45 degree angle parking. Ms. Kurson noted one of the most important benefits of the site plan is that they are reducing the number of curb cuts and they are maximizing a tight and difficult site. Commissioner Stark asked for confirmation that westbound Old Checker will not be able to turn left. Mr. Doron stated that is correct and it will be done by means of the median and signage. Commissioner Stark asked if it is a big problem to have people turn into the left turn lane on Buffalo Grove Road and instead of turning into the south end for the bank, they continue on to turn left on Old Checker. Mr. Doron stated that could happen, as there is nothing that will prohibit them from continuing on in the turn lane up to Old Checker. This, however, is the way Lake County has asked them to design it. Commissioner Stark asked what the proposed hours will be. Mr. Rushkewicz stated lobby hours would be 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and drive up hours from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Saturday hours in the lobby will be 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and drive up from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Commissioner Stark asked how many employees they will have. Mr. Rushkewicz noted that initially he would anticipate 4-6 employees. He noted the last thing in the world they would want is disgruntled employees due to a lack of parking. Commissioner Stark stated he has found 15 banks in Buffalo Grove, which seems to be somewhat excessive for this size community. Mr. Rushkewicz stated that in all of their Wintrust markets every one of their banks has gone to number one and two market share. He stated they believe in letting the market decide where people want to bank and they are confident they will be a player in this town. Commissioner Stark asked what products and services will be offered besides traditional saving and checking accounts. Mr. Rushkewicz stated they are a full service commercial bank and they will have the checking, savings, money markets, and CDs. There will be Wayne Hummer Investments and potentially a representative may be on the premises. Home equity lines of credit will be available as well as commercial banking services for the small and medium sized businesses. Trust services will be available on an appointment basis initially. Commissioner Stark asked what the relationship is between Wintrust, Wayne Hummer and Buffalo Grove Bank& Trust. Mr. Rushkewicz stated Wintrust is their holding company and the business plan is that each of their ten banks operates totally independently. Wayne Hummer is a fully owned subsidiary of Wintrust and each of the bank's goal is to have representatives there to provide that complete range of services to their customers. Commissioner Stark asked why they are interested in building a brick and mortar facility when so much of banking these days is electronic either through the mail or direct deposit. Mr. Rushkewicz stated they think they can have the best of both worlds and the personal touch at the facility is very good for business. Commissioner Stark asked where the wrought iron fence would be. Ms. Melichar stated they do not yet have the exact location, as they will need to be careful due to the fact that they will be getting rid of the well and septic at the end of Manchester Drive and looping the water main over to Buffalo Grove Road. Commissioner Khan stated he took a head count of banks located on Dundee Road between Buffalo Grove Road and Wilke and came up with 11 banks. Commissioner Khan asked how much of a parkway is left after the dedication is made for the right of way for a right turn lane. Ms. Melichar stated it is somewhere between 22 plus 13 feet at the larger end. Commissioner Stark stated he heard a comment from the Village Engineer that there is only a six-foot right of way and therefore they might want to consider putting the sidewalk partially on the private property. Commissioner Khan noted a slight concern with the back to back left turn lane at Church. Mr. Doron stated it is a slight concern but fortunately there are two lanes in the thru direction so you have a by-pass lane on Buffalo Grove Road. He noted the advantage to this for Buffalo Grove is that as that site develops you cannot get another access drive further south off of Buffalo Grove Road. Commissioner Bocek stated she is concerned with the internal queuing. During peak hours there are roughly 25 cars in and out. The peak hours are also the peak hours for both streets so getting out of the site will be more difficult and she can see cars queuing into areas that people are trying to get out of parking spaces. Once they are committed there is no where for them to go to get off the site. Mr. Doron stated it could happen and may happen once in an hour but would not be all that much of a hassle. Commissioner Bocek asked if the building needs to be quite so large. Ms. Melichar stated there are five people on the first floor and on the second floor when they max out the entire building. Then there are two fire stairs on either end and they take up quite a bit of space so they cannot make the building much smaller. Mr. Doron noted the good thing about the traffic signal is that it does provide gaps which peak hour users would be able to take advantage of. There will be some internal stacking but it will be minimal. Chairman Ottenheimer asked if the new condos going up across the street had been taken into account for the traffic study. Mr. Doron stated yes. He noted they provided an 8 percent growth in traffic a year for other development. Commissioner Teplinsky asked how many cars would be in line before the by-pass lane. Mr. Doron stated they could get five more cars there and probably six cars. He noted their data finds less than a car per lane. Commissioner Teplinsky asked if there was any attempt to acquire the fourth parcel to the south. Mr. Rushkewicz stated they are in contact with the people and it remains to be seen. Commissioner Teplinsky noted he likes the traditional look of the building. Commissioner Cohn asked if they had checked as to whether the dry cleaner had used cleaning solvents on the property and, if so, have the environmental questions been examined. Mr. Rushkewicz stated they have checked and they had a certified licensed environmental engineer do the tests and everything came back fine. Commissioner Cohn asked if there had been any thought given to pedestrian traffic as there will be people going to the post office and the bakery and he would like to try to encourage pedestrian visits to businesses. Ms. Melichar stated they have the sidewalks on two sides of the exterior of the property. In addition they put a landscaped walkway through the center of the property going down towards the front door so that pedestrians are kept off of the driveway areas. Commissioner Kenski-Sroka asked what percentage of the bank's transactions are electronic and what percentage are at the drive up. Mr. Rushkewicz stated the trend about 6-7 years ago showed it was about 55-60 percent was electronic and it was projected to go to about 70 percent. Yet, people still want to come in and talk to a banker about a loan or bring their kids in and that is where they have made a niche. Commissioner Smith noted he also likes the building elevations. He also agrees with Commissioner Bocek that during peak hours there will be a problem. He asked how the left turn north would be handled on the level F Buffalo Grove Road. Mr. Doron stated the way the level of service study is done is three ways. When they measure it they do so on the entire approach, then they measure it on each movement and third they measure it on the entire intersection. The F is only for the left turn movement. He stated the left turn movement out is going to sit and wait. Commissioner Smith stated that with the condos across the street we are really adding a lot of traffic and we are under estimating what is going to happen on that road and he has a real issue with that one turn. Mr. Doron stated he is estimating 5-6 left turns and level F means a 40-second delay. Even if he is wrong by 100 percent and there are 12 left turns, it means one turn every 5 minutes. If two come at once they will sit and wait a minute to make the turn. Mr. Rushkewicz stated at the Northbrook facility they have an exit for people who want to head west on Shermer and the traffic signals do give you a clear. If someone is really cautious and does not want to go across a lane of traffic to go westbound on Shermer, they will take a right and go around the block. Commissioner Smith asked if there is any concepts or ideas of what might go into the south parcels. Mr. Rushkewicz stated at this stage discussions have been preliminary. They might envision working with the Village to see what might work. Commissioner Smith asked what would happen in the future when banks start to close down or consolidate and the Village is left with empty buildings. Mr. Rushkewicz noted that in a free market economy you would be left with competition recognizing and rewarding those who are giving the best service, fair in their rates, who are not gauging with nuisance fees. He does not know what will happen with the real estate but things are always changing. Commissioner Stark noted he is also concerned with people's brand loyalty in terms of the viability of this bank. Mr. Rushkewicz stated when people get good service they tend to go to those facilities. The Commission agreed another workshop meeting was necessary. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT—None FUTURE AGENDA SCHEDULE Mr. Pfeil stated the next meeting would be held on March 3, 2004. PUBLIC COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS—None STAFF REPORT—None NEW BUSINESS—None ADJOURNMENT Moved by Commissioner Kenski-Sroka, seconded by Commissioner Smith and carried unanimously to adjourn. Chairman Ottenheimer adjourned the meeting at 9:05 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Fay Rubin, Recording Secretary APPROVED BY: LESTER OTTENHEIMER, Chair