Backed by a group of five members, the Waukegan City Council will soon vote on legislation to exempt commercial property owners from parking lot landscaping requirements despite a major overhaul coming to all development laws next year.
Several years in the making, the council will consider a Unified Development Ordinance by spring which will combine zoning, subdivision, tree preservation and landscape, as well as sign codes, into one comprehensive law.
Ald. Victor Felix, 4th Ward, said he first proposed the parking lot legislation in August and believes those regulations in their current form hurt business growth. He has no objection to the inclusion of his ideas in the new ordinance.
“There is no clear date when this will be done,” Felix said of the comprehensive legislation. “We want this now for our business owners. They want to improve their businesses, and this is one of the things holding them back.”
The City Council advanced Felix’a proposal and four others for a formal vote at a coming session during a Committee of the Whole meeting Thursday at City Hall to get quick action for businesses seeking to enhance their locations.
With nine items on the agenda, five got action and the other four will be discussed during a Committee of the Whole meeting at 6 p.m. on Dec. 11. Of the five considered, two are issues which will be part of the Comprehensive Development Ordinance.
Felix and Ald. Keith Turner, 6th Ward, both talked about the burden of adding landscaping to parking lots should the property owner choose to resurface the pavement. Turner also raised concerns about an individual owner’s rights.
“Aesthetics is subjective,” Turner said. “What looks good to one person may not look good to the other. If I am the owner of the property, I should be able to decide what looks good to me. I may not want plants over there.”
Noelle Kischer-Lepper, Waukegan’s director of planning and economic development, said development activity triggers the landscape ordinance. Rebuilding a parking lot is included, while seal coating or painting stripes are not. The rules spur growth.
“We have a lot of properties in Waukegan that look terrible,” Kischer-Lepper said. “The opportunities we have to improve the aesthetics of our community creates opportunities for economic development. Those opportunities come up when someone wants to do something with their property.”
Kischer-Lepper said since the parking regulations are part of the Comprehensive Development Ordinance, the efficient time to make these changes is when a draft is available to the council for discussion early next year.
Turner, Felix, Ald. Michael Donnenwirth, 7th Ward, Ald. Jose A. Guzman, 2nd Ward and Ald. Juan Martinez, 3rd Ward, voted to move the proposal toward a vote. Opposing the change were Ald. Edith Newsome, 5th Ward, Ald. Lynn Florian, 8th Ward Ald. Thomas Hayes, 9th Ward, Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton, 1st Ward, and Mayor Ann Taylor.
Kelley Gandurski, one of the attorneys for Waukegan corporation counsel Elrod Freidman, said the mayor is allowed to vote in meetings of the Committee of the Whole. Five votes moves the legislation in the event of a tie among 10 voters.
Drawing most of the public attention to the meeting was a proposed change to the tree ordinance — also part of the Comprehensive Development Ordinance — with nearly all of the 45 minutes allocated to public comment devoted to it.
If approved, the tree ordinance would eliminate the requirement of a property owners to get a permit to remove a tree on their property.
This time, the council tabled the proposal so Turner, Felix and Newsome could work with Kischer-Lepper to determine the best approach in light of the overall legislation coming next year. No vote was taken by rule since the proposal was tabled.
A proposed ordinance was offered by Guzman to require council approval of large events with more than 1,000 people. He suggested it last month in the wake of the controversy which resulted in two Fiestas Patrias parades Sept. 15. Newsome, who is in her sixth term, said the council once had the authority.
“We used to approve parades but by the time we voted, the event already happened,” Newsome said.
“Newsome, Donnenwirth, Florian, Hayes, Bolton and Taylor voted not to send the matter to the council for further action or a vote. Voting for the idea were Turner Guzman, Martinez and Felix.
