Planning & Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

call the August 3rd, 2026 meeting of the Elgin Planning and Zoning Commission to order. Can staff please call the roll?

Commissioner Abuali? Present. Commissioner Bosque? Here. Commissioner Gossack? Here. Commissioner Jones?

Here.

Commissioner Olsen? Here. Commissioner Rubel?

Here.

And Chair Wildermuth? Here. We have a quorum.

All right, and next on the agenda is approval of the July 6th, 2026 minutes. Can I have a motion on those minutes, please? I move to approve. Is there a second? Second. Staff, please call the roll.

Commissioner Jones?

Yes.

Commissioner Rubel?

Yes.

Commissioner Abuali? Yes. Commissioner Bosque? Yes. Commissioner Gaska? Yes. Commissioner Olsen? Yes. And Chair Wildermuth? Yes. The minutes are approved, 7-0.

Thank you. Well, good evening, everyone, and welcome to the August 3rd, 2026 meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission. Tonight, we're going to be hearing one petition, 16-26. um and before we go into the agenda i just want to briefly discuss the role of the commission and the procedure for tonight's meeting so the planning and zoning commission is an advisory is primarily an advisory and recommending body to city council the commission will review development proposals and determine whether proposal meets the applicable standard of review so tonight we'll first hear from city staff on the petition and then followed by questions that commissioners will ask of city staff Then we're going to invite the applicant to provide to come forward, provide a brief overview of the proposal, and then the commission will have a chance to ask questions of the applicant. And then after that, we will open the hearing to the public for questions and comments. And then during public comment, the public is invited to come forward, state your name and provide your address. And then those comments should be addressed to the commission. And we'll take note of any questions and direct those to the appropriate individual, whether that's staff or the applicant. And then the commission will deliberate vote and pass its recommendation to city council. So at this time, we'll move ahead with the agenda. And those of you wishing to speak tonight should stand and take the oath from the court reporter.

Raise your hands, please. Do solemnly swear or affirm the testimony about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Thank you.

All right. Thanks. We'll turn to staff for petition 16-26.

Thank you, Chair Wildermuth. Good evening, everyone. So, and for the record, we have provided the required notices on this petition. Thank you. The petition before you tonight is the application by Forest Packaging Corporation as applicant and Watch City Properties LLC as the property owner, requesting a conditional use to permit a manufacturer of corrugated and solid fiber boxes within the existing building of the property commonly known as 1450 Bowes Road. So as usual, we'll start with the general description of the site location and the property. This is approximately nine acre property located the northeast corner of South McLean Boulevard and Bowes Road. The property is zoned ORI, Office of Research Industrial District, as is the vacant 8.6 acre property adjacent to the north. The property to the east is zone GI, general industrial. That property is improved with 105,000 square foot light industrial building that is home to an electronics manufacturer. To the south are single family homes, which are located in the village of South Elgin. And then to the west across South McLean Boulevard is a NB zone property, neighborhood business district. That's a multi-tenant strip shopping center that includes 7-Eleven convenience store, a prairie community bank, and some other retail service uses. Here's the bird's eye view of the subject property. This property, as you can see, is improved with a light industrial building. It's got about 113,000 square feet in floor area. The property also has a total of 186 parking spaces. There are two full-access driveways to Bowes Road and no-access driveways to South McLean. In fact, the property is, the topography of the property is such that it's substantially lower than South McLean Boulevard. The building had two tenant spaces in the past. However, they're both currently vacant. So the entire building is vacant. It was formerly occupied by TH Foods, which was a nut manufacturing company. Here are a couple photographs of the existing building on site. So the applicant is requesting conditional use approval to establish a corrugated box manufacturing facility. This would be for forest packaging. uh... force packaging is currently now grow village and they're looking to expand and uh... moved to elgin they would actually occupy the entire building thirty thousand square feet uh... dot company receives corrugated products which are then uh... assembled centrally on-site so the actual product uh... corrugated the product is not manufacturing site uh... but it's used to put together various assemblies uh... Such as boxes and displays, etc. The facility would be open five days a week from two shifts from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. The company expects to have approximately between 44 and 60 employees at this location. The applicant would complete substantial interior renovation to the building, but no exterior changes to the building are proposed. And similarly, site changes are very limited. They're only proposing to construct a refuse collection area at the far northeast corner of the site right here. That refuse collection area would be enclosed with the masonry wall, and then they have a concrete pad for access to that that would be constructed directly in front of it. No other site changes are really proposed. there would also be no outdoor storage of any kind of any products or materials on the site the 113 000 square foot building is required to have one parking space per thousand square feet so such is required to have 113 parking spaces as i mentioned the site has 186 parking spaces that would all remain so the property will continue to meet the zoning ordinance requirements The proposal is required to meet the standards for conditional use. Those are provided in the packet. And staff believes that all standards have been satisfied. And therefore, we recommend approval subject to the conditions in the packet. And I believe those are all standard conditions. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions. Obviously, the applicants teams here can address the commission.

All right, great. I'll start on my right. Commissioner Gasco, any questions for staff? No, no questions. Commissioner Olson?

No questions.

Commissioner Bali? No questions. Commissioner Jones?

No questions.

Commissioner Busque? No questions. Commissioner Rubel? Just one.

With regards to the pallet racking system and additional exterior signage, so that they would have to get another permit, but would they have to come back to zoning for that or no?

No. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. I don't have any questions. By the applicant to come forward. And if you could just state your name and spell it for the record and then provide your thoughts, overview of the project.

Yes. I'm Carissa Wendt with Kobu Architecture Studio here representing John Kula, the owner. Carissa Wendt is my name and our address at Kobu is 5407 Trillium Boulevard in Hoffman Estates. We're seeing conditional use today only because this business is not specifically listed on the list of approved manufacturing businesses. But it really is quiet, clean, doesn't produce odors, et cetera. Like Demir said, they receive corrugated material in, so they're not producing that. It comes in on pallets. And then what they're doing is assembling, folding, cutting, gluing. and printing, um, to make the displays and boxes that are sold. So, um, I think it's actually a perfect use of this site. I'm going to introduce John, just so he can tell you a little bit about his business.

I appreciate the opportunity to come up here and speak to everybody. We're a family owned business. We've been around 60 years in November, actually. Uh, we've been in Elk Grove for 31 years and want to make Elgin our home and You know, just embrace everything that we need to do here. We want to take care of the things that we need to do. We want to be good neighbors. And from the standpoint of what we do, we do corrugated boxes. We do everything from display work to industrial packaging. We take the sheets in and we convert and then ship out. And it's a perfect site for what we want to do. And I think that from our standpoint, looking forward to being here.

Sounds good. Thank you. I will start on my left. Commissioner Rubel, any questions?

Just have one with regards to the printing. What kind of printing would you be doing? Is it like a laser printing or just labels?

What we do is we do flexographic printing on our two main presses. It's all water-soluble ink. Everything we do we recycle from the corrugated with the OCC. We also do purchase labels on the outside and then we actually apply them with a machine that'll take adhesive glue, so it's like a white Elmer's glue that is also water soluble and applies it to the sheet. But there's very minimal use with that kind of stuff that would cause any problems there, but we do buy everything that's eco-friendly.

Okay. And then how many trucks do you anticipate bringing in material?

It can vary anywhere from four to seven loads a day and then going outbound is probably about the same and are these like semis or thank you more questions commissioner buske um i just want to know what attracted you to allergen i live in crystal lake um so it was just from a standpoint of looking for personnel out here We come from Elk Grove, so we're always fighting the city for personnel and looking, you know, basically from the front office to our manufacturing facility. So we thought we really liked the area, what it attracted, and it's just a good blue-collar, you know, community here. And that's, you know, wanted to make a difference that way and then be able to help people grow with us and, you know,

Yeah, we're definitely blue-collar here.

Yeah, like I said, we feel like it's a really good fit for what we're doing, and we're putting in a lot of investment into the company. We've got about $5.5 million worth of brand-new equipment, so we need people that can run the equipment and the manufacturing side of things. So there's going to be some opportunities here. Awesome. Wish you luck. Thanks.

Commissioner Jones?

No questions. I hope it all goes smoothly for you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bali, we also have good culture and good food. Yep question. Are you leaving Elk Grove completely? Yes. And how many employees do you have there right now?

About 44 strong right now.

So about the same that's expected here.

That's what the anticipation is. We do have a lot of business. We're having a record year this year, so we definitely need the space. We are past capacity at our facility. We're currently in 46,000 square feet, so we're maxed out.

So at this point is the growth phase.

Yep. So we have newer equipment coming in that's going to make us more competitive, which will hopefully lead to running more boxes and more boxes, more jobs. Yeah.

Oak Grove and Elgin are not that far. Are most of the employees coming over with you?

So far, I think we have 15 people that are coming and two or three that aren't.

Okay.

So there's going to be, there's definitely gonna be opportunities for looking for people here for sure. And we'd like to partner up with the community college as well. We feel like there could be a good, good fit there.

Definitely. Yeah. That's all I have. Thank you.

Commissioner Olson. no questions welcome to elgin i work across the street so it'll be great to see the building occupied again so thank you thanks commissioner gaska no questions no i have any questions either yeah thank you so much and appreciate you choosing elgin thank you thank you um i do have one question for demir okay um i'm gonna open it up public comment and then i'll circle back um i'm gonna open up this portion of the hearing for public comment seeing yeah packed room tonight seeing no public comment I will close this port that portion of the hearing and then I also will turn commissioner Bali has a question for staff just curious the residences that are right there they're South Elgin are we do we also need to notify them as well okay

Yes, we notify all property owners and occupants of each property within 300 feet of a subject property. So yes, those were notified.

Any other questions of staff? All right, then I will accept a motion on this petition.

I move to recommend that City Council approve Petition 16-26 subject to the conditions outlined within our packet and to adopt as the findings of the Commission those findings also within our packet.

Second.

Can staff please call the roll? Commissioner Al Guali? Yes.

Commissioner Olsen? Yes. Commissioner Bosque? Yes. Commissioner Goska? Yes. Commissioner Jones? Yes. Commissioner Rubel? Yes. And Chair Wildermuth? Yes. That motion is approved 7-0. All right.

Thank you. Thanks so much. Continue working with city staff, and we look forward to seeing it continue on the progress. But thanks so much. We will now move on to the next item other business. Is there any other business from the commission or staff?

Yes, Commissioner Jones Thank You chair Demir, I know that I take all these with a grain of salt, but I've heard a handful of people sharing unpleasant experiences when they come in for different things downstairs and it almost seems like an increase lately and i'm sure like i said it's with a grain of salt every story is different um but i just wonder how that would look if like the first thing they come up to that counter and you say can i have your cell phone number so that i can send you a survey when we have completed our conversation together um i i just really think it would be such a valuable gift to the city of elgin to the residents to the people who have to come in and interact and And I don't believe the stories I hear. I'm sure they're not all true. But I do hear them all the time. And I just, there's so many other departments that are doing things. You know, I had an interaction with a non-emergency and I got three text messages. I didn't need to fill out a survey with the police department. But I got three text messages saying, hey, how did we do? You got any feedback? And I just think that the whole customer experience would be so different if if that was the initial contact so i'm just going to say it again i know i i've said it many times before so there it is again at this meeting thank you we're working on it it's coming it's okay just a matter of time can't wait for it thank you just to expand on that

I know Commissioner Jones have been asking for for a few years now. Has there been a like a specific hold up to it or is it just something that's kind of in the works was very complicated.

But from what I understand, I haven't been part of it at all, but there are a number of parts of it. Individuals that come in in person versus individuals that call versus individuals that interact via email versus individuals that obtain permits. And when you obtain a permit, then you have to provide your contact information. So there are different ways. public generally contacts the city or particularly the community development department. From what I understand, there were different discussions and different softwares and technology needed depending on how one wants to contact the individual that came in. Nothing's insurmountable, but There are other considerations. Does it have to be consistent with other departments or not? And so forth. But I just heard something this morning that it's coming. And I think they've finally figured out which type of customers will be receiving what type of email responses or other requests for service.

So did I understand that the city will decide who gets the surveys and which kind of interaction they have?

No, I don't believe so.

I thought that's what you said.

No, they're just different considerations because a lot of times people come in and we don't have any way of contacting them back. It's only if they choose to give us phone number, if they're applying for a permit application, or if they are in the system and they call, and then the system registers who it's coming from, and then perhaps there's a way to reach back out. From what I understand, there are different ways how one can be contacted, but it's only if that person has provided that information to us.

i guess it seems like you're recreating the wheel right if if other departments in the city of allegiant are already doing it with every customer and every person they interact with i don't under it seems like it shouldn't be so complicated it's not complicated at all it's just that it is

it is sometimes it's not possible to get the feedback from the ones that perhaps had the worst experience because they just probably just walked in they had an interaction they might have asked a question about what to do with their property or if they whatever it is and they'd give it an answer that perhaps they didn't expect or they didn't want to hear And off they go. We have no way of getting them back to them. So that's probably the most.

I guess I should surround that by saying most of the people that I hear from interact with the city of Elgin on a pretty regular basis. Contractors, homeowners, developers, that kind of thing.

Then they should be getting the survey, I'm sure.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Demir. I appreciate it.

Any other business from the commission? And staff, no other questions? Nothing from us. OK. Next item is public comment. Any public comment? All right. No public, no comment. Next item, summary of pending development applications.

uh let's see so then just a reminder that the next meeting will not be on the first monday because of labor day holiday it's going to be on september 14th so that's the second monday next month um i don't think there's much to report unless there's any questions we anticipated this seven brew project to be ready for next next uh meeting for sure uh we may have one or two other applications depending on which one is ready the the lot split that was proposed on logan avenue that is scheduled for city council next week as well as the uh the 968 dundee liquor store the evil intentions uh haunted house went to city council last month and that did finally receive the uh the final zoning approval so now they just have to get permits so that's that's about it unless there's any questions about any of these projects and we did receive just another application for industrial development along airport road there's a large parking area where the the developer is looking to subdivide that to light industrial buildings so that one may be the one that's that's ready for next month so They'll pop up on the next week's development schedule.

I have one quick question. So Evil Intentions did pass City Council? Yes. Okay. Because I heard that it didn't.

It was a long discussion, but ultimately they did approve it.

Okay, great, great, good. Thank you.

Any other questions, comments on any pending development applications? All right. Um, then, uh, we will move on to adjournment if there's a motion to adjourn.

So moved. Second.

Staff, please call the roll.

Commissioner Jones. Yes. Commissioner Rubel.

Yes.

Commissioner Abouali.

Yes.

Commissioner Bosque. Yes. Commissioner Gasca. Yes. Commissioner Olson. Yes. And Chair Wilderman.

Yes.

That motion is approved. We're adjourned.