Plan and Design Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody.

I'd like to call to order this regular meeting, the City of Highland Park's Plan and Design Commission for September 1st, 2026. Director Fontaine, could you call the roll?

Yes. Commissioner Incheck. Here. Commissioner Fentner. Here. Commissioner Henry. Here. Commissioner Mantis. Commissioner Moore. Here. Vice Chair Nannis. Here. and Chair Kirsch.

Present.

We have a quorum, Mr. Chairman, and I do recognize City Council Liaison Yumi Ross is here this evening, as well as Corporation Council Marcus Martinez. Thank you.

Thank you. First item of consideration is the approval of the minutes from our regular meeting of August 18th. Do I have a motion?

Chair, I'll be abstaining from voting on the minutes. Me too.

I move that we accept the minutes from the last meeting. Second.

Any discussion, addition, corrections? If not, all those in favor? Aye. And two abstentions. Motion passes three with three votes. That's good enough.

I should test whether you guys are paying attention during our trainings to see what happens. Okay.

One of the normally scheduled business for this evening is public hearing ZTA 2026-0004 to revise, strike or create definitions, land use permissions, and regulations for the B2RW Roger Williams commercial district overlay zone related to cellular telephone facilities without towers for use with radio and or other transmitting and receiving equipment, including cellular telephone and personal wireless communications facilities, including antennas to a maximum height of 12 feet without towers, but excluding satellite dishes. Welcome to the regular meeting of the Highland Park Plan and Design Commission. My name is Steve Kirch, a quorum of the commission being present. The members will now introduce themselves for the record starting from my far right.

Kristin Inchek, Karen Moore, Ken Henry,

The Plan and Design Commission is charged with hearing applications for rezonings, plan developments, and subdivisions under the zoning ordinance and subdivision regulations of the City of Highland Park. In all matters we recommend to the city council based upon the testimony presented to us in the hearing. We are required to decide cases within 45 days after receipt of the transcript. All testimony is under oath. Both applicants and others who wish to speak on a particular case should present specific evidence as to why a proposal meets or fails to meet the standards for the relief requested. For clarity of our record, only one person at a time will speak and all questions will be directed through the chair. We ask that you make every effort to not be repetitive in your testimony. Finally, we will make every effort to adhere to the schedule prepared for tonight's hearing. If additional time is needed on a matter, it will be continued until the next available agenda. And with that, I open the floor for the staff, the Planning and Design Commission to read into the record, proof of publication and ownership.

Proof of publication and ownership are available for viewing at the offices of Community Development, 1150 Half Day Road in Helen Park. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Senior Planner Buerhop.

Thank you. I have a brief presentation. All right, so good evening. I'm Carl Berhop, Senior Planner with the City of Highland Park, the Planning Division and the Community Development Department. So this is a zoning code text amendment specifically for the B2RW overlay. It's a mouthful to say that the chair read off the land use, that's the land use as it's phrased in section 150.490 of the zoning code, I believe in table O. And so for sure, read the comments, cellular telephone facilities without towers or wireless communication facilities. So staff recommend the commission consider this recommendation by staff to recommend approval of the zoning code text amendment to allow that land use within the B2RW overlay as a conditional use. The commission should open the public hearing, consider staff's proposal, take testimony if there's any, and make a recommendation to the city council. There are in the packet findings of fact that do recommend approval, and there is an ordinance that was in there. It's a single change. a single change to the code right here, this C for a conditional use in the B2RW. As the commission can see, this use is currently allowed at every zoning district in the city as a conditional use, but it is not allowed in the B2RW. So when the B2RW was created, there were hearings in 1994, and then the council adopted the ordinance that created the overlay in 1995. Every use within the communication and private utility uses land use table was prohibited. Staff did research that. We looked at what minutes and reports and packets were available. It was not specifically clear as to why that was prohibited at the time. But now we flash forward to now, to the current time. It has been reported to me by other city staff that there is ongoing concern. There's actually concern for service throughout the city, but particularly in this area, along Roger Williams and the Ravinia neighborhood. There's concern for cell phone coverage, that it is not adequate. And that's an issue both for the city's residents, tenants, guests that come. It's also an issue for emergency communication as well. So allowing this land use as a conditional use would allow cell phone service providers to then apply to install cell phone facilities to improve that coverage. Again, the city is proposing that this be allowed as a conditional use in the B2RW. And as the commission is aware, as a conditional use, That would mean if this proposal was recommended by this body and adopted by council, what that would mean is that would mean that service providers could apply for a special use permit to install, usually these are rooftop facilities. You may recall that it's, The phrase includes without towers. So these are rooftop facilities. These are the type of facilities you see on water towers, chimneys, rooftops. They include antennas, not higher than 12 feet, and those equipment boxes that come with it. Often they're on sleds. Sometimes they have to put them right up to the edge of the building to get better service. There are certain things that can be done for stealth, camouflage. Again, the commission may be aware just in general of these facilities that are already throughout the community. And in this particular location too, being that this is a commercial corridor in that part of Highland Park means the height allowance is higher. That means buildings tend to be higher there. So it makes sense that these types of facilities could be placed there. All right, and this is just, again, what the use is and the proposal. The only other thing I'll add, because that is my presentation, I do want to add that the city did engage the public via notice. So per the zoning code, Since the city is the applicant, the only requirement is a legal ad in the newspaper, which of course we did. But in addition to that, the city did send letters 15 days in advance of this meeting by regular U.S. mail to all the property owners in the B2RW and to all the property owners owning property within a 400-foot buffer. of the B2RW. And we also engaged the business and tenants that we have in an email list for the Ravinia District business owners and tenants. And we did blast that out as well. I received no written comments on this. I personally only received one phone call from a neighbor who, once I explained what it was, they told me they were in favor of it. People who are here speak for themselves, of which there are none. And I let the comments speak for themselves, of which there were no written comments submitted. That's my presentation. Thank you.

Thank you. Questions for staff from the commission? Commissioner Henry.

Carl, you said this is the only district in the entire city that has this restriction. do the other zoning districts in the city have this as a conditional use or as a permitted use? Conditional in every district? Conditional in every district. So this would essentially match every other district in the city? That's what I wanted to know. Thank you.

Commissioner Moore.

So my question is, does the city have any requirements as to how much communication equipment can be in a certain area. I mean, what if everybody's got one on every business down there and we're all being zapped by the rays? I mean, I don't know.

No, I don't believe there's a restriction in terms of how many facilities can be installed in any type of geographic area. I will say that if anyone, if a service provider does come forward and apply to install one of these facilities at a new site, it would need a special use permit. And so this commission would get to ask those questions. There are also... specific regulations in our article four of the zoning code, several subsections in length that have various requirements related to these types of facilities. One such as you get to the RF emissions requirement. So right, so an applicant has to submit, you know, a properly certified report indicating that it complies with whatever state and federal emissions requirements that may be relevant.

All right, thank you. I was also going to reference those standards in article four, because I think it takes care of a lot of what people would be concerned with related to height and stealth and the color of the installations and things like that. So I feel like it's not really a question, I guess, but more of a statement or question whether these would apply. And I'm assuming they do. Or they would, if this was adopted.

Correct, correct, that's correct.

Other questions for staff? Are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this matter? Seeing no public, I assume no one wishes to speak. What is the wish of the Commission? Or do you wish to just discuss, or does someone want to move to? We do have draft findings of fact if we want to recommend this to the council for approval.

I think it makes sense. You know, we're just given the option to apply for the special use permit, so it'll still come before us to make valid determination. So I think it makes sense. I, you know, read that it could be a safety issue for emergency services, so I think

and that all the providers of landlines are eliminating them over a period of time. I think it's critical that the city do what it can. And as was said by my colleagues, because special use permits will come before this commission, so we have the ability to opine on them and see if they meet the standards. But it's critical that we make, this kind of communication and communication facility available throughout the city to facilitate the way the modern world communicates these days.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, We have our own communication issues, you know, various buildings, including our offices, but others, you know, in the community have as well. And, you know, it's a difficult area to serve, you know, near the lake and along the, it really is because of the ravines and everything. So this would be one piece of a puzzle. This doesn't, it's not a panacea, you know, it's just a small area, but critical in terms of filling holes. And it's like that.

completing a cross jigsaw puzzle right and what we're trying to do is put pieces in place so that it all works seamlessly because no one's going to have landlines in five or ten years if they have them even now and if they have them now they usually voice over internet protocol anyway and that has its own issues yes it does

And we have plenty of these in the city already, including in the RW district, because I see them on top of Abigail's over there. And I mean, if you look at them, they're pretty well camouflaged by color with the chimneys or whatever they're hanging out. So I don't know how those got there. They must have been there before. They were.

They were upgraded a couple of years because I remember it came through here.

Yeah, we did. Was that one there or was that one on the Chase building? No.

It was in, it was in Nervinia and it was during the pandemic, I believe they had come in.

There was one on the Chase building too.

And there is one, I believe. I'm not sure we did that one too or not. But anyway, so it isn't, this is not unusual in any sense.

No, and I'll say too, I have also heard that there's a concern for if emergency medical services has to go to Ravinia Park and pick up somebody and they want to remain in communication with the hospital driving up Green Bay Road, sometimes the signal drops out and they've lost all their monitoring, you know, because they're monitoring the patient in the ambulance, but they're sending that information to the hospital and that's not helpful if that drops out.

That's correct. And I mean, while Ravinia itself many years ago did some small cell with antennas to enhance what's happening at Ravinia. Once you leave, like you said, well, you know, those are very concentrated just for Ravinia really, those really small cells, those whip antennas. So you really do need a kind of a portfolio of these types of things to serve the community. You've got the small cell in the right of ways, you've got these whip antennas, you have the larger cell antennas in the community, and then you have these typically roof-mounted small cell. Yeah, it's kind of a combination of all of them, really. It's what's needed.

Okay.

So I would move that we adopt the findings of fact. Recommending approval of this item. Second.

Motion by Commissioner Moore, second by Commissioner Fentner. Any further discussion on the motion? Director Fontaine, could you call the roll?

Commissioner Ntchek?

Aye.

Commissioner Fentner? Aye. Commissioner Henry? Aye. Commissioner Moore? Aye. Commissioner, Chair Kirsch?

Aye.

The ayes have it, the motion carries, and this matter has been recommended to council for approval. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Other business, any information items in the administrative design review category?

There are no updates this meeting, Chair.

Our next meeting is September 15th, right here in city hall, same time, same channel. Will there be anything, I know we moved, I know we continued something to the 15th.

That is correct. So right now, the only item we have for that is the continued item, which is that development on the corner of Laurel and McGovern. And then it has the second parcel that's on Laurel that's split by the alleyway.

And once again, seeing no public, there can be no business from the public. And that leaves us with looking for a motion to adjourn. So moved.

Second.

All those in favor?

Aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Okay. Thank you for your time and attention this evening.