City Council - Regular Meeting

Here. Here. Here.

Here. Here. Here. Thank you. Please stand for the pledge. All right, at this time, I'm gonna go ahead and ask Chief Burke to head to the podium regarding a distinguished service plaque presentation to Chief Rudy Horace from the McHenry Township Fire Protection District. And once John gets there, he'll have the floor.

Mayor Jett and City Council, thank you for allowing me this time to recognize the retirement of Chief Rudy Horst of the McHenry Township Fire Protection District. Rudy, I'm going to do my best to say very few comments and be clear and professional, as Rudy and I have a history of writing speeches that we have to share at the same time, and his always seems to be a little bit better than mine. On June 17th, 2010, Chief Horace started his second chapter of his professional fire service career here at the McHenry Township Fire Protection District. He started out as Deputy Fire Chief Horace. Rudy brought over two decades of experience and leadership in fire service. Once here, Rudy wasted no time building professional relationships and getting to work. On January 8th, 2021, Rudy's leadership was again recognized and he was promoted to Fire Chief. I've had the honor of working with Rudy on countless safety initiatives and too many critical incidents to think of. And each time Rudy has served McHenry in the highest regard. Anyone who got to know Rudy or even receive an email could always remember what his motto was. I've gotten like 5,000 emails from Rudy and it was the big four by Captain Von Apen. Do your job, treat people right, give an all out effort and have an all in attitude. If I didn't read that motto like a thousand times, Rudy, I can honestly say that that is exactly how I would have described Rudy if somebody had asked me. You always got the job done. You always treated others with the utmost respect. You always gave your all. And you came to the job daily with an all-in attitude. I would also like to recognize the fact that Rudy recognized that McHenry wasn't just a place that Rudy worked these past 16 years. It was a place that he called home. Rudy is a McHenry resident. He's an active parishioner at St. Patrick's Church, and he's a community volunteer. He's the whole package. Rudy, on behalf of the city of McHenry and the McHenry Police Department, I would like to take the time to present you with this Distinguished Service Award.

I'll read this to you.

It says,

Distinguished Service Award presented to Chief Rudy Horace, Badge 1202, McHenry Township Fire Protection District, June 17th, 2010 to June 17th, 2026. Chief Horace has hereby presented this Distinguished Service Award in recognition of more than 16 years of exemplary service to the City of McHenry and all those who live, work, and visit our community. Your selfless service to others and unwavering dedication to the health and safety of others is an example to all. Over the course of your career, your leadership has fostered collaboration and teamwork between the fire service and law enforcement service. The men and women of the McHenry Police Department thank you for always standing side by side with us to keep our community safe. Wish you the very best in a well-deserved retirement. If you have a couple comments to make, the floor is yours.

And I appreciate John recognizing that my speeches were maybe better than his, but I just simply wanna say, I wanna thank the city council, Mayor Judd, all the city staff for this honor. It was truly an honor to serve as your fire chief. I am extremely grateful that the last 16 years of my 43 year career were spent here in McHenry. I wouldn't do it any differently. I appreciate the support that the council, the mayor, and staff have given the McHenry Township Fire District, especially we've been here over the last few months for a new Station 6 and for a training facility. But every person I have ever worked with at the City of McHenry, and I say that as fire chief and as I'm looking over as a resident as well, has just been absolutely great and a fantastic partner to our fire district. And you don't see that all the time in every situation. And that is very much appreciated. Just real quick, personally, my wife and I, we love McHenry. We finally found our home after living in some different places over the years. As Alderman Doherty knows, this is where our cemetery plots are, so we'll be buried at St. Pat's. So we are never, ever leaving McHenry, plus my grandkids live here. So simply thank you again for this honor. Very nice. Thank you.

All right. Conceptual presentation, Blackstone Realty Multifamily Development. You can step up to the podium. You can hit that center button there. I'll turn the mic on. If you could state your name and address for public record, and the floor will be yours after that.

My name is Tony Cirillo, owner of Cirillo Architecture. I'm at 1095 Pingree and Crystal Lake.

My name is Kashan Ahmad with Blackstone Realty at 386 West Virginia, Crystal Lake.

Thank you, gentlemen. The floor is yours, sir. Thank you. I want to say my appreciation for giving us the time to kind of present our original concepts here. The illustrations that we presented are necessarily preliminary, rough, not meant to have a lot of detail in them because we're at the very early stages. We want your feedback on how you feel what we're presenting here. The site, as you have up on the screen there, roughly two acres. Obviously, the The biggest challenge is it's 100 feet by 800 feet deep. So it's a long-skinny lot that presents some difficulties in developing it. currently zoned estate district. What you can't tell from this image is it's got a slope from the Crystal Lake Avenue towards the back of the property of about 30, 35 feet. So that equates to about a 4% slope. Definitely gradual enough that we can accommodate it with anything we want to put up there. So if you want to switch to one of the images, so there's a topo. So this is... One of the two concepts that we have, this is a 24-unit townhome concept that basically consists of four separate structures or groups of clusters of townhomes with six units each. In this case, we're looking at roughly townhomes around 2,100 square feet, probably a mixture of two and three bedrooms. In this case, we've got enclosed parking garages. So our intention here is probably one parking space enclosed in the garage for each unit, and then another parking space for each unit immediately outside. So each unit will have at a minimum two parking spaces. And then across the driveway there, you can see we've got enough room for guest parking. In general, we're talking about looking at some higher-end finishes, masonry, hardy board siding, glass materials, kind of a combination of those, a little more modern decor, I would say. Let's see. And then if you can switch to the other concept. So this is a 36-unit apartment building concept. We've got three separate buildings with 12 units in each, three stories tall. Similar in the finish. We plan to hit the market kind of mid, a little higher level with our finishes, masonry, hardy board. In this case, we've got all surface parking. We're illustrating here 72 parking spaces, so we have more than enough parking for two spaces for every apartment. And in both cases, we are able to accommodate the slope because of the separate buildings. We're able to gradually step down the structures as it goes towards the back of the lot. What you don't see is we know there's probably going to be some retention requirements. Obviously, we can accommodate those in the back of the lot. We haven't looked at those numbers yet. It would just decrease the number of units we're going to put up. Obviously, the lower part of the property is all the way in the back, so that suits the development ideas we have very well. We have anticipated all of our fire code requirements. We've got room for fire apparatus, access roads. We've got room to put a turnaround at the end of the property. Definitely we can include fire hydrants and those types of things. Building code requirements, fire separation distance, those are no problem accommodating here. aware of this new state's EV-ready requirements. EV-capable, I think, is the proper term, so ready to accommodate EV charging as necessary for the state laws. Overall, Either plan, we're trying to maximize green space. It definitely adds to the value of the residences as well as just it's a better way to be in the community. It's a good texture fit for the surrounding properties. We've got kinder care immediately as a neighbor on one side. And then we've got, I believe it's, I don't think it's a nursing home. It's a senior living facility, Heritage Woods, immediately to the other side. and some mixture of single family residents in there as well. So I feel like it's a very good mixture that fits in really well with all the other residents around it and the other properties around it. And we'd really appreciate, you know, what you guys feel about it and which direction you feel it should go.

All right. Thank you. Open up for city council discussion.

Alderman Glemm. quick. Now I just look at, we have a lot of these lots that run down Crystal Lake Road, 400 foot deep. We've always looked at it, the fact that we would see much larger areas as far as several lots combined so that we would have a nice little neighborhood built rather than THIS IS JUST KIND OF A STRIP IN THERE. AND I JUST DON'T THINK AS FAR AS FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT, THIS IS KIND OF A ROAD BLOCK. I JUST DON'T SEE IT IN THAT NEIGHBORHOOD. TOWNHOMES LOOKS NICE, BUT I DON'T THINK IT FITS IN THAT AREA. THAT WAS JUST ONE LOT. I DON'T THINK WE WANT TO PIECE MEAL ALL THE WAY DOWN Crystal Lake Road with that type of development. And to be honest with you, we started adding more and more multifamily type developments along Crystal Lake Road. Crystal Lake Road, especially between 7 and 8 right now because of the high school, is difficult enough as it is to get around. And this would just make it even more burdensome for everybody that wants to get out of those subdivisions. So I just can't see it.

Thank you. Alderman Doherty. Actually, I like the 24 unit townhome. I like the placement on the property, especially because your townhomes are on the side by the nursing home, by the facilities, the care facilities, your other side of the property, as you said, It's a tight piece of property, yet you've used that land with a walking path. I know at the end of that 800 feet, you're close proximity to the park down there, the city park. I think that's a great use to have the residents get access to that park and take to the amenities of town. There's discussion going on with that park in terms of future developments. I think this could only help the residents. You sell it and have it to that area. I like what you've done so far. Thank you. All done, Danny.

Originally, when I looked at this, I did agree with Alderman Glab. I thought it would be nice if you had more property. But at the same time, if you did, it would really be a nightmare across from the school because it can get a little bit crazy there. I also really prefer the townhome. And for all the reasons that Alderman Doherty just stated, I won't repeat it. I think that that would be something that I think does fit there. I think that this is such a unique space in town. And to do something with just 24 units, that expands our housing availability is a great thing in the community. And I think that this town home development would actually work in that space, probably better than putting a whole neighborhood or something in there.

Thank you.

Alderman Bassey.

Thank you. Both the 24 and the 36 units of housing on less than two acres of a narrow land is significantly too dense. Aside from the staggering density, the property abuts kinder care, which you had mentioned, a daycare and preschool. I do not support the development moving forward with either one of the concepts. Any development should remain consistent with similar sized parcels in the surrounding neighborhood, which are larger single family homes or single family homes converted to very small businesses. Thank you.

Thank you. Alderman Miller.

Alderman Davis.

Actually, I like the townhome concept and the creativity to utilize this property just because it is unique and probably very limited in what you can do with it. So I do feel that on this side of town, there is a need for a little bit nicer of townhomes, apartments, and stuff like that. Excuse me. So I like the townhouse concept, actually.

Thank you. Alderman Cook?

I have to agree with Alderman Glab and all that. It's a long piece of property. I'd rather see single-family homes in there. You've got the daycare and all that. your concepts are very nice departments or the town homes, not on that piece of property. How do I know?

So like my consent, my associates here, I prefer the town homes over the apartments. I think it's a better transition from what's there. The other single family homes to the commercial, um, My greatest concern when I saw this was 48 more cars coming out on Crystal Lake Road directly across from the entrance to the school. That already requires additional assistance to monitor on start of day and end of day by our police department because there are no traffic signals there. And having, again, not all 48 cars are going to come in and out at the same time. but it just adds another entry point to an already congested space. And of course, you know, there's no other way out. You can't go out through the back because it doesn't go anywhere. So my concern, I believe that we need this. I believe that upscale rental property is needed in McHenry. I just am very concerned about the location and the entry point coming into the school entry literally across the street without a traffic control. This is where I live, work and play. And there are days that Andy and I sit there for a half an hour to get through that process. That's my greatest concern. But I love the townhouse idea. I just don't know how it fits there.

Thank you. Thank you, Council. So at this point, there's not enough support. You could bring it back, okay, but there is a lack of support for moving forward with either project. But I encourage you, I love the development, just the location is obviously a little bit of a concern, I think, for the majority of us, obviously, but I would love for staff, I know you've talked to staff and dealt with staff up to this point as far as presenting this item. They've been great. Thank you. And we would like to work with you because I think the development would be great and find another location, another piece of property, and then bring it back. And I think you would have that support. And, you know, Doug Martin, Ross Polarecki can definitely work with you to get that done. All right.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, guys. All right, public comment. I have one signed in, Erica Kalinske. If you can just hit that center button, state your name and address for public record, please.

Erica Kalinske. I'm at 213 South Green Street.

Thank you. Pleasures.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, council members, and city staff. My name is Erica, and my family has proudly called McHenry home for the past 13 years. When we purchased our home, one of the biggest reasons we chose it was because Knox Park was so close. We looked forward to raising our three children with such a wonderful community space right in our backyard. We aren't just neighbors of the park. We're active users of its many amenities. Every summer, we purchase a family pool pass to Merkle Aquatic Center. Our children participate in the Kenry Youth Sports. We regularly enjoy the playground, skate park, and the nature walking paths our kids have lovingly named the Stumps and Rocks. That is why I'm here tonight. For more than a year, the six pickleball courts at 330 Knox Drive have significantly affected our family and our neighborhood. From early morning, typically beginning around 630, until well into the evening, often past 9 p.m., we are subjected to the repetitive impact of paddles striking pickleballs. This is not occasional park noise. It is a sharp, high-pitched impulse sound that carries into our backyards and inside our homes seven days a week. Unlike the laughter, conversations, and other sounds typically associated with a neighborhood park, this repetitive pop travels long distances and continues for hours at a time, making it difficult to tune out. The impacts extend far beyond simply hearing the courts. They have changed the way we use and enjoy our home, both inside and out. Simple activities like sitting on our patio, opening our windows, eating dinner outside, or watching our children play in the backyard are regularly interrupted by the constant paddle strikes. I work from home, and extended hours of play leave very few opportunities for peace and quiet. Even with our windows closed, the sound is still clearly audible through our home. Over time, this has become a source of ongoing stress and frustration and has diminished our ability to enjoy our home we invested in. Other families are also experiencing these impacts, and our neighbors share similar concerns and deserve the opportunity to peacefully enjoy their homes as well. The City of McHenry's noise ordinance recognizes that loud, repetitive, or continuous noise