Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Planning Commission meeting September 8th, 2026. Can we have a roll call?

Here.

Here. Here. Here.

Here.

Here.

Okay, great. We have a quorum? Okay, great. Can I have a motion for approving the agenda?

So moved. Second.

All in favor? All in favor? Okay. Minutes. Can I have a motion for approval of minutes?

So moved. Second.

Any comment? Any corrections on the minutes? Can I have approval of minutes?

Yes. Aye.

Aye. Anyone object? No. Okay. So approved. Any communications or correspondence that we need to deal with?

No, we don't have.

Okay, great. Under matters for consideration, we do new business. We have site plan review of Oak Park Community Center, 13950 Oak Park Boulevard. Is someone going to speak and talk about it?

Yeah, sure. So before you tonight is the proposed new Oak Park Community Center. We are excited to advance into the second phase of Elevate Oak Park. With the event hub and band shell now complete, we are moving forward with construction of the new community center on the former ice arena site, along with improvements to the surrounding areas, including the former swimming pool and mini golf course sites. To prepare for the next phase, demolition of the ice arena, outdoor swimming pool, pool-related buildings, and mini golf course has been completed. The city proposed to construct a two-story community center of more than 49,400 square feet. The first floor is planned to include senior and teen areas, a multi-court gymnasium for basketball and pickleball, and indoor aquatic center with lap lanes, a lazy river, a zero-depth children's play area. It will also include flexible program rooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, restrooms, and other related community amenities. The second floor is planned to include a walking track overlooking the gymnasium, along with aerobics, cardio, and fitness area. As outlined in the staff report, the proposed community center and related improvements comply with the zoning requirements. The project will require variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals for the north and east setbacks, as well as building heights. Because the parcel is part of a larger civic campus, the requested setback and height variances are reasonable and are not expected to impact the surrounding residential neighborhood. We have Philip Herregas, project manager within Newman Smith Architecture, to present the project and answer any questions you may have.

Oh, there we go.

I see the text right here saying make sure it's on, right? I appreciate it. We do have a couple slides, too, so I don't know if you're able to see those. Okay, perfect. Like I said, my name's Phil Pericus. I'm representing the design team. So I'm a project manager with Newman Smith Architecture, also representing IMEG, who's our mechanical electrical plumbing engineers. Here with me today also is Tom Sovel with Spalding to Decker, who's the civil and landscape engineers on our team. And then also representing Barton Mallow, we have Larry Bukowski. He's gonna just briefly touch in on our budget and where we're at today. Here we're sharing slides from the site plan approval issuance. So these are exterior renderings, so you're starting to get a feel of the site. We have chose the former ice arena site, so we're taking that complex, obviously it's been demolished, but taking the advantage of an already pre-developed site, knocking that down, and then redeveloping that. for this project just going over a little bit of our scheduling we're currently preparing our construction documents and getting ready for bidding of November of this year then we're going to proceed into construction of April of next year 2027 with a completion of construction sometime in spring of 2029 so I don't know Larry if you want to just touch on budget and where we lie

Thanks, Phil. Good evening, everyone. Our role in the design process, we're not building yet, obviously, but in the design process, we are tasked with estimating the design as it moves along during checkpoints in the design process. We did that once back in June. We peeled back the scope a little bit to make sure it was aligned with the $34 million budget that the city has, and we did another round of estimating just this past month to ensure that, yes, the project is still on track and still within the city's budget to perform the work.

Great.

Okay, good. Does anyone have any questions? No?

No? Great. Perfect. We got just a couple, I don't know if you want us to run through some of the site plan images as well. So we have a couple more slides here. So this representing the overall site plan here.

So like we mentioned, the former Ice Arena location.

So this project after overlaps a few of the parcels in this area. We are proceeding with expansion of the existing parking lot that was used for the Ice Arena and also north of the library. We're adding in a drop off at the entrance of the new recreation center. You also see a connection of the expansion parking lot towards the west parking lot that's west of the current building and facilities on this campus. And then we also have a, we worked with your fire marshal to create a fire truck and trash access around the perimeter of the building Because of the size of the building the marshal required us to have a complete two ways in and around the building So you'll see that path going around so the west side is actually going to be incorporated with the the green space there and as it goes around the pool patio area so that'll be sized appropriately and the materials of that sidewalk will walk with the walkways to the parks and all the way around to the baseball diamond with more of a driveway feel on the north and east side of that drive around Here we have our landscape landscape plan where you're showing heavy landscape here on the south side of the building which around the drop-off area and also the existing parking lot. We've added the appropriate number of trees into your parking lot with the new islands with the expansion that you can see shaded here on the west side. Getting into the the use of the building and the plan you can see here. We have the pool To the west and then we also have admin offices To the south and multi-purpose to the east then you have the large gymnasium Which is actually a pre-engineered fabricated building that we've done that for budget issues, but that'll Be used for basketball volleyball pickleball and other uses in that area and Then you have your locker rooms and then your back of house with your you know pool mechanical rooms your building mechanical rooms electrical and storage Upstairs you have your walking track around the gymnasium and that elevated walking track up there Then you'll have two multi-use fitness rooms Which then can be opened into one large space or divided with a partition up there additional storage stretching areas and then also your cardio and weight areas and This is a little blow-up of the pool here. We wanted to highlight your lap lanes that you have. We also have a lazy river, a leisure pool area, and then a zero entry for your kid amenities. Also to the west, you'll have access with garage doors opening up to a sun patio. So that really gives your connection to the outside and the inside for that pool. I know that was a highlighted item from your presentation. city residents about that connection of missing the outdoor pool. So this gives them ability to be in the pool area and then go out to that patio. Then you'll also see we also were able to include the water slide, which, you know, the final design that you guys will see is, you know, a quite powerful slide that you'll see from the front end. And obviously we're pulling in the yellow Oak Park branding to that slide. Here we have the exterior elevations. I just wanted to highlight here that we've took into consideration the screening of all the mechanical units on the roof, so you won't be seeing that equipment from all north, south, east, west of the building. Alrighty, any questions related to those drawings in the packet?

Any questions?

Just comments. This is extremely exciting. Yes.

We appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this project. Yes, sir.

Well, the first question is to you, and that is, you know, that's just a budget question. Has the budget included inflationary estimates of what is going to happen to the economy during this time?

Yes, so we included with our, we call it escalation, an escalation contingency where we escalate the prices from basically today to the midpoint of construction. So roughly a year and a half, two years, somewhere in that time frame, we escalated a 4.3, 4.5% a year escalation factor. And the other one is for the city manager.

What is the operating budget of the city once this is completed?

So let me digress a moment and just take your other question first, too. So just for full clarification, so there is a inflationary contingency. Correct me if I'm wrong. There's also a 10% project contingency. Correct. As well as a 3%. Construction contingency, if I'm not mistaken. Design contingency for some of the unknowns that we haven't encountered yet. So just to give you an example, board members, comparative example, the event hub, in fact, we just talked before this meeting, the event hub is going to, like City Hall did, come in under budget. And for the event hub, we had a 5% contingency. So we've doubled that project contingency for the community center project. In addition, we've again added the inflationary contingency and the design contingency of 3% too. I feel I'm very confident that we're OK. And so on the operating budget, we have a two mill. Is it one and a half or two mills? Help. Which has already been in place. So we put that, the voters approved that along with the millage to issue the bonds to build this building. The voters approved both of those issues. the same time a couple of years ago and we still feel that that operating millage that was approved at the same time as the bond mills sufficient to pay for the overrun operations for the community center and other related recreation activities and I say overrun because obviously with the community center there is going to be a stream of revenue that we've never and that's not gonna offset all the costs obviously but there is going to be a new stream of revenue to the city that the operating revenue from the operating millage will help subsidize

Mr. Chair, a civilian question. What happens to the contingency money if it's not needed?

That's a great question. That is the city's money. It's just money that we set aside because of the unknowns that we might encounter through the design process and then ultimately through the construction process.

We I I think Larry and the people at Bart Malice and we have a giant pizza party the whole city.

Yeah, well that's just money that we advise setting aside for the unknowns.

And the other and other comments or questions. Now to the city agree to the conditions under your recommendation.

Yes.

You're going to hold their feet to the fire, right?

Absolutely.

Yes.

Can I have a motion? Can I make one more? This is to Larry. So, Larry, repeat after me. The city does not like change orders. Correct. We don't do them. Yep. Okay. So, repeat after me. The city does not do change orders. No one does. No one does like.

We're here to keep them in check on those changes. Right, right, right.

It's good we have separation of powers here.

Newman Smith did a wonderful job on the event hub. We literally had one change order at the very beginning of the project because of the great job that both of these guys, of course, but that Newman Smith did was on the event hub and we didn't have a single one after that. And we're about to come back to council and close that project out under our original budget. So kudos to you guys and to Dave DeCoster and others who worked so hard on that project.

Great there be no more comments can we have a motion.

Second. And the mayor second.

We have a roll call. Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Good. We're very I think speaking for all of us here we're very excited about this and we can't wait to see it come come to completion. Thank you very much. John. I assume there's no planning commission matters we need to discuss. I have one, if I could.

I have a question for Director Maroney.

I wanted to beat Torgo's record.

I'm sorry.

Can we adjourn first? No.

This actually is a question for Director Maroney. But is this the meeting or the next meeting where we're electing officers?

in the October meeting is when we're going to elect the officers.

I think he makes a great chair. He's doing a great job today. So he'd be an excellent chair at the next meeting. I don't know if I can pre-make that motion, but if I could.

You can make it in October. How's that?

Okay. So just to throw that out there. Okay.

Yeah, and I just had one matter of business. You should be receiving an email invitation to the Boards and Commission dinner that's going to be held Tuesday, October 13th over at the brand new Event Hub. So once you see that in your inbox, make sure that you RSVP. If you do not get it, reach out to Salamari and we'll make sure that you get that.

Okay, great. Thank you. Anything else?

How are you?

No, okay. Do I have a motion to adjourn?

Yes. Second. We are adjourned. Did you beat it?

No.