City Council - Regular Meeting

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Call the meeting to order and start with the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the stand indivisibley and justice for all.

Hello. Welcome to the community development committee. We generally meet the second and fourth Mondays of each month. My name is Jessica Lots. I'm your representative for W 2. I'm also the chairperson for this meeting. We have a staff member, uh, city administrator Grant Litkin, uh, leading us tonight. Looking over the agenda, it looks like we have four items that we'll vote on. Any votes taken tonight are advisory only, regardless of the vote. All items do move on to the full council for consideration. Anyone wishing to make comments will have five minutes to do so. Uh, public comments are welcomed. Please step to the mic and tell us your name. And if you are a resident, there'll be opportunities um as each item is uh discussed to provide comments. I'll ask the committee and then the council and then the public for any comments that they have. And then we also have a public comment section at the end where uh anybody can come to the mic and tell us what they would like us to hear. And our goal is to answer questions that are asked, but please know that sometimes questions are asked that we don't always have the answer to. So we'll work hard to get you an answer um after the meeting. And with that, we will get a roll call. Grant.

Thank you. Lots here. Roach here. Rosenberg present. Parchman here. Milert here. Campbell here. You have a quorum. Thank you. Moving on to item 1.3. The minutes from our last meeting, which was March 9th, have been attached to the agenda. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Is there any discussion on the minutes? Nope. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right, we will move on to items requiring council action. Starting with 2.1, which is a special event permit for Allen celebrates America's 250th.

Yes. Thank you. So, as the chairperson said, this is a special event permit for America c oralen celebrates America's 250th. So, this is an event um hosted by the city of Fallon. These are two separate events, both occurring on July 3rd, 2026. Um the first one is a parade that start time is 9:00 a.m. The location uh starts um north of Community Park wraps around and on the next slide I'll show that route. Um the theme this year is a patriotic and celebration of America's 250th. As the parade route um wraps up, the celebration in the community park begins and that goes from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Um there will be food, drinks, live bands, games, activities, live history and storytelling. Um for um for this event, miners must be accompanied by an adult guardian and responsible adult. Um I do need to change that last one. There was no food truck scheduled, but I was uh notified by some of the coordinators that there is a possibility of food truck. So we will update that as we move along and ensure they have the licensing and approvals. Um that event will cease at 5 pm. There will be a short break and then we will hold our annual fireworks over Fallon event. Uh beginning at 8 pm we will start with a Liberty Tree dedication ceremony on the south side of the sports park and then once the sun goes down and dusk hits we will start our fireworks. As mentioned the parade route um has been vetted through the public safety department and the committee. And so the parade will line up on State Street north of Vine Street. It will go down South Lincoln. It will turn left at Seventh Street and then wrap around Park View Drive and end at the Community Park which will be where the event is held. Um the stands and the floats will continue their path back north um where they will move back to the float shed at the public works yard on Third Street and that will end approximately 10:00

a.m. So staff recommends approval the special impermanent application with the following conditions. The Wolf Allen Public Safety Department will coordinate with local weather outlets and National Weather Service to monitor any potential inclement weather to determine if a storm poses an imminent risk to the attendees life safety. Should the such risk arise, the Ofall Public Safety Department reserves a right to suspend or end the event. There is no rain out event or rain out schedule at this time. And as I mentioned, this is a city sponsored event and city controlled. So there is a large group of volunteers helping out, but at the day of the event, the city staff will be in charge. With that, any questions? All righty. Before we have questions, is there a motion? So moved.

Second. All righty. Any questions from the committee? Yes, sir. Just one question. Have we thought through any potential traffic from leaving the community park to go to the fireworks? Yes. So, there is that that significant break of about 3 hours. And so, the hope is and of course we will monitor and follow up with public safety, but the hope that that'll give time to people to not uh rush over there. uh leisurely at their pace. Um but as we've experienced in years past, the fireworks tends to be a parking problem with celebration. Um and so there is notification we put out on access to the park and the best ways to go.

So in all intents and purposes, the fireworks is the same as previous years already approved. Other questions from the committee? It's not a question, it's more a statement. I know that we're not necessarily putting out all intel on how we're going to handle this on no unaccompanied minors kind of thing, but we're going to we I mean we're going to get asked. A lot of us are going to get asked. So I I assume we're going to put out some kind of statement on how that we're going to manage that.

That is correct. So the entire uh event at Community Park will um have controlled access, so fencing. There will be a number of entryways and exit ways that our public safety department will be monitoring. Other questions from the committee? Any from the council? Any questions from the public? All righty, seeing none, we will take a roll call vote. Roach, yes. Rosenberg, affirmative. Parchman, yes. Milert, yes. Campbell, yes. Lots,

yes. All right, motion passes. All righty. Item 2.2 two is a resolution in support of the municipal housing authority IML model resolution which Grant will cover for us.

Thank you. So for background material on March 4th, IML chief executive officer Brad Cole sent a memo to the IML board of directors regarding housing proposals included in Governor Pritskar's building up Illinois developments plan. Um IML is also known as Illinois Municipal League. It is a group that advocates on behalf of municipalities. its membership and board of directors is made of mayors from around the state. And so in this build plan proposed in the uh governor's address, it proposes a statewide zoning standards including minimum minimum lot sizes, mandates increased residential density allowances. It legalizes accessory dwelling units, limits minimum parking requirements, authorizes thirdparty plan reviewers and building inspectors, and creates a statewide formula related to impact fees. The build pan build plan broadly reamps local authority on issues that are entirely local. IML IML also sent a letter to Governor Pritsker requesting to be included in all future conversations, legislative working groups, meetings or at other discussions that pertain to the bill plan and as it relates to m municipal authority. The Illinois Municipal League is urging local officials to contact their legislators to oppose the preeemption of local housing, land use, and zoning authority. So this um draft resolution is a show of support from the city of council of the city will fallon um to keep local zoning control within municipalities. So with that I'll take any questions. Um, can you provide a little bit more clarity on some of the specifics of how like it's currently being interpreted as if there's a single family lot,

should this proposal, as it's written get instituted by the state, how would lots currently zoned as single family residential, what could then go inside of those?

Yeah, absolutely. So this build plan essentially creates one unified zoning code and building code for the entire state of Illinois. And so we as a local authority would not be able to um utilize or have the authority over zoning control. Um from what our early understandings of the bill is, it does not deviate from traditional zoning of residential, commercial, industrial of a nature. But what it does is it takes all the what's basically the the information within each of those zoning and makes it spread out uniformly across the state. So it would remove any minimum lot coverage sizes, any lot sizes. So your SR1, SR2 and SR3 which are the difference of them are lot sizes. It would say there is one residential size lot and you cannot require anybody to have anything larger than that. Um so essentially it would allow any builders to come into city wolf Allen propose a residential development um with lot sizes much smaller than what you would see today. It also authorizes um accessory structures well beyond what we have in our code. So as we read it read it today it could allow two, three, four, five homes potentially on one single lot. Um it would allow accessory structures to be lived in by multiple people. It would remove um how many people can live in one home in that language. And so it would really drastically change zoning code across the state. Um speaking with my other city administrators and city managers, many local cities are also passing this resolution at this time.

And the resolution that they're passing is to support how it currently is. Correct. Because that's a little confusing because the governor puts out a proposal and we're voting on a resolution in support of but it's not in support of the proposal. Correct. It's in support of We are passing a resolution in supporting local authority of zoning codes to maintain how things are. Gotcha. Clear as mud. I'm just kidding. Uh questions from the council. It also messes with messes with might not be the right word but affects uh our parking numbers. Correct. So, I mean, we we all know that we have parking issues anyway, and this could make that exponentially worse.

You're accurate. And we are planning, as we approved in the budget, an update of our zoning code and develop manual. Um, hate to say it, but if this goes through, there's no use in us doing that because we wouldn't have any control over it anyway. Yes, sir. Um, one thing, one of the unintended consequences that I was thinking about this afternoon, like people want to come to the fallen school districts, but if there's no limits on how many people can live in a house, that would impact the schools and the funding for that and it there'd be a lot of unintended consequences. Correct.

Absolutely. It's a lot more difficult from an administrative standpoint to um follow up on how many people are living in a single house, but it's we can see from the street that you know it's one house per one lot. This new law and again as it's starting to come out would allow multiple houses on each lot. So right now it's a proposal. What does it look like moving forward from the state

process? So it would have to go through the state legislative process. So it's a governor's proposal. So it would have to go through the house and the senate. Um we have IML that fights on our behalf. There are other lobbyist groups and marketing and communication and consultant groups that are also working on this. Um so we're hoping that it does not gain traction and does not pass. Um and of course if it does and becomes very popular then at least we'll be involved in those conversations. Um I did not mention that as the language reads today it would preempt any home rule authority as well. which seems odd. Okay. Uh questions from the council regarding the resolution or the build proposal. So essentially if this resolution is approved by the council, we would essenti signed by the mayor and sent to IML to include in their packet showing uh the state the municipalities um urgency to be involved.

Gotcha. No questions from the council. I had one. We talked about the negatives of course, but what is the what's the purpose of it to begin with? Yes. So, the entire build plan is to increase the ability of affordable housing to decrease the entry point for housing um open up more single family residential to people statewide. So if you can build multiple lots on or multiple buildings or multiple houses, smaller houses, smaller lots, um I guess the grand idea is that it becomes cheaper to buy a house. Okay. And lowers property. Thank you. What's that, sir? And lowers people's property values.

Could potentially lower property values. Mel, so is there anything that we can do to preempt any of this aside from this piece of support? No. Okay. And then would it make sense because to Jessica's point, this is confusing that we're sending a letter of support for something in opposition of something else. So would it make more sense at some point to set or do you not do piece legislative pieces like this in uh opposition of something I'm not sure correct. So as as I mentioned ear this is a show of support for local authority and so the resolution is in support of local authority right

which you know is confusing because you're kind of supporting local authority but you're opposing a different set of legislation but this is a model ordinance that's being shared a resolution being shared with almost every community in the state of Illinois. So, um I would not recommend deviating from it because this is what they've asked us to put together. Is something in the future if we needed to I guess I'm trying to ask you just for my own brain here like can we create something after this point that says we oppose that or like when it gets to different models or is that not something that you do because you're normally like voting in support of something. You see what I'm saying? I do. Um, I guess my answer would be sure. We could. We could. Yeah.

Um, the council could pass a resolution for anything they want. Um, and of course, as it progresses, we will monitor it closely and report back to the council. I'm assuming that they wrote it this way because the bill isn't entirely written yet. Correct. So, it would be hard to say you oppose something that's not entirely written. Yeah. I from the lobby standpoint, I don't know if they're ready to say these are the specific parts we're opposed to. So at this point, it's we're supporting municipal authority. Right. Okay. Yeah. Good questions. Anybody else on the council?

This is just very very preemptive. I mean, I'm seeing that the round table could be March 25th or that. So this is right at the beginning. Okay.

Yeah. Anybody from the public? uh vermmoir war II. So I'm trying to understand this. So, you're saying if someone has a a lot or a piece of ground that they can come in and build whatever they want and also not have to worry about green space in that piece of property that could be be potentially part of that bill. Yes.

Okay. So then and if somebody has another piece of ground they want to make an antenna form. An antenna farm. put up antennas, you know, antenna farm or or a solar farm or whatever you want to call them. They'd be able to do that in your city limits then too, right? Uh that's undetermined at this time. Um as what we've seen from this bill is mainly related to single family residential. Okay. So So you would lose green space because you want to throw other things in on the piece of property. Correct.

Okay. Thank you. you would lose green space and you would potentially have a scenario where there's single family lots that contain like several duplexes just on that lot that was historically zoned single family residential. So yeah, it could pre preempt our setback requirements.

Um so your neighbor could essentially if they wanted to subdivide their lot to smaller lots, sell half their lot or build another house or build closer to the setback lines. Those are all possibilities on what could be in this Any other comments from the public? All right. Well, we will go ahead and take a vote. I am inclined to vote in favor of this resolution because I believe that local zoning control is better than state zoning control. So, that's how I intend to vote. Mr. Carney, don't you need to make a motion? Yes, we already did. I don't believe we did. You're right. Thank you. Yep. Um, so is there a motion? Questions? So move.

Second. All right. Any further questions from the committee? Nope. All right. Seeing none, we will take a roll call. So just clarify, if you vote yes, you are supporting local zoning authority. So Rosenberg, affirmative. Parchman, yes. Milert, yes. Campbell, yes. Lots, yes. Roach, yes. Thank you. All right, motion passes. Uh, item 2.3 is a resolution approving and accepting a minor subdivision of 1730 West Highway 50 known as the second edition of Ofallen Business Park on 5.3 acres. Grant,

thank you. So, as background per section 154.077 077 of the vicinity code of ordinances. Minor subdivisions may be exempted from the procedures and requirements for preliminary plats and the subdivider may proceed to following the final plat for review. Mr. Doug Dissler, the applicant, requests approval of a proposed minor subdivision for 1730 West Highway 50, known as the second edition of Fallon Business Park on 5.37 acres. The property is located within the city's municipal boundaries and is currently zoned B1 Community Business District. Um, I just want to preface it. The petitioner and city staff anticipate a planned use submitt for one of these lots. Water and sewer are available for the site. So, what the applicant is doing is they're subdividing with the intention of selling one of those smaller lots to a business that will then come back in front of the city council on zoning approval at a future date. The property is uh indicated by a star next to crop corporate crossing, East Gate Drive, and East US Highway 50. This is a preliminary plat of the lots in the minor subdivision and staff recommendation is recommended approval of the minor subdivision.

All righty. Before we open it up for discussion, is there a motion to approve or motion? Second. All righty. Any questions from the committee? None questions from the council. Just clarify 1730 West.

Okay, we'll make that fix. All righty. And so, just a reminder, you're not approving anything to get built or anything. It's just a minor subdivision at this time. Any questions from the council? Any questions from the public? Seeing none, roll call vote, please. Thank you. Parchman, yes. Miler, yes. Campbell, yes. Lots, yes. Roach, yes. Rosenberg, affirmative. All righty. Motion passes and we are at 2.4. Ordinance approving the final plat of Bethl Grove.

Thank you very much. So, as background, Bethl Grove subdivision was approved by the city council on June 2nd, 2025. It does include 53 lots located on Bethl and just east of Simmons Road. Uh the zoning has already been designated as SR1P plan use. It includes single family residence dwelling with an acreage of 49.10 acres and as mentioned it has 53 lots. What you're approving tonight is the final plat which is the final step to be recorded along with the myar so that they can begin to sell those lots and construct upon them. Staff recommends approval of the final plat for Bethl Grove subdivision. All righty. Thank you. Is there a motion? So moved. Second.

All righty. Are there any questions from the committee on 2.4? Any questions from the council? Any questions from the public? All right. Seeing none, roll call, please. Milert, yes. Campbell, yes. Lots, yes. Roach, yes. Rosenberg, affirmative. Parchman. Yes. All righty. That concludes uh motion passes. That concludes all the items requiring council action. Is there other business, Grant? Nope. Public comments? Not at this time. All righty. At this time, I will open the floor for public comments. Is there anybody who would like to address the committee? All right. Seeing none, I'll take a motion to adjurnn. So moved.

Second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? We are adjourned. Public safety at 6 pm. Thank you.

Hello, James. I know we talked about it. I don't know. I mean, there would be You want me to be on my committee?

You want me? You want me? That's why it's hard.

I mean, Yeah, I mean it's you know July something like that.

But that one question would HA Good question. But not that weird.

See, that's why I think understand that You know what I mean? I think

Yeah, it's hard. to be determined. That's what we're interest.

It's a touch screen. Yeah, that was aggressive. All right, we'll call the public safety committee meeting to order. Can we get a roll call, please? Council member Blackburn, here. Council member Mard, here. Council member Ford here. Council member Stokl here.

Council member Nukem. Thank you. All right. So 1.3 the meeting minutes for March 9th were attached. Can I get a motion for approval of the minutes? So move. Second. Are any discussion on the minutes? Are all in favor? I. Minutes are approved. Items requiring council action 2.1 the Shiloh dispatch contract agreement. Is this you chief? Yes. This is something that we bring every year. Uh it's an authorizes the mayor to enter an intergovernmental agreement with the village of Shiloh to provide dispatching or telecommunication services for their police department. This year um we have raised it from 180,000 last year to 190,000 this year.

All right. Before any discussion, any Can I get a motion for approval? Second. All right. Any questions from the committee? Pretty straightforward. How do you how do you determine the rate or

uh our rate has uh back in like FY19 it was like 140,000 and it stayed stagnant for many years. Um, and uh, generally what we're doing is we don't want to price them out of things, but we want to make sure that we cover our costs. And then uh, generally we've been going up about four to 5% a year the last several years. Uh, that's generally what our costs are for different different fees. Um, for our our personnel, for computer fees, uh, it covers that. Uh, it's a it's a combination. We speak with Fairview Heights because us and Fairview Heights both um share in that cost. It's a joint venture. So, um I speak with the uh chief of Fairv Heights, Steve Johnson, and then I also speak with the mayor and grant and come up with a number that we believe would be fair for them for the next year and present it and they say yes and then we do.

Are we still are we cheaper than SenCom? Yes. Okay. All right. Any questions from the council? We're less expensive than SenCom. There's nothing cheap about our dis our telecommunicators. I like your telecommunicator week. Yes. We're a good value. We're good value. Cheap. Cheap. All right. Any questions from the public? All right. Roll call, please. Blackburn, yes. Myart, yes. Ford, yes. Sto, yes. Thank you. All right, I'll go on to the next full council. So, nothing under other business. We're now a public comments.

I have some other business if I could oh gosh put some things on. Just uh just to let everybody know that this is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Uh so TC week. So if you happen to stop by the P the the public safety building and let our TC's know how much uh what they do uh how much it matters. So we have several former TCs. Recommend they call 911. call. No, don't call 911 for that. Uh, 91. Say thank you.

And then, um, and then also, um, if I I think we put out a press we put out a press release and a Facebook page, but I just wanted to kind of pass along, uh, that we are introducing the blue envelope program, uh, with the police department. It's in partnership with the autism hero project. This was actually an idea brought by Sergeant Schmidt um at some at several other uh departments are doing throughout the area throughout the metro area. So these uh free program does not require registration. Um these blue envelopes are available at police department, city hall public library. We distributed them to the Carlos Smith Foundation or I think it's foundation as well. Um, and participants who may be on the spectrum, uh, the autism spectrum can store copies of their driver's license, vehicle documents, uh, communication preferences, and provide those and give those to the officers on a traffic stop, uh, so that way they can be a little bit more comfortable with how things are going. So, there's information on uh, Old Fallon Facebook page as well as the uh, Fallon Police Department Facebook page.

Sounds like a wonderful resource. Is there any questions on that? I'm going to just put a plug in for uh Wednesday night at 7 is going to be that first public uh presentation that we'll do at the firehouse. We're calling it behind the bay doors. It's just kind of a help the local residents better understand our department, how we're structured, where we've come from, what we're doing currently, and what some of our future plans look like. So, that'll be Friday or I'm sorry, Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Firehouse 4 there by the sports park. Okay. Thank you, Chief. Any other business? Okay. You hear me? No, it's okay.

All right. Well, now public comment. Anyone wishing to make a public comment uh Vermoair Ward three. I just uh would like to make you aware. I don't know if it's, you know, we're coming up on uh spring and summer and whatever, but I've noticed the influx of uh these mechanized I guess they're tricycles or bicycles that look like a motorcycle, but they're uh I guess they're battery operated. They're they're electrical, whatever. And I just see him running rampant uh several days ago on State Street and whatever. And I just, you know, want to make you aware of, you know, summer's coming on and I don't think there's any licensing on these. Uh so I don't know the situation that would occur with needs to be dealing with the people that ride those recklessly through the streets.

Thank you. Okay. Uh on March 27th, uh if you look at our Facebook page, the old police department Facebook page, we did uh put out a uh a post about Illinois micromobility laws. Uh kind of a quick guide to what's street legal and what's not. So, and we are looking watching that as well. I don't know how to go there. So, I appreciate the Facebook page. No, I don't do Facebook. Okay. I'll provide you with a copy of it. Cool. Okay. Anyone else wishing to make a public comment? All right, I think that concludes the agenda. Can I get a motion for adjournment? Second. All in favor? All right, we are adjourned.

One one item. Wow. Hey, what? We know you didn't. I was going to remind everybody May 20th is our open house. That's May. I know. Not April. But we're not going to have another one. Do you have something to show? Yeah, I've got a