HomeMy WebLinkAboutZBA Docket # 22-4 -Roi Kiferbaum, Blue Water Builders - 1505 Pratt - Building Size1
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VILLAGE OF ELK GROVE VILLAGE
ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS
ZBA DOCKET 22-4
The hearing in the above -entitled cause
before PEGGY CURRAN, a Certified Shorthand Reporter
within the County of DuPage, and State of Illinois,
taken pursuant to the provisions of the Zoning
Ordinance of the Village of Elk Grove Village, at
901 Wellington Avenue, Elk Grove Village, on the
12th day of May, 2022, at the hour of 7:00 p.m.
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PRESENT:
ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS:
CHAIRMAN DONALD CHILDRESS
MR. JACOB GLIMCO
MR. TONY DAMPTZ, JR.
MR. RICHARD M. ROMANSKI
MR. RYAN BOOKLER
MR. ROBERTO SERRANO, JR.
MR. GARY SPRAGG
MR. STEVE RAWLEIGH
ON BEHALF OF THE VILLAGE:
Mr. Bryan Kozor
Deputy Director Community Development
bkozor@elkgrove.org
ON BEHALF OF THE PETITIONER:
Mr. Roi Kiferbaum - Blue Water Builders
Mr. Josh Balonick - Blue Water Builders
Mr. Jonathan Kohn - Colliers
Mr. Michael W. Hartel - Design Haus
Architecture
Members of the Public
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CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: This is Zoning Docket
22-4. I will go ahead and read this and then ask
any of you that plan to speak to come up to the
podium and raise your right hand and I will swear
you in. And then we will ask you to present your
rationale for the zoning variation. And then if we
have any questions from Board members to yourselves
and members in the audience. And then if there is
any other questions or any responses from
representatives from the Village, from engineering,
that might help clarify any questions.
We can go ahead and start reading.
My name is Don Childress. This is
ZBA Docket 22-4. Public notice is hereby given
that in accordance with the provisions of
Chapter 8-2:D of the Zoning Ordinance of the
Village of Elk Grove Village, the Zoning Board of
Appeals of the Village will conduct a public
hearing at the hour of 7:00 p.m. on May 12, 2022,
at the Charles J. Zettek Municipal Building,
901 Wellington Avenue, Elk Grove Village, Illinois,
to consider the petitioner from Roy Kiferbaum.
Am I saying that right?
MR. KIFERBAUM: Yes.
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CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Thank you.
Of Blue Water Builders, seeking a
variation from the provisions of the Elk Grove
Village Zoning Ordinance No. 2410 as pertains to
minimum size in building industrial zoning
districts.
Section 7-1 requires the principal
building to be a minimum of 25 percent of the
lot area. The petitioner is requesting to
construct a 6,794 square foot building on an
estimated 63,411 square foot lot in the I-2 Zoning
District. The minimum size building requirement
for this lot would be 15,853 square feet.
The property is located at 1505 Pratt
Boulevard, Elk Grove Village, Illinois and is
identified by the following property identification
number. I will skip that.
All persons interested are invited to
attend and will be given an opportunity to be
heard.
This hearing will be accessible to
individuals with disabilities. Persons requiring
accommodation are requested to contact the Village
Clerk at 847.357.4040, preferably no later than
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five days before the hearing.
Could any or all of you that plan to
speak come up to the podium.
(Witnesses sworn in.)
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Can I get your names too.
MR. KIFERBAUM: I am Roi Kiferbaum.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Thank you.
MR. Kiferbaum: This is Jonathan Kohn, Mike
Hartel, and Josh Balonick.
MR. BOOKLER: I am sorry, what's your name?
MR. KIFERBAUM: I'm Roi.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Jon, how do you spell
your last name?
MR. KOHN: K-o-h-n.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Then Mike.
MR. HARTEL: Last name Hartel, H-a-r-t-e-l.
One L.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Then Josh.
MR. BALONICK: Balonick, B as in boy,
a-1-o-n-i-c-k.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Can you present your
rationale for the site variation request?
MR. KOHN: I will start. I am Jonathan Kohn.
I am with Colliers, the old Bennett & Kahnweiler.
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a
I will give a little bit of history on
the property because I have had a history of the
property, as has Mike, who is the architect. I am
just the agent who is advising Blue Water.
And I knew the family that owned it for
20 some years, Stacy and Robert Wallace. They own
this property. They weren't sophisticated real
estate people, but they owned the land.
I met them in 2007 and tried a number of
ways to help them develop the property.
At the time you could have docks loading
onto the street. But the property has other
challenges with it that I think maybe Mike will
address in terms of limitations with creeks on the
side and the back.
So they owned it and just simply paid
taxes on it and just couldn't figure out how to --
they didn't have the wherewithal to do it. They
couldn't figure out how to do it. There were too
many challenges with it.
So about five years ago you guys bought
it; is that right?
So five years ago they bought it. And
we came up with this idea to just simply build a
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smaller building on the property because in light
of newer building restrictions relative to setbacks
and loading off the street, and all the good things
that Elk Grove has done to ease the traffic
throughout the streets, there is really only so
much you can do on the property. It's incredibly
narrow.
The similar properties that have been
developed over the years, smaller ones like this,
that have been this narrow, it's been years, and
those have all had loading on the streets.
So you can't do that anymore. Plus we
have the challenges with these creeks.
So this is why we are here today to kind
of present this smaller concept. But really, there
is not much else we can do here. So that's the
reason we are here.
I don't know if you want to give --
MR. KIFERBAUM: Roi. So approximately
starting about a year and a half ago, we started a
conversation with the Village as far as like -- and
an alternative idea, here, this is what we are
looking to construct.
And we had started out with an even much
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smaller building because initially there was no
sort of requirement at the time, there was still
was not a requirement for a minimum size for the
building. So we were in discussion with the
Village.
Through that process, we were advised to
create -- make sure it's a 10 percent minimum. We
had been in ongoing communication with the Village,
created multiple iterations of design, and worked
with engineering and building department to sort of
work with setbacks, work with drainage, access to
the site, et cetera, and came up with a functional
site.
And then with Village general approval, we
went to create full construction -- or full design.
And that was what was then submitted for review.
At which point -- at some point between
us being under the understanding that we can
proceed with this building as is and submitting for
permit, the new enacted code came into play.
And so we have been trying to work
through with the Village on that.
Mike can speak to like setbacks and the
other challenges of the site and how we have to --
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we are restricted to the sizing.
MR. HARTEL: Good evening. Thank you for your
time tonight. Appreciate the work that you guys do
by coming in as volunteers for this.
My name is Mike Hartel, DesignHaus
Architects.
I have familiarity with the site, going
all the way back to like 2003. Centerpoint
Properties, they had me draw up some drawings for
doing some buildings there a long time ago. And
the site was significantly more restricted. There
was floodways and floodplains and things like that.
The west side of the site there is an
Army Corps of Engineers -- I don't have a voice for
radio. I mispronounce a lot of words. Archie
Bunker looks good to me.
So we had the creek on the west side of
the site. So back in the early 2000's, we couldn't
do anything with it.
Blue Water Builders approached my firm
about two years ago to look at a building for the
site.
As Roi indicated, initially we were
looking at doing about 1,000 square foot building;
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presented some informal plans to the Village. The
Village came back and indicated you need to be at
least 10 percent of the site.
So we developed the plans that were
submitted for permit, both civil engineering -- not
architectural, not the building, but the civil
plans were done before the architectural plans.
That's where the comment came back and
indicated that there is an ordinance requiring
25 percent building size for the site.
Well, we had, as Roi indicated, we had
ongoing interaction with the City, various
iterations for the building.
In fact, on July 28th, we had submitted
some drawings to the Village, and that's where
Jarad Polony had emailed me back and said no, your
building is not large enough, it needs to be at
least 10 percent of the site size.
Because we had about a 6,000 square foot
building. So we had to add 700 square feet to the
building. So we did that.
So moving forward, assuming that with
Village input we were within the zoning, submitted,
found out -- I don't know when the ordinance
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passed. That's neither here nor there.
But some of the hardships with the
site -- we present variations in other
municipalities. You have to show hardship. It's
not detrimental to the municipality and stuff.
So the hardship, it's basically not
self-created. When the site was purchased, there
was not a 25 percent building requirement.
Also, the hardship here, being not
self-created, is that we had interaction with the
municipality for a very long time.
My client, they spent a lot of money on
design services.
Another aspect of the variance would be
the unique conditions. As Jonathan Kohn indicated,
it's a very small site. It's very narrow.
It's even more restricted by the fact on
the west side of the site there is that creek
that's regulated by the Army Corps of Engineers.
You cannot modify the grade. You can't do anything
with that area of the site. It's also very bad
soil over there.
Initially we had this building designed
to be on the west side of the site, but the soil is
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so bad over there, and the fact that you really
can't do anything with the creek being there, we
moved the building to the west side, to the east
side of the site.
We still needed to move our drive aisle,
our drive lane further to the east because of the
bad soil that's there.
So that's a unique condition of the
site.
And we are not really looking for a
variation on the type of use that's consistent with
the industrial park, but the building will be
consistent and in harmony with the use of the
industrial park.
We designed the site, it's a very tight
site, to try to get all the maneuvering for the
prospective use of 53 foot tractor trailers to go
into the back of the site, be able to make a full
turnaround.
My firm, we design logistic facilities
all the time. So this is sympathetic to the truck
drivers. These truck drivers aren't going to say,
son of a gun, we are going to be going to
1505 Pratt again, I don't like going to that place.
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Believe me, they don't like going to
places that they can't get to.
The building that's been proposed, the
size that it is -- if you try to go larger than 6,
7,000 square feet on that site, you are really
going to diminish the functionality of the site
from an industrial perspective.
So that's basically what I have.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Jacob.
MR. GLIMCO: Thank you for this very thorough,
put together plan.
No further questions from me.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Tony.
MR. DAMPTZ: No questions.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Rich.
MR. ROMANSKI: You guys, I think in the
documentation that I read, you guys mentioned there
is a specific type of client you are trying to --
not a specific client, but a type of maybe client
or business that you are trying to build this
building for or to attract --
MR. KOHN: I mean, it's going to be -- it's
going to be smaller sort of fleet maintenance where
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they have got security and they can park in the
back.
I mean, a company that has 25 deliveries a
day, this building is just not suitable for that
because of the size of it and the -- just the
turnaround radius and such.
So it's ideally, it's a fleet maintenance
company that needs to, you know, store some
equipment in the back or trucks in the back or vans
or delivery vans or things related to that.
That's the -- I think that's the type of
user you want. You are not going to get a company
that's getting 25 deliveries a day. It's just not
suitable for that.
MR. ROMANSKI: Have you guys had conversations
with anyone to the point where there is any
interest?
MR. KOHN: We had Gordon Food Service looking
at it. They are a big food service company
privately held. They were in DesPlaines and they
renewed for a year -- because this was like nine
months ago. We just couldn't -- the process to
develop is too lengthy. So they renewed. So they
are still interested.
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We have talked to Sunbelt, a company
called Herc, which is a spin-off of Hertz. Again,
they have equipment.
We are going to fence this. It's going
to be secured. It's going to be branded and nicely
landscaped.
Those are the types of companies that we
have been talking to. But we haven't done this
full marketing thing because we just haven't had
approval for it yet and our timing is still, even
if it gets approved, it's probably still 9 to
12 months off.
MR. ROMANSKI: Okay. No further questions for
me.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Steve.
MR. RAWLEIGH: I have no questions. Thank you
for your presentation.
MR. SPRAGG: So you guys landed on the
6700 square feet when the requirement was
10 percent; is that right?
MR. HARTEL: Correct
MR. SPRAGG: That's how you came to that
number. I just wanted to clarify that.
MR. SERRANO: I have no questions.
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CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Ryan.
MR. BOOKLER: First of all, thanks for setting
up your business in Elk Grove. Appreciate that.
Thanks again for the plans.
Now, you said the soil, it wasn't
suitable for building on the west end, so you moved
it to the east end, correct?
MR. HARTEL: Correct
MR. BOOKLER: What was wrong with the soil?
There was nothing that could be done to --
MR. HARTEL: The soil on the west side, it
didn't have very good weight bearing capacity.
It's very mushy.
Also, if we were to build a building on
the west side, as close to the property line, there
is a 10 foot building setback. We would have to do
a very deep foundation without disturbing the soil
that's on the bank because the Army Corps of
Engineers, we can't touch it. So we had to do a
very cost prohibitive zero lot line foundation,
even though we are 10 feet off the lot line.
Just to bring up a little bit more of a
point about this site. We have so much detention
in the back of the building, the back of the site.
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That's going to be all detention as well. It's got
to be so deep with such a small site that that's
going to have a very tall wall as it is there.
And if we were to get too close -- even
with the drive aisle, if we get too close to the
west property line, that drive aisle just for the
trucks to drive on there, would still need to have
a very deep zero lot line foundation.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: My understanding, I work
in civil engineering. So working along the creek
is like the waters of the U.S. criteria, the Corps
of Engineers --
MR. HARTEL: Right.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: -- get involved in
governing that.
MR. HARTEL: Right.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Then as you talk about, I
am assuming it's unsuitable soft soils, which are
often like in highway embankments wasted on the
side of the road, or along detention areas because
you can get landscaping soils out of that and
embankment for vegetation and things like that, but
not necessarily load bearing soils for foundations.
MR. HARTEL: Right.
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CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Nor building a wall on or
something like that, or whatever without some other
piling, soldier piles, or some other wall piles.
MR. HARTEL: Right, geo piles.
We did soil borings of the site in
various areas. And our structural engineer
reviewed the soil borings, looked at the design.
So having the building on the west side
of the site was going to require -- he was calling
them geo piles.
It's a little bit -- as an architect, I
draw pretty pictures of buildings. I have an
understanding. Just a little bit of levity.
So as you can understand as a civil
engineer, probably the rest of you as well, a
conventional foundation is a very simply cost
effective return on investment and is a reasonable
Ireturn.
This variation isn't for financial gain,
it's just because we have such a unique site with
so many unique conditions between the size and the
stability of the soil, and the non -self-created
hardship of the ordinance happening while we were
in the middle of the design.
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CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Then the water retention
on the site with the requirements of discharge,
such that you don't want to flood your neighbors
downstream more than a 10th of a foot for whatever
unit of time. You have enclosed drainage
underground?
MR. HARTEL: It will actually be open to sky
at the rear of the site. Bernie Bono, Bono
Consulting Civil Engineers, they are doing the
design work on the site. And we have worked back
and forth not only with him, but also with our
structural engineer. We had to build a retaining
wall at the south end, where the trailer parking is
shown on the exhibit that was submitted.
So that's going to be a very deep
retaining area. We have the high water elevation.
We have seasonal high water elevation. We are like
right there.
So the storm water management and volume
control will meet all the criteria of all the
engineering.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: For the County and the
Village requirements?
MR. HARTEL: MWRD already has done their
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preliminary review, I believe.
MR. KIFERBAUM: We have had additional
comments from MWRD, with minor, overall minor
commentary.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Are there any other
questions from Board members?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Are there any members of
audience that we don't see?
(No response.)
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Could we have a motion or
are there any comments from engineering?
MR. KOZOR: The only comments I have, we
didn't have any calls or any emails or any concerns
regarding this variance.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: We did have an email from
Donato who couldn't attend tonight. He did send an
email into the Village just giving his opinion. He
is not here to vote.
I can read that into the meeting minutes
or whatever. Just because he said something.
He said, Don, as I put this in my
calendar response, I am unable to attend the next
month's scheduled meeting considering the ZBA
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appeal for 1505 Pratt Boulevard due to military
service commitments.
While I know I cannot proxy my vote, I
wanted to submit a note supporting, granting, the
requested variance. I reviewed the materials and
considered the inputs in the package. I see no
reason why this variance should not be granted as
requested. It puts this vacant property in use in
a way that is reasonable, environmentally sound,
and beneficial to the Village.
Please feel free to submit this email
into the record if you deem it appropriate.
Thanks.
That is another Board member that is not
here.
MR. ROMANSKI: I would like to make a motion
to approve the variance.
MR. DAMPTZ: I second it.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Could we have a voice
vote?
Aye.
MR. RAWLEIGH: I agree.
MR. SPRAGG: I agree.
MR. SERRANO: I agree.
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MR. BOOKLER: Yes.
MR. ROMANSKI: Yes.
MR. DEMPTZ: Yes.
MR. GLIMCO: Aye.
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: We all voted in favor of
the proposed motion as written up by the Village
and yourselves coordinated.
The next Village Board meeting, Brian, I
believe on the Village's website is a week from --
MR. KOZOR: May 24th
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Is the 24th.
If you could, call the Village
beforehand -- they may call you, the Village
Clerk -- to confirm that you are on the Village
docket for that night.
And if you could, please coordinate with
them, make sure you are on the docket, and if you
could be in attendance for the meeting because the
Village board members will have final say so over
any variation requested.
What Brian and I put together are like
the facts and meeting minutes that go to advise the
Village Board in an advisory nature and then the
Village Board has the final up or down decision in
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favor of any variation request or coordination.
MR. BALONICK: Is it at 7:00?
CHAIRMAN CHILDRESS: Yes. Assuming it's on
the docket, and if they do vote in favor that
night, then they will give you verbal direction,
coordinating with engineering to obtain a permit if
they so vote on that, on that meeting on the 24th.
Thank you for your very well presented
materials and research and your patience with all
these multiple years, with the previous owners and
all of you working together. It is very well
orchestrated, like piano orchestra recital or
something.
MR. BALONICK: Thank you guys for your time.
We know this is volunteer.
MR. DAMPTZ: I make a motion to adjourn.
MR. ROMANSKI: I second.
MEETING ADJOURNED
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STATE OF ILLINOIS )
) SS:
COUNTY OF DU PAGE )
I, PEGGY CURRAN, a notary public and
certified shorthand reporter within and for the
County of DuPage and State of Illinois, do hereby
certify that I stenographically recorded the
proceedings had in the aforementioned matter; that
the foregoing was reduced to typewriting via
computer -aided transcription under my personal
direction and supervision; and that the foregoing
is a true and accurate transcript of the
proceedings had.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I have hereunto set
my hand and seal this 23rd day of May, 2022.
--------------------------------
Peggy Curran, CSR, RPR, CRR
DuPage County, Notary Public
CSR No. 084-002016
ACR REPORTING, LLP (312) 422-0515