Glenview votes 5-1 to consolidate plan commissions

The Glenview board of trustees passed the motion to streamline its planning commissions, but not without some good conversation.

The item to restructure the village's Appearance, Historic Preservation and Plan Commissions and Zoning Board of Appeals into two planning commissions dealing with new developments and existing ones was on the consent agenda Tuesday, the board's 25th remote meeting in the COVID environment.

Having already been considered at least once, consent items typically receive smooth passage unless pulled for further discussion - which was board President Jim Patterson's tack with the consolidation ordinance when the consent agenda came up Tuesday.

The topic had been discussed plenty, submitted by the board in August 2020 and debated and amended three times by the Plan Commission before its passage there by a 4-1 vote on Jan. 26.

The thought was condensing the four commissions into ones for New Development and Development Adjustments would relieve people from appearing before multiple boards at multiple meetings while their project still got a thorough review.

On Feb. 2, in a preliminary reading the board approved this approach by a 6-0 vote.

Each of the two new commissions will have nine members, seven at-large appointees plus one member with expertise in landscape architecture and another expert in general architecture.

That was where Tuesday's board vote broke from unanimity.

The guidelines for commission composition encourage at-large participants to bring backgrounds in such fields as historic preservation, graphic design, real estate, civil engineering, land use law and applicable professions.

Trustee Debby Karton believed it was the village's duty to make it mandatory that not two but five of the nine members, particularly in New Development, bring expertise in those or related fields.

"I just think that five out of nine, and five out of 46,000 (population), it should be a requirement," she said.

Patterson noted the historic difficulty of finding such experts willing to volunteer.

"I would agree with a preference to find more," he said. "I would not agree with the requirement in that it could preclude appointments to the commission and it could make it very hard to appoint them."

Jeff Rogers, deputy director of community development, noted that five people must be on a commission in order for it to make votes. Also, Glenview ethics regulations guarding against conflicts of interest may discourage people from participating.

Patterson and Karton agreed it's tough to get people willing to accept the responsibility. That is why the ordinance includes an amped-up recruiting effort to publish applications on the village website and in its March newsletter, create messages that can be publicized via social media and fliers sent straight to professional organizations.

"I really feel strongly that it needs to be more, and it needs to be set ... in stone," Karton said.

Certainly though, she favored - "100 percent" - the overall idea.

"I want to make it abundantly clear that I support consolidation," Karton said. "It is a technical issue of why I am voting no."

The trustees' 5-1 vote remained sufficient to pass. Per the Plan Commission the change will take effect July 1, with a board-recommended review of the process after nine months.