Public Safety Committee Minutes 2006 04-13-06 Page 1 of 3
APPROVED 8/1/06
PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE
YORKVILLE CITY BALL CONFERENCE ROOM
Thursday, APRIL 13, 2006
Committee Chairman Rose Spears called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m.
Present
Alderwoman Rose Spears, Aldermen Dean Wolfer and Jim Bock, Police Chief Harold
Martin and Community Development Director Travis Miller
1. Minutes for Approval/Correction—Minutes from the March 9, 2006 meeting were
approved with one correction.
2. Special Recognition to Officer Jon Helland
Police Chief Harold Martin said a special recognition would be given to office Jon
Helland for initiating the Yorkville Police Cadet Program,
Chairman Spears agreed the award is well deserved and said the committee and the city
should continue to recognize police officers for some of the things that they do.
The committee agreed to present the award to Helland at an upcoming City Council
meeting.
3. PS 2006-15 Police Reports for March 2006
Bock was amazed at the number of stops for uninsured motorists and those without valid
licenses. Chief Martin said the police officers have been writing more warnings for those
offenses and are trying to work with people.
Martin said officers also have been writing more tickets for those who are running stop
signs or lights. Now that the weather is getting warmer, Martin said the city will have
more officers on foot or bike patrol to view offenders and the offenders will be ticketed.
The police report was forwarded to the Committee of the Whole meeting.
4. PS 2006-16 Request to Purchase Crash Data Retrieval System
Chief Martin said the request comes from Sgt. Delaney, the department's accident
specialist, who said the system/software would help allow form ore accurate accident
reconstructions. The system is something like the black box airplanes have, only its for
cars.
Chief Martin said the money is in the budget and the system would be worth the cost of
$2,495.
The committee approved the purchase.
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5. PS 2005-11 Skateboards and Motorized Scooters
Wolfer recommended tabling the issue until the parking ban issues have all been
resolved. He doesn't want it to look like the city wants to issue one ban after another.
However,he said he recognized that motorized scooters and skateboards on sidewalks in
the downtown area could be a problem.
Chief Martin said the ordinance the City of Plano adopted is rather intense and probably
not what Yorkville needs. Wolfer suggested doing more research and trying to find out
what works well in other communities before bringing the matter back to the committee.
The issue likely will come back to the committee in June.
6. PS 2006-17 Smoking Ban Discussion
The committee agreed to table the discussion because Alderman Jason Leslie who
brought up the ban didn't attend the meeting.
Wolfer said he would like to hear from city businesses about how a ban might affect their
businesses. He said the city can't draft a ban like this if the consequences aren't known.
Bock suggested leaving bars out of the ban since people tend to like to smoke in bars,but
possibly include restaurants. He added it's hard to know where to draw the line.
Community Development Director Travis Miller said it's also a timing issue. As the city
develops, a smoking ban could be a deterrent for,attracting restaurants or businesses.
The committee agreed to table the issue until the July meeting.
7. PS 2006-19 Driveway Regulation Modifications to Zoning Ordinance
Miller said the need for the ordinance revision stems from the parking ban. With the ban
in place, the city needs to make sure residents have enough room to park in their
driveways. Since the ban took effect, Miller said the city has received requests to allow
wider driveways and aprons.
Also, he said the current ordinance doesn't distinguish between commercial and
residential driveways. Higher standards for commercial access points need to be put into
place, he said.
For residential drives, the current ordinance is a maximum of 25 feet width at the street.
Miller said that's adequate and it's preferable for maintenance issues. It's a workable
width for snow removal. Wider driveways with less spacing between them could create
snow removal issues, he said.
However, the recommended changes to the ordinance would allow wider driveway
widths, away from the street, for residential areas where setbacks limit the amount of off
street parking area to less than enough distance to allow for double stacking in the
driveway.
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Other recommendations would:
• base commercial driveway width on the traffic volume of the driveway.
• remove the front yard restriction for off street parking areas,
• Identify appropriate lighting design standards for off street parking areas.
Other issues in the proposed ordinance aren't safety related, Miller said. He added he
attended the meeting for input from the committee members. However, he said the
committee doesn't need to take any action. Spears said it looks like Miller did a good,job
on the ordinance.
8. PS 200618 Request to Limit the Number of Liquor Licenses
Spears said she didn't have any information provided to her about the agenda item. She
suggested the item be tabled until more information is provided.
9. Additional Business
• Bock asked if gas stations have reported higher numbers of people driving off
without paying for gas since the prices of gas have increased. Chief Martin said
that hasn't been a problem at all because most stations in town now require people
to pre-pay for gas.
• Wolfer said the address change issue on Countryside Parkway was again
discussed at the Public Works Committee meeting. Spears said she still doesn't
think it's a public safety issue yet and that it would be very costly to the city to
change all of the addresses. She also said she doesn't like putting a burden on
people if it's not necessary. She asked that City Engineer Joe Wywrot provide the
committee with estimations on the costs involved. She also said the issue might be
better placed at a Committee of the Whole meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Dina Gipe