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City Council Minutes 2006 10-26-06 Special Meeting MINUTES OF SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE, KENDALL COUNTY, ILLINOIS, HELD IN THE GYM OF THE YORKVILLE MIDDLE SCHOOL, 702 GAME FARM ROAD ON THURSDAY. OCTOBER 26.2006 Alderwoman Rose Spears called the meeting to order at 7:00 p g pm. She announced that Mayor Art Prochaska would not be present due to a death in the family. It was noted that there was not a quorum; however, the meeting would be continued. She then led the Council in the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL The minute taker called the roll: Ward I James Absent Leslie Absent Ward H Burd Present Wolfer Absent Ward III Munns Absent Bock Present Ward IV Besco Absent Spears Present Also present: Acting City Administrator Crois, Assistant City Administrator Olson, City Attorney Wyeth, Police Chief Martin. ESTABLISHMENT OF A OUORUM No quorum was established. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS See also guest lists attached. DISCUSSION OF PARKING ORDINANCE The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the parking ordinance and handouts were provided showing the results of the parking survey. Alderwoman Spears opened the floor for discussion. Joe Barrv. 502 Terri Lane Mr. Barry asked if this matter would be placed on a ballot for a vote as stated at the last meeting. He said the yellow postcard gave 2 choices for yes and 1 choice for no. Many of the families receiving the postcards have multiple vehicles, so the survey did not reflect true results and was a waste of money. Ms. Spears said putting it on a ballot is still an option. Another option is an advisory committee identifying problem streets with City staff identifying the width of various streets to determine if there are issues. Mr. Barry replied that those factors should have been addressed before the survey. He asked who the original sponsors of the ordinance were. Ms. Spears said it originated at the Public Safety Committee and addressed the Fox Hill area. Former Alderwoman Wanda Ohare brought this forward in response to complaints in her ward. It was the Council's decision to survey the residents, bearing in mind there are multiple persons per house. Mr. Barry said based on that fact, the survey was actually worthless. Alderwoman Burd agreed with Mr. Barry that the Council had stated that this matter would be put on a ballot. Direction was given by the Mayor for a committee to determine the wording to be used. Instead, the committee recommended other action. She will recommend to the other Aldermen, that this matter be put on the April ballot. Mr. Barry said he thought the "showing" would be better on the ballot. I I I The Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Citv Council — October 26, 2006 — page 2 Alderman Bock gave his recollection of the process that occurred. He said that after the previous town meeting, the matter returned to the Public Safety committee where it was stated that Oswego had done such a survey. It was also stated that only about 14% of residents would turn out for a vote while a survey would produce a better response. (Yorkville's response was 55 %). He said several surveys, referendums etc., could be conducted with different results every time. At the end of that Public Safety meeting, it was agreed that the survey was the better solution. Regarding the survey, Alderwoman Burd said one was mailed to each household and that it included non - registered voters. She agreed that the Council had decided to put the matter to a vote, based on the minutes of that town meeting. Chief Martin said that of approximately 4,700 households in town, 2,700 responses were received along with citizens' written perspectives of the ban. Loree King - Spring St. Resident Loree King asked what the purpose of this meeting was and especially in view of the fact that so many Aldermen were missing. Ms. Spears said that it was to provide a copy of the survey results to citizens. Ms. King said she had a concern over the wording on the survey and that "a ban is a ban!" She added that the previous minutes did promise a vote. Carol Foster —Fox Hill, 1312 Chestnut Circle She said that it was unfair to continue saying that former Alderwoman Wanda Ohare requested the ban. Ms. Foster said Fox Hill residents only initially wished to prohibit commercial vehicles from parking on the street overnight. She thought the response to the survey was excellent. Barbara Collett (SD?)-John St. resident She stated that John St. is the widest street in Fox Hill and she is unable to park in front of her house -she must park across the street and that there is no parking in front of the park. She also said she did not receive the survey and when she called City Hall, she was told she would be mailed a ballot. This will be addressed according to Ms. Spears. Ms. Collett asked what the specific problem was with John St., with only 10 houses, that prohibits parking there. This resulted from complaints received and addressed, according to Chief Martin. She felt the residents were being chastised based on those complaints. Shellev Butler -601 Teri Lane Ms. Butler said the surveys were only sent to residents who receive water bills and therefore many residents did not receive the survey. Traci Pleckham -221 Fairhaven She felt the survey yielded a good response. She added that she feels most residents do not favor a full parking ban on all streets and that possibly some of the responses came from residents who live on narrow streets. The ban might not be appropriate in some areas she said. Rover Murphv -803 Teri Lane Mr. Murphy said that the 50% response rate sounds good until one knows that some residents did not receive the survey. In his household, all five residents would vote no to the ban. Because of that, he said this matter should be put to a vote. He wondered how many residents knew that there was some type of ordinance on some streets already. He also said that it is difficult to find ordinances on the City website. At the previous parking ban meeting, he said most residents there were opposed to the ban. He said that numbers can be interpreted many ways and that he wants the matter to be put to a vote to give everyone over 18 a chance to voice their opinion. He added that the parking ban did not work in Oswego. In the survey his own family conducted, some other families were split on their opinions. Therefore, the first family member to receive the survey could have completed it and did not reflect the view of each person residing there. At the I I i The Minutes of the Special Meeting of the Citv Council — October 26, 2006 — page 3 conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Murphy stated that the yellow postcards already said "no" to the ban. Larry King- Spring St. Mr. King said that survey numbers can be interpreted many ways and that the newspaper article gave the wrong impression to readers. He asked what is the root cause for the parking ban. Ms. Spears responded that some areas are public safety issues and the Police received complaints about specific areas. Mr. King did not feel it was fair to make changes for a few exceptions because those are enforcement issues. Chief Martin said the Police tried to respond to the complaints and to please as many as possible. He invited Mr. King to report any complaints since the police cannot be everywhere. Mr. King said he has complained about construction violations on Spring St. They were responded to and signs were put in place. He also felt that Police must determine if there is a complaint or if an issue is an actual problem. Since the commercial vehicle problem was addressed, Mr. King asked what the issue is now. He felt there are streets that need to be reviewed on a per- case - basis. He also suggested that some of the new, curved streets are more dangerous. The administrative costs of enforcing such a ban are enormous, he said. Ashlev Barry -502 Teri Lane Ms. Barry said there are currently 6 cars in her household and she did not know where they would park if the ban were enforced. Chief Martin responded that if there were a hardship, they would be allowed to park on the street and the issue would be revisited in six months. Guests could also be given permission to park there. She also said she lives on a cul -de -sac with no through traffic. If cul -de -sacs were excluded from the ban, then many residents might park on those streets. Ms. Spears said that one resident of a cul -de- sac was threatened when he wanted cul -de -sacs excluded from a total ban. Ms. Barry suggested the City should possibly restrict parking on narrow streets. Ms. Spears said another option is a non - binding "advisory referendum" at the next election. Attorney Wyeth explained this further. The referendum would be in question form and the results would be given consideration by the Council. This would be somewhat similar to the survey. Mark and Barbara Gilmour -no address given Mr. Gilmour stated he had been to the previous town meeting. He has a trailer and commercial vehicle that he must park 2 blocks from his house at night. He did not feel preferential treatment should be given for cul -de -sacs. Chief Martin said there are no hardship allowances for secondary vehicles, only for passenger vehicles. Mr. Gilmour said he makes his living with this commercial vehicle and he now has his house for sale after 12 years' residence, since this is a hardship for him. He asked about possibly grandfathering such situations. Chief Martin noted that he had worked with Mr. Gilmour to find a parking place for his vehicle. Ms. Gilmour added that their daughter has 3 years of high school left and since they have their home for sale, she was present to support the other citizens opposed to the ban. She said the inconvenience overwhelms the statistics and asked why Yorkville would do this to their residents. She concluded that there were many more reasons to not have a ban. Another citizen present asked if the suggested ban is due to all the new subdivisions and that more thought should be given before allowing so many new homes to be built. Ms. Burd noted that the requests for the ban originated from established neighborhoods. Alderwoman Spears said she would recommend an advisory referendum preceded by additional discussion and news articles. Alderwoman Burd said she felt the issue was back to the beginning. She suggested streets be considered on a case -by -case basis and restrictions placed accordingly. She was not in favor of "blanket restrictions ". i I The Minutes of the Special Meeting of the City Council — October 26, 2006 — page 4 I, Ms. Butler suggested that different setbacks might be needed to allow for longer driveways for additional parking. It was noted by Ms. Spears that the Council recently passed an ordinance requiring longer driveways. A resident of the apartments on Marketview said he had received a survey. There is parking on only one side of the street in this complex and he added that some towns have laws allowing parking at least on one side of the street at night. At this time there was no further comment and Alderwoman Spears said this matter would come back to City Council for consideration. The meeting ended at 8:30pm. i Minutes by Marlys Young, Minute Taker I i I i l I 1-cci 5c- k e PLEASE SIGN IN 0 uc..- MEETING: k t7',,,l DATE: NAME PHONE # `l T)