Chambana Sun

City of Urbana Committee of the Whole met January 22. 

Here is the minutes as provided by the committee:

The City Council Committee of The Whole of the City of Urbana, Illinois, met in regular session Monday, January 22, 2018, in the Council Chambers of the Urbana City Building.

Elected Officials Physically Present: Aaron Ammons; Bill Brown; Eric Jakobsson; Dean Hazen; Jared Miller; Dennis Roberts; Maryalice Wu; Diane Wolfe Marlin; Charles A. Smyth

Elected Officials Present Via Teleconference: None

Elected Officials Absent: None

Staff Present: Kevin Garcia; William Gray; Elizabeth Hannan; Sanford Hess; Kay Meharry; Sylvia Morgan; Brian Nightlinger; Lorrie Pearson; John Schneider; James Simon; Rachel Storm

Others Present: Esther Patt; Bishop King James Underwood; Members of the Media

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

There being a quorum, Chair Aaron Ammons called the meeting of the Committee of the Whole

to order at 7:10pm, following a special meeting of the City Council.

2. Approval of Minutes of Previous Meeting

Council Member (CM) Jared Miller made a motion to approve minutes from the meeting held on

January 8, 2018. Motion seconded by CM Eric Jakobsson and carried by voice vote.

3. Additions to the Agenda

There were none.

4. Public Input

Bishop King James Underwood did not wish to speak but wanted his concerns about the Dr. Ellis

Subdivision sewer problems entered into the record.

Esther Patt spoke to committee members in opposition to Ordinance No. 2018-01-004, in respect

to the number of parking places per one bedroom unit proposed in the ordinance. She felt that 0.5

spaces per bedroom would not be sufficient.

5. Presentations

There were none.

6. Staff Report

Police Chief Sylvia Morgan told committee members that five officers have recently been hired to

the police department. Two female officers, Paige Bennett and Alexandria Grady, were hired in

August 2017 and graduated from the Police Training Institute (PTI) in December 2017. Three

additional officers were hired one week ago: Justin Walker, Osric Hayes and Elizabeth Henry are

currently attending PTI. Chief Morgan said the police department is now fully staffed. Mayor

Marlin commended Assistant Human Resources Manager Elizabeth Borman and Chief Morgan on

the effort they have made to diversify the police department.

Chair Ammons reminded everyone about the discussion on Urbana traffic enforcement, at the

Urbana Civic Center on Tuesday, January 23 from 6 – 8pm. A buffet dinner will be available at

5:30pm. This discussion is open to any who would like to attend and discuss the impact of traffic

enforcement by the Urbana Police Department on day-to-day lives.

7. Resolution No. 2018-01-003R: A Resolution Authorizing Acceptance of an Illinois Arts Council

Agency (IACA) Grant for Public Arts Program Operating Support (FY 2018 Urbana Arts

Program)

Public Arts Coordinator Rachel Storm presented this resolution. She said the Illinois Arts Council

awarded $4,600 to the Urbana Arts Program for FY 2018. She said it is an unrestricted program

grant so it will support the operating budget of the Arts program.

CM Miller made a motion to send Resolution No. 2018-01-003R to Council with recommendation

for approval. Motion seconded by CM Hazen and carried by voice vote.

8. Ordinance No. 2017-12-069: An Ordinance to Repeal Urbana City Code Chapter 24, Article IV,

Section 24-100 (Champaign-Urbana Cable and Telecommunications Commission)

Information Technology Manager Sanford Hess and acting UPTV Manager Jason Liggett

presented this ordinance. This ordinance was discussed at a previous committee meeting and at

that time committee members asked that this ordinance be brought back with additional options.

Mr. Hess explained that there are two options, one of which is to pass the ordinance to repeal the

Champaign-Urbana Cable and Telecommunications Commission. As a service to Urbana residents,

UPTV staff would continue to forward complaints about cable to the respective franchises. The

other option is to merge the functions of the Cable Commission with the UPTV Commission.

This might mean reassignments of commissioners or increasing the size of a combined

commission. Mayor Marlin said that the plan should be to pass the ordinance to repeal the Cable

and Telecommunications Commission and then decide how to handle the duties of the

Commission will be handled by the UPTV Commission.

After discussion, CM Roberts moved to send Ordinance No. 2017-12-069 to Council with

recommendation for approval. Motion seconded by CM Miller and carried by voice vote.

9. Ordinance No. 2018-01-002: An Ordinance Authorizing the Jurisdictional Transfer of a Certain

Highway from Somer Township to the City of Urbana (A Portion of Lincoln Avenue from

Centennial Farm Road to Olympian Drive)

Public Works Director William Gray presented this ordinance. He said this is for the north onethird

mile of Lincoln Avenue recently completed.

CM Wu made a motion to send Ordinance No. 2018-01-002 to council with a recommendation

for approval. Motion seconded by CM Miller and carried by voice vote.

10. Ordinance No. 2018-01-003: An Ordinance Granting Consent to Assign Certain Agreements for

Use of Rights-of-Way

City Attorney James Simon presented this ordinance. CM Miller made a motion to send Ordinance

No. 2018-01-003 to council with recommendation for approval. Motion seconded by

CM Roberts and carried by voice vote.

11. Resolution No. 2018-01-002R: A Resolution Approving an Agreement with the Illinois

Department of Transportation for Construction and Maintenance of a Shared-Use Path

(Cunningham Avenue from Kenyon Road to Napleton Way)

Public Works Director William Gray presented this resolution. He said the Illinois Department

of Transportation (IDOT) plans to resurface Cunningham Avenue from the Five Points

intersection of University Avenue and Cunningham Avenue to Interstate 74. The plans include a

shared-use path from Kenyon to Napleton Way. IDOT has agreed to pay the majority of the cost

for this, with the City’s share of the expense being $180,000. This is in the TIF 4 district so TIF 4

dollars will be used to fund it.

CM Roberts made a motion to send Resolution No. 2018-01-002R to council with

recommendation for approval. Motion seconded by CM Jakobsson and carried by voice vote.

12. Ordinance No. 2018-01-004: An Ordinance Amending the Zoning Ordinance of the City of

Urbana (Multifamily Parking, Residential Setback Calculations)

Planner Kevin Garcia presented this ordinance and spoke first to committee members about

multifamily parking. He said a parking survey had been sent to 272 property owners/managers

with properties near the University of Illinois campus, and out of that number there were 187

responses. Mr. Garcia said the current ordinance requires one parking space per one-bedroom unit

in multi-family residential buildings, and it has resulted in the current 40% oversupply in parking

spaces. In addition, the survey showed that even a requirement of 0.5 bedrooms per unit would

produce an oversupply in some areas. He explained the change in the required number of spaces

from 1 space to 0.5 space per bedroom per unit would set a minimum requirement only. This

means developers could provide the number of spaces they think necessary for the needs of the

area being developed, with a minimum of 0.5 per bedroom for multifamily residential units. There

was extensive discussion during which committee members voiced concern that the survey did not

accurately represent the demand for spaces and decreasing the parking spaces to 0.5 per bedroom

from 1 per bedroom would not provide enough parking spaces.

Mr. Garcia then spoke about the proposed change to codify the calculation of setbacks in

residential zones. He said the change would clarify the long-established practice of calculation of

setbacks and the difference between using that method and the proposed method would be minor.

Minimum setback would be 15 feet and maximum would be 25 feet, which committee members

thought might not blend well with setbacks in certain neighborhoods.

After discussion, CM Roberts made a motion to divide this ordinance into two ordinances: one

ordinance for multifamily parking and the other ordinance for the building setback text

amendment. Motion seconded by CM Jakobsson. After public input and further discussion, the

motion to divide Ordinance No. 2018-01-004 into two parts was carried by voice vote.

Motion made by CM Wu to deny the parking ordinance and was seconded by CM Hazen. When

asked if parking would have to go back to plan commission, Planning Manager Lorrie Pearson

responded if it were to increase parking spaces it would have to go back to plan commission, but a

decrease would not. Settling on a number for the parking spaces between 0.5 and 1 per bedroom

was discussed. CM Brown made a motion to amend the motion by CM Wu, to send the ordinance

to council with 0.7 parking spaces per bedroom. Motion was seconded by CM Jakobsson and

carried by voice vote.

CM Jakobsson made a motion to keep the setback ordinance in committee for further

consideration. Motion was seconded by CM Miller. CM Brown suggested making a text

amendment to the text amendment. His suggestion was to reword from “If a development

proposal includes demolishing existing buildings those lots shall be considered as having a

minimum front yard required in that district”, to “those lots shall not be included in the

calculation.” Motion to keep the setback ordinance in committee was withdrawn by CM

Jakobsson.

After discussion, CM Brown made a motion to send part two of the ordinance, concerning

setback, to council with a suggested wording change as follows: “the lots with houses to be

demolished shall not be included in the calculation”. CM Roberts seconded the motion. Motion

carried by voice vote.

CM Miller made a motion to send the first part of the setback back to Plan Commission for

further review of the ranges as listed in the ordinance. Motion seconded by CM Wu and carried by

voice vote.

Presentation and discussion of this ordinance can be found at:

https://www.city.urbana.il.us/Scripts/CouncilVideo/Video.asp?v=/_Video/City_Council/2018/

20180122/08._Ordinance_2018-01-004.mp4

13. Adjournment

With no further business before the committee, Chair Ammons declared the meeting adjourned at

9:04pm.

https://www.urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/01-22-2018_minutes.pdf