Plan Commission Workgroup Meeting

Plan Commission and Architectural Review Commission to explore design concepts for our business district. 

Update from June 27^th Meeting:

Commissioners and members of the public participated in the workshop session on Monday evening.  John Houseal, Principal and Co-founder of Houseal Lavigne attended to lead the discussion.  John’s firm was involved with the development of the 2008 Comprehensive Plan, as well as the 2013 conceptual plan for Green Bay Road, so he was well situated to offer background into the history of the business district.  

After providing an overview of the business district, Mr. Houseal discussed current zoning requirements and presented a series of ‘block graphics.’  The colored blocks were overlaid upon the example site at Roger and Green Bay.  Three different options were presented, ranging from all residential to a mixed-use with outdoor seating.  The colored blocks were used to give context to the potential lot coverage, building heights, and required parking areas for each example use.  The first concept included a maximum of nine units with some on the ground floor, which is not allowed by code.  The concepts and slide deck can be viewed here.  

The group found the three concepts to all be interesting and worthy of further discussion.  The team asked Mr. Houseal to move to the next step – refining the block graphics into a rough design model, explore ways to minimize the visual impacts of the required parking areas (e.g. minimal garage door openings), and rotating the outdoor seating area to the Roger side of the building to provide a greater visual setback.  Additionally, the team offered that trading off common elements for smaller residential units could be an acceptable alternative.  The back of napkin size was seven 2,000 square foot units for Concept 2, and the group thought the unit size was larger than needed.  

The workgroup will meet again on July 19^th at 7:00 p.m.  The public may view the meeting either via video conference or in person at Village Hall.  

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On Monday, June 27^th, the Plan Commission and Architectural Review Commission will meet in a joint workgroup session.  The purpose of the meeting is to explore design concepts for buildings in the business corridor.  Representatives from Houseal Lavigne Associates will be on hand to help facilitate the discussion.  The goal will be to develop one or two concept designs that may be used by property owners as examples of acceptable building and façade designs.  

This work comes on the heels of a resident survey regarding the business district.  Of those participating in the survey, 82% felt that the Village should encourage more businesses to locate in the business corridor.   Of the business types preferred by respondents, food and beverage related offerings received strong support, with the two highest selections being for café/coffee shops and restaurants.   In response, the Village Board tasked the commissions with exploring concepts.  

In an effort to develop a feasible concept, a sample site was identified.  The Village owns the vacant parcel on the southwest corner of Green Bay Road and Roger Avenue, which seemed to be the ideal selection.   Additionally, the owners of 600 Green Bay Road agreed to participate in the exercise.   The lot depths in the Green Bay Road corridor are relatively narrow, so selecting an example site will help ensure that the limitations of the area are fully considered as well as existing Village Code requirements.

The workgroup meetings are open to the public and residents are welcome to attend either via video conference or in person.  To view the agenda and for the link to attend virtually, please click here.  The second meeting of the workgroup has been scheduled for July 19^th.