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Council tables three zoning ordinances after zoning administrator explains switch from walls to landscaping
Summary
The Committee of the Whole moved Ordinances 31, 32 and 33 to the table for next week after AJ Schweier, zoning administrator, explained a text amendment replacing parking‑lot fence/wall requirements with a minimum 4‑foot landscaping requirement and two map amendments to align parcels for the Friars Club and the Safety Service Center.
AJ Schweier, the village zoning administrator, presented three ordinances to the Committee of the Whole on Dec. 11 that would change how parking lots are regulated and correct zoning maps for existing lots.
Schweier said Ordinance 31 is a text amendment that would remove requirements for fences and walls around parking lots and instead require landscaping with a minimum height of four feet. Under current code, parking lots with five or more spaces require a fence or wall and lots with more than 30 spaces require a solid wall; the proposed change would replace that language with the landscaping standard. Schweier said the change is intended to move the code away from hard barriers and toward planted buffers.
Ordinances 32 and 33 are map amendments. Schweier explained that in two cases — a new parking lot built for the Friars Club and an existing lot at the Safety Service Center — the lots are on different zoned parcels than the primary structures they serve. To allow the parcels to be combined and to align the zoning with the principal structures, the map changes would move the Friars Club parcel from R‑3 to R‑2 and the Safety Service Center parcel from R‑3 to B‑1.
Schweier told the committee he could not find records showing the administrative steps that would have allowed the lots to be built across multiple parcel lines and said the map amendments would correct that mismatch. A councilmember noted neighbors had raised concerns about not being informed; another councilmember said the Friars Club had been notified, attended the planning commission meeting, and had no objections.
Mister Edwards moved and Mister Morton seconded to place Ordinances 31, 32 and 33 on the table for next week’s council meeting; the motion passed by voice vote. No final votes on adoption were taken; the ordinances will return to the council agenda next week for formal consideration.
The zoning administrator’s description and the council’s questions focused on aligning parcel zoning with existing development and on replacing rigid barriers with landscape buffers. If the ordinances return for a vote, council members and staff said they will have prepared the codified ordinance language and any required notifications to affected residents.
