Meetings

LCRPC

COMPREHENSIVE PLAN COMMITTEE

ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING MINUTES

JULY 27, 2005

Attendance:  Beth Davis, John Sutton, Phil Mahler, Jean Anderson, Dewey Colter, Rob Orr, Keith Ray, Rick, Paul Russell, Dave Meister, Tom Hickman, Brett Aukamp, Bill Thomas, Bill Martin and Bill Glaze.  Absent:  Bob Farmer, Steve Anderson and Dave Klug

 After the preliminary introductions, Chairman Bill Martin gave a brief overview of the Comp plan process and why it is important at this time.  Each community and the County need a Comp Plan for land use issues, but also to formulate a vision for the future of Logan County.  Right now all of the communities and the County are pulling together to work on the common goal of growth and economic development.  In addition to the Comp plan we need a Greenways Plan and a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.   Martin apologized for the volume of information being distributed to the committee tonight.  The idea is to review the information over the next 30 days and be prepared to discuss it at the August meeting.

 Martin asked Glaze to be the recording Secretary for this committee and he accepted.  Bill Glaze reviewed the  recent Community Survey that was conducted by the LCRPC.  A detailed report of the survey results were distributed to each member for their review and interpretation.  The responses to the survey show the community wants economic growth and better infrastructure, specifically road improvements.  Also the survey that was done 5 years ago by Mark Smith of the EDC was provided for comparison purposes.  The results are very similar to the current survey. 

 Glaze also asked the committee members to consider reading “Boomtown, USA, the 7 ½ Keys to Big Success in Small Towns”   The author, Jack Schultz, spoke last year to a group from Logan County Chamber of Commerce.  His book highlights many stories about small community's successes.  It has inspired many of us to do more and better planning.  

 Paul Russell of McLean County Regional Plan Commission reviewed the process and timeline of the Comp Plan and the Greenways Plan.  Russell plans to complete both plans at the same time and he hopes to have these completed by the end of 2005.  Russell will have the Socioeconomic data to present to the Committee at the next meeting.  Also he plans to have a Greenways proposal for the Committee's approval to the request grant funding from the DNR. 

 Russell will check on the McLean County CEDS and see what assistance may be available to Logan County in that area. 

 Keith Ray would like to see more community input in the form of Focus Groups.  Ray feels it is important to get the Community leaders more involved and draw on their ideas and insight as we formulate these plans.  If we engage them in the process they will support the end result and help us work to achieve the goals in the plans.

 Bill Martin reviewed a Focus Group format that he has been considering for the Comp Plan process.  Martin suggested that we divide our committee up in three different groups by these categories: Growth and Development, Community and Environment, and Transportation and Public Services.  We then can add some people from the community to the Groups. 

 Martin distributed some information he has used previously in Focus Groups.  He stressed that he is open to suggestions to improve this process.   He envisions the Focus Groups identifying problems and formulating some goals, however it will be up to the individual communities to develop strategies to achieve the goals in the plan.   The Focus Groups will analyze the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of Logan County.  Martin hopes to formalize our approach to this at the next meeting and begin the Focus Groups in September. 

 Dewey Colter suggested that the Focus Groups by structured so they do not veer off course and waste time.  Colter has been involved with these groups before and feels that it is important to pick the right people to be involved.  People with hidden agendas or narrow focus should be avoided.  The Friday night Football rivalries need to be put aside.

 Rob Orr commented that the process could be enhanced by gaining the perspective of the individual looking to locate in this community.  What do they what?  We need to focus on the viewpoint of the prospective new business owners or resident.

 Keith Ray suggested that he may have some individual associated with Lincoln Christian College that may be able to offer some insight in this regard.  Ray will check on their availability for the upcoming meetings.

 Jean Anderson stated that she has been involved with these groups before and they have had some preliminary meetings, but failed to accomplish the original goals.  Is that going to happen with this group?

 Bill Glaze affirmed that the LCRPC is committed to this process and we are going to make something happen. 

 Bill Martin adjourned the meeting by thanking everyone for their participation.  He also reiterated that he is excited about this process and feels that the time is right for this to happen.  Martin thinks that this may be the most important thing that has happened in Logan County in many years.  Martin thanked Keith Ray for the use of the facilities.  The next meeting will be at the Lincoln Room at LCC at 7 pm on August 24^th. 

Regional Planning Commission

First Floor Courtroom

Logan County Courthouse

 August 3, 2005

Present: Bill Glaze - Chairman; Tom Cash; Derrick Crane; Bob Farmer; Carol Gustafson; Vicki Hasprey; Tom Hickman; Dick Logan; Gloria Luster; Bill Martin; Patrick O'Neill; Judi Graff; Phil Mahler.

Absent:  Dewey Colter - County Coordinator; Elizabeth Davis; Steve Anderson; Gerald Lolling; Delmar Veech; Dale Voyles.

Guests:  Frank Rickord; Dan Meyer; Keith Hasprey; Ron Fox; Rod and Paula White; Ed and Sharon Davison; Bret Aukamp; James Washburn-courier reporter;  Jan Youngquist-LDN reporter and editor.

Mr. Glaze called the meeting to order at 7:30 pm.

Roll call taken.   Mr. Glaze went to new business first.

A)  Enterprise Zone extension for S.K. Davison:  Ed and Sharon Davison are present tonight.  Mr. Mahler proceeded to explain their request.  They want to expand their trucking business and would like it in the enterprise zone.  3.44 acres is the amount of expansion.  Mr. Mahler recommends the committee approve their request.  A motion was made by Mr. Logan, seconded by Mr. O'Neill, to approve the Davison's request as stated.   Roll call taken.  Motion passed with all voting yes.

B)  Preliminary plat for Rod White:  Mr. White explains his preliminary plat to the committee with input from Ron Fox, engineer.   This is a summary of the initial plat.   About 6 or 8 months ago this was re-zoned from Ag to R-1

for a sub-division and was approved.   This is adjacent to Brad Luckhart's subdivision and on the west side of the road.   There are 11 lots.  He further explained about a 60 ft. easement and that there is room for expansion if they decide to do a Phase 2.

Mr. Hickman stated this is not the real preliminary plat; it's just proof of the general idea of the layout.  They still have to bring forward the preliminary plat for approval, of the drainage agreement, etc.  Mr. Hickman stated the only thing he didn't like about this layout is the size of the lots and explained further.   His opinion is that subdivisions in the country, which don't get sewer and private water, need a minimum of one acre.  It limits where you can drill for a well.  He thinks it's also important to the health dept.

Mr. Fox stated they have not submitted the layout to the health dept yet for their approval and review.  They are not to that point yet.  Mr. White has contracted someone to do the soil analysis.  Mr. White stated the soil borings were completed last week and doesn't have the results yet but he was in contact with Kathy Waldo from the health dept.

Discussion held about water drainage and easements and Mr. White stated they want to make sure there are no water problems and that everything is done correctly.   They will bring the proposed easement forward when everything is done, hopefully in a couple months.

C) Update on Legends subdivision:  Mr. Hickman informed the committee about something that just recently came to his attention about the Hasprey subdivision, the letter of credit or also known as the performance bond for this plat one of the subdivision, ran out November 18, 2004 .   Mr. Hickman called Hasprey's bank and they said it had not been renewed. This is a requirement from the subdivision ordinance that this be kept in place.  Article 7 Section 8 (which he read to everyone) "shall be fined not less that $25 nor more that $200 for each offense and a separate offense shall be deemed committed on each day during on which a violation occurs or continues."  The required amount for plat one was $ 269,000 and that included the 15% maintenance bond that has to be put up for roads and kept another 18 months after the road is accepted.  It has been recorded and everything that's time related, starts from the date of recording of the final plat.   Plat two recording date was may 18, 2004, so plat one and plat two, are far as he knows, are in violation.  What this amounts to for the County, is that the County has assumed risk in case of a default on this subdivision, there is no bond, there is no money, we would have to go to court.  The subdivision ordinance sets standards and protects the County from liability.   Mr. Hickman gave Mr. Hasprey a six month extension on the road work on plat one and that ran out on June 18, 2005.   The road still remains unfinished.  On plat #2, Mr. Hickman has no proof of bond or letter of credit for public improvement. He had one letter from their bank, which he read, regarding plat 2 of the legends subdivision, on file.  He didn't realize that it said at the beginning of construction when it should have been based on the recording of the final plat.  If there is no proof of a bond for plat 2 then the violation runs from the date of recording of the final plat on plat 2, which is May 18, 2004, that's 442 days out of compliance.   Plat one was 258 days out of compliance.  The two bonds should be re-instated immediately.  Mr. Hickman's recommendation is to levy a fine of at least $25 a day.   That's $17,500 for both plats if there have been no extensions.  He further stated the sub-division has had a lot of problems getting the road work done and further explained what some of those problems were. The sub-division ordinance is very specific under the penalty section.   Further discussion was held.

Mrs. Hasprey explained they went thru winter and weren't really able to get out on that ground until the first of April, 2004.  Then they worked on the road and it was suggested to them to leave it set over the winter, which they did.   For some reason Mr. Hickman and the dirt men can't get together and she and Keith are stuck in the middle.  As far as the bond, they were right in the middle of their loan officer leaving and assumes it was their responsibility to check with the loan officer to make sure that the bond was renewed.  These were some of the things they were going thru with their bank.   Mr. Hasprey stated the road work did not start until April 1, 2004 for Phase One.  In his opinion, the bond shouldn't even be issued until the road work starts, not when the plat is recorded. Mr. Hasprey stated if you take the start date, they are less than the 18 months right now.    More discussion held.   Keith stated the East Lincoln Road Commissioner told him it was ok to tar and chip it and yet the County Engineer is saying no, there is a problem yet here.    Mr. Hickman stated part of the hold up is getting the road to meet the specs.  In doing the borings, there have been problems also, some were 3 to 4 inches too high in some areas and too low in other areas. More discussion followed.  Tom stated that they should have had an inspector out there during construction and all he would have to do then was look at the daily log and could have approved it.  Mr. Hickman stated the company doing the work on the road did not want to bring water trucks out, they have been waiting for rain.   Mr. Hickman stated that when it meets specs and compaction is completed, it cannot be driven on before the asphalt is laid, otherwise it is loosened and the process must be done again which has already happened.  Once it is asphalted, it cannot be driven on for a couple of weeks.  There are already several homes out there with people living in them.

Mr. Glaze asked Mr. Hickman, in his opinion, what needs to be done to get the road done.   Mr. Hickman stated they need to immediately restore those bonds, the County has no recourse if Mr. Hasprey defaults on this subdivision.   Mr. Hasprey stated he was informed by his banker several days ago that they had expired when Mr. Hickman called and told the bank.   Mr. Hasprey stated he was unaware that the ones for phase one had expired.  More discussion held.    Atlanta mayor bill martin stated that in Atlanta they don't issue building permits until the street is done.  The minute we approve the preliminary plat, the County assumes responsibility to see it gets done.  If 10 or 20 years from now drainage is messed up, people will come back to the County to fix it.  That's Mr. Hickman's job as County Engineer to bring it up now.   More discussion followed.

A motion was made by Mr. Cash, seconded by Mr. O'Neill, recommended, with the bonds restored and in place, to waive the fee pending completion of the road by September 1, 2005, with a stipulation that the fine be reinstated for the total amount of days accumulated up to Sept. 1, 2005 if the road has not been completed by then.  More discussion held.   Roll call vote: 8 yes, 2 no, 1 abstained, 1 present, 5 absent. Motion Passed.

A motion was made by Mr. O'Neill, seconded by Mrs. Hasprey, to approve the minutes from the meeting of July 6, 2005 as printed.  Motion passed.

A motion was made by Mr. Cash, seconded by Mr. Crane, to approve the bills as presented for payment.  Roll call vote:  12 yes, 5 absent.  Motion passed.

Comprehensive Plan:   Mr. Glaze stated they did have a meeting on July 7 with Paul Russell from McLean co. Regional planning commission, mayor martin and mayor Davis, Phil Mahler, Dewey Colter and himself.  They decided to put together a committee and get more people from the community involved.  They did that and met again on July 28th.   He gave out minutes from that meeting.  They will be meeting the 4th Wednesday of each month and the next meeting will be august 24th.   Bill martin is serving as chairman of the group, Mr. Glaze is secretary.  They may do some focus groups and will detail that more at the next committee meeting.   Mr. Martin stated they have a good group of people and setting a goal of nine months to have this comprehensive plan completed the CEDS agreement.

    Mr. Glaze also stated that he gave everyone a copy of the survey results tonight.  There was a survey done in 2000 by mark smith, the results of his survey is in the back which are similar results.   Lincoln daily news will have the survey results also posted.

    Also,  it is planned to have the meeting agenda and minutes you received tonight posted on LDN for those not able to attend the meetings.  It may create more interest from the public to attend the meetings.

The three things we are working on the comprehensive plan:  We have the funding part in place pretty much but have not heard back from Elkhart.  The city of Lincoln has approved their appropriation of funding but actually has to approve the actual request when the bill is submitted.

We are going to move forward with signing a contract with McLean County.  Mclean County is also working on a proposal now to also do a greenways plan and are asking the Dept. of Natural Resources for a grant of $20,000 to do that.   One thing we are not sure how we're putting together, is what it will cost the CEDS.  Rob Orr, Dewey Colter and himself met with Ray LaHood's Chief of Staff in Peoria a few weeks ago to discuss that.  They met with them again and also Mayor Davis, Bob Farmer and Ron Schilling met with them when they came to Lincoln.   We might be able to do the CEDS ourselves, but not sure.  We also met with Ray LaHood's office and Reps. of Peoria's Economic Development Administration and their information was very informative.

Mr. Hickman informed everyone that he will be leaving the middle of August and that Bret Aukamp, his Assistant, will be acting county engineer.

Mr. Glaze "thanked" him for serving Logan County and wished him well.

A motion was made by Mr. O'Neill, seconded by Mrs. Hasprey, to adjourn the meeting.  Motion passed.   Meeting ended at 8:35 pm.