City of Aurora Planning Council met Dec. 3.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
CALL TO ORDER
Mr. Sieben called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m.
ROLL CALL
The following members were present: Mr. Sieben, Mrs. Vacek, Mr. Broadwell, Mr.
Sodaro, Mr. Phipps and Mr. Beneke.
OTHERS PRESENT
Others Present: Mike Frankino (Fox Metro), Jon Monsma (Invest Aurora) and Anthony
Marsico (Zen Leaf).
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
19-1091
Approval of the Minutes for the Planning Council meeting on Novemer 26,
2019.
A motion was made by Mrs. Vacek, seconded by Mr. Broadwell, that the
minutes be approved and filed. The motion carried by voice vote.
PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
AGENDA
19-0825
Requesting approval of a Final Plan for Lot 3 of Citizens First National Bank Business Park Subdivision located at 1521 Ogden Avenue for a mixture of Business and Professional, Office (2400), Retail Sales or Service (2100), and Restaurant with a drive-through facility (2530) uses (Param Vijay - 19-0825 / OS01/1-19.054-Fpn - JM - Ward 9)
Mr. Sieben said Jill is not here today, but I believe Zoning has received everything we need for the two phase development. This is tentatively set for the Wednesday, December 11th Special Planning Commission provided Engineering is good with everything. Mark do you want to give us an update?
Mr. Phipps said the Engineering Division sent out comments on the revised plans yesterday. Probably the biggest issues yet to work out are the type and location of the retaining wall, the phasing of the project and then they will still need an IDOT permit for their entrance. Our request, the Engineering Division’s request, would be that if this moves forward that it moves forward with the condition that all of the Final Engineering comments are addressed.
Mr. Sieben said okay, sounds good. I think Fire was good Herman. Is that correct? Mr. Beneke said I believe we signed off on it. I’d have to confirm that though.
Mr. Frankino said Fox Metro has been working with Mary on the design on the sanitary side. We have yet to receive plans, but from what we understand they are coming in pretty soon for final engineering.
Mr. Sieben said I do make a motion to move this forward tentatively to the December 11th Planning Commission meeting. We will likely have at least Engineering conditions on it or an overall Engineering condition. Mrs. Vacek seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.
A motion was made by Mr. Sieben, seconded by Mrs. Vacek, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Planning Commission, on the agenda for 12/11/2019. The motion carried by voice vote.
19-0961
Requesting approval of an Annexation Agreement for 67.57 acres located at the southeast corner of Ogden Avenue and Farnsworth Avenue for KEKA Farms Development (KEKA Farms, LLC / K. Hovnanian Homes - 19-0961 / OS01/1-18.150-PA/A/SUPD/Ppn/Psd - TV - Ward 9)
Mrs. Vacek said I got the Plan Description comments out yesterday to them. They had some comments and maybe want to set up a meeting with us hopefully next week or so now that I got those comments out. I’m going to be reviewing the Preliminary Plan and Concept. That will be done probably this week.
Mr. Phipps said there is nothing new to report from Engineering.
19-0962
Requesting the Annexation, pursuant to an Annexation Agreement, of 67.57 acres located at the southeast corner of Ogden Avenue and Farnsworth Avenue (KEKA Farms, LLC / K. Hovnanian Homes - 19-0962 / OS01/1-18.150-PA/A/SUPD/Ppn/Psd - TV - Ward 9)
Mrs. Vacek said I got the Plan Description comments out yesterday to them. They had some comments and maybe want to set up a meeting with us hopefully next week or so now that I got those comments out. I’m going to be reviewing the Preliminary Plan and Concept. That will be done probably this week.
Mr. Phipps said there is nothing new to report from Engineering.
19-0963
Requesting the Establishment of a Special Use Planned Development, pursuant to an Annexation Agreement, with an underlying B-2 Business, General Retail, O Office, R-5 Multiple Family Dwelling, and R-2 One Family Dwelling zoning districts on the property located at the southeast corner of Ogden Avenue and Farnsworth Avenue (KEKA Farms, LLC / K. Hovnanian Homes - 19-0963 / OS01/1-18.150-PA/A/SUPD/Ppn/Psd -
TV - Ward 9)
Mrs. Vacek said I got the Plan Description comments out yesterday to them. They had some comments and maybe want to set up a meeting with us hopefully next week or so now that I got those comments out. I’m going to be reviewing the Preliminary Plan and Concept. That will be done probably this week.
Mr. Phipps said there is nothing new to report from Engineering.
19-0964
Requesting approval of a Preliminary Plan and Plat on Parcel E for Ogden Ridge Subdivision located at the southeast corner of Ogden Avenue and Farnsworth Avenue for detached single family dwellings (KEKA Farms, LLC / K. Hovnanian Homes - 19-0964 / OS01/1-18.150-PA/A/SUPD/Ppn/Psd - TV - Ward 9)
Mrs. Vacek said I got the Plan Description comments out yesterday to them. They had some comments and maybe want to set up a meeting with us hopefully next week or so now that I got those comments out. I’m going to be reviewing the Preliminary Plan and Concept. That will be done probably this week.
Mr. Phipps said there is nothing new to report from Engineering.
19-1073
Requesting to rezone the property at 740 N. State Route 59 from B-B(S) Business-Boulevard District with a Special Use to B-2 Business District, General Retail (Zen Leaf - 19-1073 / NA21/2-19-197-Rz/Su - TV - Ward 10)
Representative Present: Anthony Marsico
Mr. Sieben said would you like to introduce yourself and go over your proposal?
My name is Anthony Marsico. I’m the Executive Vice President of Retail for Zen Leaf Dispensaries. We are requesting the rezoning of the property from BB to B-2 to fit the zoning for an adult cannabis dispensary fitting the ordinance that Aurora has set in place. Then also requesting approval of a Special Use for a cannabis dispensing facility use on property located at 740 N. State Route 59.
Mr. Sieben said my understanding is you are going to do a phased retail operation. Do you just want to talk about that and maybe give a little background on Zen Leaf too?
Mr. Marsico said a little bit of background about Zen Leaf, we have been in the industry for 51⁄2 years. We are a multi-state operator currently operating in 6 states with expansion plans. We’ve operated in the State of Illinois for 4 years on the retail side, a little bit longer than that on the wholesale side, so very familiar with the rules and regs. With respect to the specific property, we are in the process of securing the entire building. There are 3 units within that building, 2 of which are currently leased out and 1 is vacant. Once we get a little bit further into the closing, we are going to explore options to take on the entire building. Unfortunately, until we get down that route, our current proposal is just for the vacant space.
Mr. Sieben said I believe in your application you are showing starting out the Phase 1,
the vacant space, with potentially then the whole building later on.
Mr. Marsico said that is correct.
Mr. Sieben said do you want to talk a little bit about the licensing process with the state? I know there is kind of a 2 tiered system. Do you want to talk about that?
Mr. Marsico said correct. For the current license holders, there are currently 55 dispensaries, medical operating dispensaries, in the State of Illinois. All of the current medical dispensaries have the opportunity for what the State is referring to as a plus 1, which is an adult use only cannabis dispensary. You are allowed, based on your proximity in the state, to open one of those facilities with a number of conditions within your BLS District, which for us is Chicago/Naperville/Elgin area, which Aurora falls into those areas. We have put in our application with the state for approval for our plus 1 adult use cannabis dispensary. We obviously need the municipality’s approval and to make sure that we are on the path of fitting the ordinance that the specific municipality has put in place and that’s basically the process. Do you want a little bit more about the operations?
Mr. Sieben said yes, a little bit because you submitted, I believe, an operational plan and security plan.
Mr. Marsico said with respect to SOP’s, all products that enter our facility are in finished packaging from a wholesaler, a cultivator that is licensed only in the State of Illinois, so there are no products coming in from out of state. There is no handling of raw product within a dispensary. Everything that is delivered to us is in finished tamper proof packaging. That eliminates any sort of quality control issues as well as security concerns. With respect to operations, I can say we operate in states across the country. Illinois is one of the strictest with regard to security compliance and testing standards. I think that we, as a responsible operator, go above and beyond what the standards are with respect to security. We are overseen by IDFPR, which is our governing body. They conduct regular visits to a dispensing facility once a quarter currently. We are also overseen by the Illinois State Police. They conduct monthly visits to our facility. We’ve operated in the State of Illinois with an impeccable record.
I think our reputation speaks for itself. With respect to operations, our kind of mission statement for the industry is not only do we want to run a successful business, but we want to be invested in the community and we want to be good stewards of the community. We have outreach arms of our company with respect to community outreach, customer outreach and things of that nature. We are always active in Chambers of Commerce if there are any sort of business alliances and things like
that. We don’t want to just set up shop and operate, we want to partner with communities. We look for communities that also want to partner with us. We understand that this is a hot button issue in a lot of communities and it is new in the State of Illinois and we want to bring awareness to the community and if there are any concerns, we want to be in good communication with local police, local fire and the community and folks like yourselves. We want to 1) bring awareness and 2) go above and beyond to alleviate any concerns that there may be. In talking about the process with state licensure, one of the stipulations to get your state licensure is you do need the approval of the municipality. They are not going to give us state approval because the state has as part their law they have said that municipalities have the ability to either opt-in or opt-out and put certain restrictions like hours and number of dispensaries and Aurora has passed all of that at the municipal level, but specific applicants need to have that approval as part of their state submission, so that would be the missing piece of the puzzle. With respect to our license, our SOP’s, all of our compliance, we have all of that prepared, but we would need city approval before the state would grant us that license.
Mrs. Vacek said so this is actually going to next week’s Planning Commission on December 11th and then from there it will go to our Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee on December 19th. Then it will go to full City Council at the beginning of January. I do make a motion to move this forward to the Planning Commission for next week. There will probably be a few conditions on there. I’m going to go and just look at the landscaping to make sure that it was meeting what the landscaping prior to it was, the approved landscaping. I think we will probably want to review the operation procedures once the state actually officially approves those, so that will probably be another condition. We conditioned all the medical licenses on that so we probably want to just continue doing that. With that, I’ll make a motion to move it forward. Mr. Sieben seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.
A motion was made by Mrs. Vacek, seconded by Mr. Sieben, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Planning Commission, on the agenda for 12/11/2019. The motion carried by voice vote.
19-1074
Requesting approval of a Special Use for a Cannabis Dispensing Facility (2115) use on property located at 740 N. State Route 59 (Zen Leaf - 19-1074 / NA21/2-19-197-Rz/Su - TV - Ward 10)
Representative Present: Anthony Marsico
Mr. Sieben said would you like to introduce yourself and go over your proposal?
My name is Anthony Marsico. I’m the Executive Vice President of Retail for Zen Leaf Dispensaries. We are requesting the rezoning of the property from BB to B-2 to fit the zoning for an adult cannabis dispensary fitting the ordinance that Aurora has set in place. Then also requesting approval of a Special Use for a cannabis dispensing facility use on property located at 740 N. State Route 59.
Mr. Sieben said my understanding is you are going to do a phased retail operation. Do you just want to talk about that and maybe give a little background on Zen Leaf too?
Mr. Marsico said a little bit of background about Zen Leaf, we have been in the industry for 51⁄2 years. We are a multi-state operator currently operating in 6 states with expansion plans. We’ve operated in the State of Illinois for 4 years on the retail side, a little bit longer than that on the wholesale side, so very familiar with the rules and regs. With respect to the specific property, we are in the process of securing the entire building. There are 3 units within that building, 2 of which are currently leased out and 1 is vacant. Once we get a little bit further into the closing, we are going to explore options to take on the entire building. Unfortunately, until we get down that route, our current proposal is just for the vacant space.
Mr. Sieben said I believe in your application you are showing starting out the Phase 1, the vacant space, with potentially then the whole building later on.
Mr. Marsico said that is correct.
Mr. Sieben said do you want to talk a little bit about the licensing process with the state? I know there is kind of a 2 tiered system. Do you want to talk about that?
Mr. Marsico said correct. For the current license holders, there are currently 55 dispensaries, medical operating dispensaries, in the State of Illinois. All of the current medical dispensaries have the opportunity for what the State is referring to as a plus 1, which is an adult use only cannabis dispensary. You are allowed, based on your proximity in the state, to open one of those facilities with a number of conditions within your BLS District, which for us is Chicago/Naperville/Elgin area, which Aurora falls into those areas. We have put in our application with the state for approval for our plus 1 adult use cannabis dispensary. We obviously need the municipality’s approval and to make sure that we are on the path of fitting the ordinance that the specific municipality has put in place and that’s basically the process. Do you want a little bit more about the operations?
Mr. Sieben said yes, a little bit because you submitted, I believe, an operational plan and security plan.
Mr. Marsico said with respect to SOP’s, all products that enter our facility are in finished packaging from a wholesaler, a cultivator that is licensed only in the State of Illinois, so there are no products coming in from out of state. There is no handling of raw product within a dispensary. Everything that is delivered to us is in finished tamper proof packaging. That eliminates any sort of quality control issues as well as security concerns. With respect to operations, I can say we operate in states across the country. Illinois is one of the strictest with regard to security compliance and testing standards. I think that we, as a responsible operator, go above and beyond what the standards are with respect to security. We are overseen by IDFPR, which is our governing body. They conduct regular visits to a dispensing facility once a quarter currently. We are also overseen by the Illinois State Police. They conduct monthly visits to our facility. We’ve operated in the State of Illinois with an impeccable record.
I think our reputation speaks for itself. With respect to operations, our kind of mission statement for the industry is not only do we want to run a successful business, but we want to be invested in the community and we want to be good stewards of the community. We have outreach arms of our company with respect to community outreach, customer outreach and things of that nature. We are always active in Chambers of Commerce if there are any sort of business alliances and things like
that. We don’t want to just set up shop and operate, we want to partner with communities. We look for communities that also want to partner with us. We understand that this is a hot button issue in a lot of communities and it is new in the State of Illinois and we want to bring awareness to the community and if there are any concerns, we want to be in good communication with local police, local fire and the community and folks like yourselves. We want to 1) bring awareness and 2) go above and beyond to alleviate any concerns that there may be. In talking about the process with state licensure, one of the stipulations to get your state licensure is you do need the approval of the municipality. They are not going to give us state approval because the state has as part their law they have said that municipalities have the ability to either opt-in or opt-out and put certain restrictions like hours and number of dispensaries and Aurora has passed all of that at the municipal level, but specific applicants need to have that approval as part of their state submission, so that would be the missing piece of the puzzle. With respect to our license, our SOP’s, all of our compliance, we have all of that prepared, but we would need city approval before the state would grant us that license.
Mrs. Vacek said so this is actually going to next week’s Planning Commission on December 11th and then from there it will go to our Building, Zoning and Economic Development Committee on December 19th. Then it will go to full City Council at the beginning of January. I do make a motion to move this forward to the Planning Commission for next week. There will probably be a few conditions on there. I’m going to go and just look at the landscaping to make sure that it was meeting what the landscaping prior to it was, the approved landscaping. I think we will probably want to review the operation procedures once the state actually officially approves those, so that will probably be another condition. We conditioned all the medical licenses on that so we probably want to just continue doing that. With that, I’ll make a motion to move it forward. Mr. Sieben seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously.
A motion was made by Mrs. Vacek, seconded by Mr. Sieben, that this agenda item be Forwarded to the Planning Commission, on the agenda for 12/11/2019. The motion carried by voice vote.
PENDING
ANNOUNCEMENTS
ADJOURNMENT
Mr. Sieben adjourned the meeting at 10:15 a.m.
https://www.aurora-il.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_12032019-2104?__cf_chl_captcha_tk__=506d45a8cb2d8bea55443c1f24c05c87bb5cac90-1576842064-0-AQiPWEyEQepIJ9Mv0b0HI54t20a8KEgFd9ZNYxkNQmR-W5928hhephF4acfwI13cIweyl8Y0V7IBZKPtD2jAaZSw8_Ba-hhP0OHPnMSn8cz7ueiMxlh1XIeAo0oRc3R0ha0qobmv3F0GBVV5tKkm06yPJkOYmye2eV1eRlriXraArIftsaCCy3jC9bl6IqJ94vmue1bps03RNSbiKJjBIJY4o9CdM7op_PA65mpltQulCE0KHCZ1KC0-nHE7ytxWK2NiGuI7Z7Lv_jWgYuqaZYY8ZkVLHmLqB7WyEJe8tyyu3YaAeWweGGpoWPOGzBTF8Yg7w4d7bILxZla9z5xFJdwAX8hac_WyOLc41t5gMkFS
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