Kane County Reporter

City of Aurora FoxWalk Overlay District Design Review Committee met July 29.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

CALL TO ORDER 

Chairman Zine called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. 

ROLL CALL 

The following Committee members were present: Fernando Castrejon, Karen  Christensen, Fawn Clarke-Peterson, Brian Failing, and Charlie Zine. Clara Diaz and  Jeff Palmquist called in and excused themselves from the meeting. 

OTHERS PRESENT 

The following staff members were present: Jill Morgan and John Curley. 

Others Present: Jason Morales (Mora). 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES 

21-0488 Approval of the Minutes of the FoxWalk Overlay District Design Review  Committee meeting of June 21, 2021. 

A motion was made by Brian Failing, seconded by Fawn Clarke-Peterson, that  the minutes be approved and filed. The motion carried. 

COA REPORT 

21-0587 FoxWalk Certificate of Appropriateness Report (COA's Approved by  Staff - June 1, 2021-June 30, 2021) 

There were no questions on the COA report. 

PUBLIC COMMENT 

None. 

AGENDA 

21-0586 Certificate of Appropriateness for the redevelopment of the building for a  restaurant use that includes new windows, doors, and signage at 43 E.  Galena Boulevard (City of Aurora- 21-0586 - AU22/3-21.227-FCOA - JM  - Ward 2) 

Mrs. Morgan said we are here to discuss a Certificate of Appropriateness for the  redevelopment of the building for a restaurant use that includes new windows, doors  and signage at 43 E. Galena Boulevard. Here are some of the current photos of the  building. I think you are all pretty familiar with it. The property is zoned Downtown  Core. It is an early 20th century commercial building. The building is characterized by  some stairstep brickwork along the cornice, limestone lintels and sills, a limestone  cornice running between the stories in the east elevation and some transoms. Based  on historic photos, the staff believes the photos date about circa 1917. The existing  first story doors and windows are not original to the building. The building originally  appears to have had transom windows with a brick wall on most of the elevation facing  

Water Street. The large opening at the corner along Galena Boulevard also has been  altered. The historic photos look to show possibly 2 doors, while a later photo shows  similar openings as exist today with a central door and a large picture window. Here  you can kind of see the postcard where it has just kind of the transoms and mostly  brick along the bottom and it looks like you have the entrance at the corner onto  

Water Street and then an entrance as well onto Galena. Here is another photo a little  later that shows, you can’t see it too clear, but it looks like there is a central door and  2 windows on either side. By 1962 when this photo dates to, the building has been  altered again with additional storefronts onto Water Street. The second story one over  one double hung windows with the lintels do appear to be original. The building has  been used for a variety of uses through the years, hotel, tavern, theater, restaurant,  etc. 

Jason Morales, the owner of Mora Asian Fusion restaurant, currently I believe in  Plainfield, Bolingbrook and Oak Park has been working with the city over the last  several years to open a restaurant in Aurora. He entered into a Redevelopment  

Agreement with the city in 2019. Mr. Morales has had an outdoor restaurant at this  location in the past 2 summers for special events. The plans for the building include  the redevelopment now of the first story and basement and then future plans include  the expansion, possibly, to the second floor and possibly a rooftop as well is what he  is considering. Interior work has begun this year, including complete interior  demolition and they’ve been working on the elevator shaft currently. Mr. Morales is  proposing to replace all the current openings with similar aluminum entrances. This  includes new aluminum windows, transoms and doors, but keeping a similar look to  the existing. One bay on the side facing Water Street Mall will be replaced with a  glass garage door with a transom above. The transoms will be enlarged so that all the  transoms on both elevations are the same height. If you noticed from the current  photo, they are not exactly the same height, so he is going to make them all the same  height. A transom will be added above the door as well. He is also proposing the  addition of Juliet balconies on the second story. The rendering is showing a fascia  sign and projecting sign on the second story facing Galena along with some small  projecting signs along Water Street Mall. This is kind of a corner view. You can see  how the storefronts are all kind of similar to what it looks like today, but they will be an  all new aluminum storefront. That kind of second bay back on Water Street Mall is  going to be a garage, but keeping the transom above. That garage door will open all  the way up to near the height of the ceiling inside. Here is a look of the front with the  signs. He’s proposing more on the river as the name and similar look. This elevation  to the left of the door will be enlarged now. It is like half the windows only go half the  width of the transom, so it is going to be one large opening. He did mention he is  going to match all the muttons on all the windows so they will look the same. Here is  the elevation to the side. You can see those little projecting signs he is proposing.  

This is the elevation on the river side. Staff met with the owner for a Development  Services Team meeting where staff expressed that due to the façade and elevations  not being original and not being historic storefronts, the guidelines, staff felt, would  allow for some additional alterations. Staff expressed interest of keeping similar  transom elements in the design as they were historically there and are currently there.  It was an element that’s kind of been kept through some of the years. The Juliet  balconies do not appear to be historically appropriate for the style or period as staff  notes. If the second story windows are being replaced, they should match our  standard one over one aluminum clad wood windows. I didn’t get to ask him whether or  not he was replacing those. The projecting sign along Galena does not adhere to the  guidelines as it extends above the windowsill of the highest story. However, the  location of the sign does seem appropriate and similar to other projecting signs that we  have allowed for other restaurants and entertainment uses. The size is not  dimensioned, so the size adherence can’t be determined without dimensions. The  maximum size for these types of projecting signs is calculated by multiplying the  allowable height by 3½ feet. So the allowable height would basically be like the height  of that second story by 3½ feet is how it is calculated in the guidelines. Staff kind of  feels just looking at the rendering that the size seems to kind of fit with the building. 

Chairman Zine said Jill I have a question. So I’ve read that section several times. I’m  still not sure how high the sign can go up. 

Mrs. Morgan said the way I interpreted that is you can’t go past the windowsill of the  highest story. So for a 2 story building, it doesn’t really work because the windowsill of  the highest story is the second story, so it doesn’t really apply very well for a 2 story  building. 

Chairman Zine said and we’ve approved others. 

Mrs. Morgan said we have. Indiro has kind of a projecting sign as well. The Arts  Center, the John Dunham Art Center, has that large projecting sign. That one’s rather  large, but it was also based on it historically had a very similar look and size, so that  was why that one got a little larger than maybe others. 

Chairman Zine said so do we know how big we are going to allow it? Have we figured  that out? 

Mrs. Morgan said no because I’m for sure the height of the… 

Chairman Zine said from the ground to the sill? 

Mrs. Morgan said yes. 

Chairman Zine said but the way it is projected on the image is roughly what you think  we would approve? 

Mrs. Morgan said yes. I thought that it didn’t look inappropriate in scale just based on  the rendering. 

Chairman Zine said so this would be another one of those things that we could change  the guidelines so that it reflects reality? 

Mrs. Morgan said yes. When we do the update of the guidelines, I think that this  needs clarifying. I think the whole sign section could use some updating and fitting  things with a little more with what we see and what would fit more appropriately for  sizes. 

Mrs. Christensen said the sign that is at Indiro, there is a long history to that. The  argument that was made at the time was the parking garage, the size of the sign for  the casino and the parking garage and that, I think again, is why all of this needs to  get updated. I also think there was not an anticipation that the 2 story buildings might  host a restaurant or an entertainment venue. There wasn’t a thought toward that. It  was more maybe a commercial space on the first floor and then apartments on the  second floor. 

Mrs. Morgan said that’s a good point. 

Mrs. Clark-Peterson said you mentioned mutton and I was wondering what that is. 

Chairman Zine said mullion you mean, right? 

Mrs. Clark-Peterson said mutton. 

Mrs. Morgan said I meant the muttons. They are the little pieces that separate a pane  of glass where the mullion separates the actual windows. See in the one to the side,  there’s like little small panes in the top window that’s facing Galena, it is just one piece  of glass. He said he was going to make them all consistent. Does that make sense? 

Mrs. Clark-Peterson said it does. 

Mrs. Morgan staff also had some concerns with the small projecting signs onto Water  Street. As of now, especially as one restaurant, maybe it would be better to just have  one projecting sign on that side. We could see where having one on Water Street  would be good to have for people who are kind of coming from that end to be able to  see it. 

Mrs. Clark-Peterson said what do those signs represent? 

Mrs. Morgan said I’m not for certain. Maybe the Petitioner can describe his idea for  those signs. I think that’s really kind of my staff report. Are there any more questions  for me? 

I’m Jason Morales, 2408 W. Lockport Street, Plainfield. 

Mrs. Morgan said I think one of the things they mentioned that I couldn’t really answer,  the small projecting signs that face Water Street Mall, what was the thought behind  those? 

Mr. Morales said so ultimately we’ll have 4 levels, 3 different restaurants plus a rooftop.  

The signage along Galena doesn’t really tell the people what we have there. So the  thought was the pedestrian blade signs is what they are. Each one would kind of tell  people what each floor is. We are creating nicknames for each floor. Then on the  bottom of it, the name it will in smaller letters tell them which floor it’s on basically.  

The name Mora or even Mora on the River doesn’t tell you what’s going on in the  basement, first floor, second floor. We expect that Water Street Mall to be, and it  does get really busy with pedestrians, and we want them to know just from first glance  what the building is all about. 

Mrs. Christensen said what is your timeframe for developing all of this? 

Mr. Morales said well the first floor we are shooting to open this fall. Because we are  doing it in phases, we have to first build things that are common to each floor, so we  don’t want to, for example, finish the first floor and then work on future phases, the  second floor for example, and interfere with the business on the first floor. We’re right  now addressing all the structures that are common to all the floors, the elevator shaft,  the front and back stairwells. Then once those close out, we’ll proceed with the first  floor renovation. I expect to get the full building permit for the first floor probably in the  next week and half, so timing-wise, it will be perfect. That’s about when we will finish  up with the core of work, if you will. 

Chairman Zine said so your idea of a different sign for each of the 4 venues makes  sense. Does the idea of having 1 sign with 4 segments going to work equally as well  for you? 

Mr. Morales said we could do that, like similar to like a monument sign perhaps for a  strip mall where there is one sign that would kind of highlight what each tenant is in  that strip mall. We could do something like that. 

Chairman Zine said good and then staff can definitely help you with that. 

Mrs. Morgan said are the entrances going to be different for each different level? Will  people enter, like if they’re going to in the future when you finish the second level, it’s  going to be like a different restaurant space, is there a different entrance? 

Mr. Morales said right. When you walk in the main entrance, it is called like the  vestibule. There will be 3 doors, 1 leading to the first floor, 1 going up to the second  floor and then the other to the basement. 

Chairman Zine said but they will be all inside the building? 

Mr. Morales said yes. The elevator will be on the back end and it will have its own  entrance too. We’ll utilize one of the existing man doors. 

Mrs. Christenson said you mentioned ultimately possibly having a rooftop. Have you  done a study to understand what the structural integrity of the roof is for a load like  that? 

Mrs. Morales said yes, we have a structural engineer. We actually removed more  weight from the building through the demolition process than what we will be adding  onto. We filled 14 dumpsters just on the second floor demolition. I think there were  about 20 8 by 8 rows that were lathe and plaster. I was one of the guys doing the  demo during the lockdown and we were like let’s just do it. 

Chairman Zine said so she had mentioned the second story windows. Do you intend  on replacing the second story windows? 

Mr. Morales said yes. I would say 60% to 70% of them are in really bad shape. You  can’t even open them and if you attempt to open them, they will fall apart. On the river  side for years and years that roof has been leaking like a sieve, so there is some  structural damage that we are also addressing. Last week the roof finally got fixed. A  lot of the windows on the river side are all rotted out. We’d like to replace them with  aluminum windows that are fixed. Right now they are double hung windows. I don’t  want windows on that side to open that much, for the same reason hotel windows can  only open this much if they do open, right? 

Chairman Zine said so a few years ago, we amended our window requirements so that  you could have either aluminum or vinyl clad on out outside, which means you never  have to paint them, but you could still have wood on the inside. Is that what you are  thinking because you had mentioned aluminum. I don’t know if you were thinking that  or more of like commercial. 

Mr. Morales said well the window framer was thinking of doing that, but when you are  inside, we are trimming out around the windows with wood. But the windows  themselves, I was thinking of just making them all out of aluminum as well. 

Mrs. Christenson said and that’s a violation of the guidelines, right? 

Chairman Zine said that’s what we’re saying. They really have to be wood construction,  but then the outside can be clad with a waterproof material. It has turned out to be a  huge benefit for people who’ve done these. We did not use to allow that on the  outside, but nobody ever painted their windows above the first floor and they rotted.  

So now with having them clad with fiberglass, aluminum or vinyl you never have to paint  them. They always look good, but the inside you can match the historic design, I  think we are talking about one over one. Whether they open or not I don’t think is  important. Is that right Jill? 

Mrs. Morgan said as long as they look like a sash window. They don’t have to be  double. They could be like a single sash or if they need to be fixed and placed as  well, but as long as they have that look of a division, like a movable sash window,  that’s fine. I don’t want just one piece of glass. 

Mr. Morales said okay, so we can make it look like a double hung window but  non-operable? 

Mrs. Morgan said yes. 

Chairman Zine said and whenever you do select something, you’d be really smart to  bring in a sample and show it to the staff and just have them say yes this will work. 

Mrs. Christenson said that’s my question Jill. If we recommend approval of this COA,  but there’s these conditions in terms of what the specifics are going to be of the  building materials and so on, that gets built into your approval, right? 

Mrs. Morgan said yes, if we need additional information, as long as the approval of the  Committee covers that, or gives the staff the discretion, then we can do that. 

Mrs. Christenson said because that would be important, the window appearance and  the window material. 

Chairman Zine said and these guidelines, I hope they don’t seem arbitrary, because  they’re really not and some of us have worked on them like 15 or 20 years ago and we  do have a small, but we do have relatively rich architectural context here and so we try  to preserve that, so it’s not like we’re just setting up hurdles or anything. We are  seeing the results now. Some of the buildings really look wonderful, even though they  are 100 years old. 

Mr. Morales said I agree. Just list the requirements and we’ll adhere. 

Chairman Zine said thank you. 

Mrs. Christensen said so Jill, when I was reading the staff recommendations, you were  suggesting that the Juliet balconies are inappropriate, which I would completely agree  with. Mr. Morales understands that? 

Mrs. Morgan said yes. I’m recommending not having the Juliet balconies. They’re just  not historically appropriate. Not that they look bad, but they’re just not historically  appropriate to the style and period of that building, or really of Aurora in general. 

Chairman Zine said again, it goes back to we are trying to both give you the latitude to  modify like the openings and the transoms, but then still be aware of what the original  building was and then try and somewhat emulate that. The balconies just aren’t part of  that historic design, unfortunately. 

Mrs. Christenson said I can’t think of any building downtown that has that. 

Chairman Zine said Jimi Allen’s building on LaSalle Street has those. 

Mrs. Morgan said John was thinking that they are actually French doors that open. 

Mr. Curley said they are French doors on the second floors that open in. It is actually  a guardrail. 

Chairman Zine said so that’s the difference there. 

Mr. Morales said how about an actual balcony? Would you consider that? 

Mrs. Morgan said isn’t the floor not at the height of the window? 

Mr. Morales said if it was one continuous balcony, if we needed 2 exists on opposite  ends, we would probably have to cut down this much of window opening and convert  those to doors or something. 

Mrs. Morgan said I would probably not be supportive of that. The second story is  about one of the few things that actually seems to be remaining from the historic look  of the building, so I would want to probably keep that as windows. 

Mr. Morales said okay. 

Mrs. Morgan said maybe just going back to the sign, just so I’m kind of understanding,  is the Commission okay with the one facing Galena, as long as the size adheres to  kind of what the rendering looks like? 

Mrs. Christensen said yes, especially because he is adjacent to the Paramount. 

Mrs. Morgan said and then for the ones on Water Street where he explained that’s kind  of the future, the small projecting signs are kind of the idea of the future growth of the  building. Would the Committee want to maybe allow those once those future phases  happen or does the Committee think that something else instead of the small  projecting signs? 

Chairman Zine said well I didn’t understand that it was 4 signs for 4 different  restaurants, and that is logical to me. 

Mrs. Morgan said but do we want them now? I’m thinking that like it makes it look like  there are multiple happenings and maybe allow once you have that expansion. 

Chairman Zine said I’m okay with allowing them to add the sign as they open another  restaurant. 

Mr. Castrejon said approving them? 

Chairman Zine said yes. 

Mrs. Christensen said my only concern would be consistency. So what happens if the  sign fabricator isn’t around when the other restaurants open. I don’t know anything  about how those are made, but if it’s something where you are trying to have a uniform  look and design, maybe it makes sense to approve them and put them up now, even  though the other phases aren’t in place. 

Chairman Zine said you don’t even know the names of the other restaurants though. 

Mrs. Christensen said I saw verbiage on there, so I thought there was. 

Mr. Morales said placeholders. 

Mrs. Christensen said well then we shouldn’t be putting stuff up yet. 

Mr. Failing said so you said the timeline for the first floor is this fall. What’s the  timeline for the basement and then the future phases? 

Mr. Morales said ideally you want to open a floor every 6 months. 

Mrs. Christensen said so then we’re saying yes to that design, but don’t install them  until each restaurant opens? 

Chairman Zine said Jill are you okay with that? Understanding now what his rationale  was, it seems rational to me, but I don’t know if that still works for you. 

Mr. Curley said that makes the most sense with respect, if you considered obsolete  signage ordinances that we have for, this is the good side of it, but it makes sense  that the signage appear when the use appears. 

Chairman Zine said and we are okay with 4 of them versus 1 sign with 4 different  layers? 

Mrs. Morgan said yes. I think 1 sign with 4 might end up being too big of a sign. I am  okay with, I think, the 4 individuals because then you are giving basically 1 sign per  restaurant. 

Mrs. Christensen said and when I heard the word monument sign, I’m like no, because  that doesn’t work with this location. 

Chairman Zine said so we are okay with the signs then, but putting them up as the  restaurants open. 

Mr. Morales said yes, that makes sense. 

Chairman Zine said and consistent in design, just to be clear. So then of the 3  concerns that you had, I think we’ve talked about all of them, the signs, the second  story windows being wood clad and then I don’t know if we’ve come to resolution on the  Juliet balconies yet. Are we still saying no to that even if makes the windows full  length doors? Just to be clear. 

Mrs. Morgan said it is up to the Committee. Staff, I don’t think would recommend  making them full length doors or keeping any type of balcony. 

Chairman Zine said I think the openings now are reminiscent of original design, so that  kind of speaks against making them doors. So those are the 3 issues. If we are  resolved on those then I think we are all happy. I’d like to say personally that I  sampled your food either last summer or the summer before, I forget now, but when  they were open, and we’re glad to have you and a restaurant of this stature here. We  think you timing is excellent and if you were partly responsible for a 70 unit apartment  complex down the road, then we are thanking you for that too. 

Mr. Morales said we are excited to be here. 

Mrs. Morgan said it looks like we need a motion. I will read staff’s recommendation  with the alterations that we discussed. Staff would recommend conditional approval of  the Certificate of Appropriateness for the redevelopment of the building for a restaurant  use that includes new windows, doors and signage at 43 E. Galena Boulevard with the  following conditions: 

1. That all replacement windows on the second story and west elevation should be 1  over 1 or double hung aluminum clad wood windows or fixed with the appearance of a  double hung window. 

2. That the Juliet balconies be removed. 

3. That the small blade signs be put up as the restaurants open. 

MOTION OF APPROVAL WAS MADE BY: Brian Failing 

Motion SECONDED BY: Fernando Castrejon 

AYES: Fernando Castrejon, Karen Christensen, Fawn Clark-Peterson, Brian  Failing, Charlie Zine 

NAYS: None 

A motion was made by Brian Failing, seconded by Fernando Castrejon, that  this agenda item be approved. The motion carried. 

PENDING 

ANNOUNCEMENTS 

Chairman Zine said so the proposed apartment building over on the Dolan and Murphy  lot, is that going to be run by the DRC at all, or is that outside of our limits? We’ve  informally looked at other properties outside our limit, like River Street Plaza and  RiverEdge Park. 

Mrs. Morgan said we were just discussing that today and trying to determine that.  Technically, I don’t think it does need to come before the DRC. We might want to  have it either brought before the DRC or the Riverwalk, so we are still internally  discussing that. 

Chairman Zine said the other question I have is I run through downtown weekly and  went by the new sidewalk where we took out the little continental bridge right over here  on the east side behind the United Way. Are the bricks the same color, the pavers,  as the other ones? They look more reddish than the gold and we just had a meeting  like 2 years ago about all the different varieties of bricks that we have for the  Riverwalk pavers. 

Mrs. Morgan said I have not noticed. I thought they were supposed to be the same as  we’ve been currently using throughout the downtown. I’ll take a look and see. 

ADJOURNMENT 

A motion was made by Karen Christensen, seconded by Brian Failing, that the  meeting be adjourned. The motion carried by voice vote. Chairman Zine  adjourned the meeting at 6:35 p.m. 

https://www.aurora-il.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_07292021-2658