An ordinance that would place greater restrictions on the types of permissible businesses allowed on the first-floor level of buildings in Naperville’s downtown core district had the backing of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission at a recent meeting.
Commissioners on Wednesday, March 19, held a public hearing and gave a subsequent affirmative vote to the city council on the ordinance, which would amend city code and add banks to the list of businesses that would need a variance to set up shop on the ground level in downtown Naperville.
The review underway comes on the heels of the city council’s 7-2 vote last month in favor of granting investment firm Fidelity Brokerage Services a variance to occupy a portion of the former Barnes & Noble space at 47 E. Chicago Ave.
Councilman proposed ordinance for downtown Naperville
Last month, councilman Patrick Kelly had proposed the ordinance, in response to ongoing discussions of preferring retail shops and restaurants on ground-floor commercial space in the downtown corridor.
Under municipal code, Fidelity had to obtain a variance from the city to operate ground-floor operations out of a portion of the former Barnes & Noble space. Traditional retail banking operations, by contrast, have not been included in that list of business types in need of variances, prior to the ordinance under review.
“We’ve got other prime quarters in the downtown that may redevelop one day,” Kelly said at council’s Feb. 4 meeting, when the proposed ordinance was first discussed.
Commissioners hold public hearing on requiring banks to get variance for ground floor
Prior to casting their vote, which is being forwarded on to the city council, members of the Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on the ordinance at the March 19 meeting. No one spoke for or against the changes at the meeting.
The city did receive written public comment from a developer who opposed the proposed changes.
In an email to city officials, Ryan Vande Bosche, director of development with Kite Realty Group, said his firm is weighing in with a “general objection” to the amendment.
Speaking on behalf of Kite Realty Group, Vande Bosche in the email wrote the firm is “concerned this amendment would unnecessarily restrict uses that are well-suited to ground floor spaces in dense, urban environments where vertical mixed-use and street retail is either existing or encouraged.”
“Our concern is that quality businesses with services that are complementary to the surrounding downtown retail environment are being prevented from locating in Naperville,” Vande Bosche wrote.
City staff gives support to ordinance
Community Planner Sara Kopinski was on hand at the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting and read aloud a staff report from Allison Laff, deputy director of the city’s Transportation, Engineering and Development (TED) department.
Laff in the report outlined some of the core changes in the ordinance, including a modified definition of what constitutes “commercial services” within city code. Banks are excluded from the list in the proposed change.
The city’s definition of “general services” also is being amended in the proposal to include banks and financial institutions to set the stage for a needed variance for both types of businesses within the downtown core zoning district.
“Staff is supportive of the proposed amendment, as written, finding that it further promotes the retail/commercial tenancy intended for the first floor of downtown Naperville properties,” Laff wrote in the report.
Any existing banks already operating within the downtown core district would be grandfathered in, based on the ordinance.
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