Dunkin' & Demolition - Monday's Village Board Meeting Highlights

PLAINFIELD, IL — Monday, Feb. 3 was a busy night for the Plainfield Village Board of Trustees. Police promoted, site plans preened, parking rules reformed; a lot was fit into the hour long village board meeting. Here are five of the most important developments:

• Pair Of Police Promoted:
  • Two officers with the Plainfield Police Department were promoted at the very start of the meeting, being sworn in to their new posts by Mayor Michael Collins. Jeremiah "Zach" Zigterman was promoted to the rank of commander, and Luke Ostreko was promoted to Sergeant. Both officers had their new symbols of rank pinned on them by their wives.
  • Village Public Works employees John Hannon and Brian Fahnstrom were also recognized by the board for their accomplishments. The former won the 2020 American Public Works Association Award for Merit for his work in beautifying Plainfield's public spaces, the latter graduated from the Illinois Public Service Institute Leadership Program in 2019.
• A Slam Dunk For Dunkin'
  • The board passed five separate motions to green-light the construction of a new Dunkin' Donuts franchise at 15719 S. Route 59, adjacent to St. Mary Immaculate Catholic Church. In one fell bureaucratic swoop, the property was annexed, re-zoned for commercial use, and approved for a drive-through. Concerns were raised regarding what the new business might mean for the surrounding community and its traffic patterns, but the board ultimately approved all the relevant motions after seeing the new Dunkin' site plan. It established that there will be no vehicular or pedestrian connection between St. Mary's and the Dunkin' lot.
• Renwick Properties Proposal Dead On Arrival
  • Perhaps small proof that the universe has a yin for every yang, another motion to approve a business' Plainfield plans was met with dead silence and dismissal as soon as it was introduced. A proposal "to direct the Village Attorney to prepare an ordinance granting approval of a special use to permit two (2) drive-through operations for the property commonly known as Renwick Properties at the southwest corner of U.S. Route 30 and Renwick Road," according to the meeting agenda, could not get a single board member to introduce it as a motion. The board moved on to other issues shortly after that fact became apparent, and did not mention Renwick Properties again.
• Local House Deemed Old, But Not Historic
  • A motion was introduced to forestall the issuance of a demolition permit for a structure at 15024 S. Des Plaines Street for 90 days. During this 90 day period, the motion stipulated, village staff and the Historic Preservation Commission would work together to try and figure out an alternative to the structure being demolished. The structure in question is a currently-unoccupied residence that has stood at the location for decades. The selfsame location is currently being eyed by local architectural firm Schmidt Architects for a new development. Though some trustees voiced sympathy for the Historic Preservation Commission's desire to protect the old house, the board as a whole voted to reject the motion. Collins commented on the issue by paraphrasing former village Mayor Richard Rock: "[Rock] said, 'There's a lot of difference between old and historic,' and I think this is just an old house."
• New Parking Time Limits For Downtown:
  • At Police Chief John Konopek's urging, the board approved a new ordinance to impose a three-hour parking time limit on Lockport Street between Fox River Street West and James Street. The time limit, Konopek said, was designed to help regulate the availability of parking along Lockport Street as the downtown business area continues to spread west. "As the downtown business corridor has started to move westward, we have started to encounter some parking... concerns as far as time limit parking," Konopek said. He added that it would be "no sooner than a couple weeks" before the new parking time limits took effect.

To see the full agenda of the Feb. 3 meeting, please follow this link from the Village of Plainfield website