An effort by the village’s Plan Commission to revise the code for Riverside’s B1 commercial zoning district has come under fire from a local resident who claims village officials are going back on their word to leave the B1 district alone.
Nicholas Cariello, a Lionel Road resident who lives close to the B1 district near the corner of Harlem and Ogden Avenues, excoriated planning commissioners and Village Manager Kathleen Rush at the Sept. 16 meeting of the Plan Commission, complaining that the revisions amount to a complete rezoning of the district instead of minor changes he thought village officials had promised.
“We don’t want it,” said Cariello in an interview late last week. “We’re going to fight this thing.”
Typically sparsely attended affairs, last week’s Plan Commission meeting drew some 30 people, some of whom were notified by the village that the commission would be having a workshop to discuss the final draft of the B1 zoning code revision. Many were there after receiving a leaflet Cariello personally distributed to homeowners on Lionel and Blackhawk roads.
Cariello and others decried a provision in the proposed code that allows taverns and live entertainment in the B1 district on Harlem Avenue and could allow them as special uses in a new B1-Transitional district on both sides of East Burlington Street from Harlem Avenue to Delaplaine Road.
In addition, Cariello vehemently opposed new rules proposed for building height and setbacks in the B1 district. The revised code would allow a building as high as 48 feet or four stories, and contemplates allowing a zero rear-yard setback in the B1 district.
“I don’t want to go into my backyard and see a 48-foot tall building on my rear lot line,” Cariello said.
The B1 district is not a cohesive area along Harlem Avenue. It exists from 26th Street to Longcommon Road before giving way to a multifamily residential zoning district that extends almost all the way to Herrick Road.
The primary B1 area is located on Harlem and on east Burlington Street around the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad tracks. South of the tracks, the B1 extends for a block past East Quincy Street before reappearing again at the corner of Ogden and Harlem.
Last winter, the Plan Commission asked village trustees to approve funding for a comprehensive planning effort for all of Harlem Avenue, where most of the B1 district exists. The plan included the possibility of rezoning residential properties on Harlem Avenue to allow commercial development up and down the street, from 26th Street to East Burlington Street.
In March, trustees killed that effort, asking the Plan Commission to deal with the B1 district as it currently exists on the zoning map. Throughout the summer the Plan Commission and its planning consulting firm, Camiros, have been crafting the revisions to the existing B1 area, including adding a couple of parcels, such as adding the White Fence Farm property and a medical office building, both of which are zoned residential, into the B1 zoning map.
The revised code also includes a lengthy table of allowed and special uses for both the B1 and B1-Transitional areas. Taverns, which would be a new allowed use, drew a sharp reaction from residents who attended the meeting.
In response, Plan Commission Chairman David Lesniak said that the commission would study that issue further. Additionally, Lesniak said that the commission would reconsider the zero-foot rear-yard setback allowed in the proposed revision.
“We’ll relook at the zero rear-yard setback so it’s something that will work not only for neighbors, but for economic development,” Lesniak said.
Lesniak, however, defended the Plan Commission’s work to revise the B1 zoning code, calling the current one “outdated.”
“We’re taking the old zoning code and are trying to modernize it,” Lesniak said.
Lesniak said the Plan Commission hopes to wrap up the final draft of the B1 code in October before setting a public hearing on the revision in November.
The village board, which has final say over adopting the new code, will likely vote on the matter in December.