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4 | March 23, 2017 | The lake forest leader news LakeForestLeader.com Village of Lake Bluff Joint Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals Plans for updating Comprehensive Land Use Plan begin to take shape Christa Rooks Freelance Reporter The Lake Bluff Joint Plan Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals continued discussing the early planning stages of updating the Lake Bluff Comprehensive Land Use Plan at its meeting Wednesday, March 15. The board previously discussed updates to this plan — which was originally created in 1997 with subsequent amendments made in 1999 and 2000 — during a workshop on Jan. 18. Board members reviewed various plan inputs, planning elements, a proposed process for land-use analysis and anticipated outputs, as well as reviewing a draft outline that will guide the update of the plan. At the conclusion of the workshop, the board asked Village staff to put together planning and landuse goals from the current comprehensive plan, as well as the new plan outline and other land-use goals to consider as part of the revised plan. The plan is intended to outline guidelines for land use throughout the village. During the process of updating the plan, the board will focus on areas such as housing, local services, connectivity (transportation), financial stability, natural spaces and sustainability, and annexation. A preliminary plan was laid out by Drew Irvin, the Village administrator, and Glen Cole, the assistant to the Village administrator. “We’re organizing [the plan by] the use of functional areas or land-use areas instead of necessarily quadrants of town, at least at this point,” Cole said. “What we would like to do is really focus and get some feedback on structure ... and then we also want to talk about a preferred schedule.” Board chairman Steven Kraus expressed his approval of preliminary information that had been put together by Irvin and Cole. “It is a great way of pulling together the work that has been done in the past in a format that we can begin to manipulate,” Kraus said. The board discussed the importance of getting community feedback during the process of refining the plan. Board member David Bishop noted that it appeared to play a helpful role when past plans were put together. As of right now, the board plans on spending two years revising the plan. Board member Leslie Bishop pointed out the need to set aside specific time to make sure the proper attention is devoted to the project. Kraus responded that special meetings may be needed to make sure there is enough time to touch on every part of the plan. The board then turned their attention to discussing what may have been left out of the plan and may need to be added. Board member Elliot Miller suggested adding a technology section to the areas of focus. “We’re all going to be doing things in the future that involve technology, computers, the cloud,” Miller said. “We should have a whole section about what technology would be in the future.” However, Irvin suggested that shouldn’t be a priority as the board looks at the plan. “To me, that is a lowlevel goal or objective to manage technology, new technologies in a way that respects neighborhood character,” he said. David also added that it was more important to apply technology to each section already established rather than make it a separate section. “Technology is a tough one too because you could almost pick up any one of these and apply technology to it,” he said. “It’s how the technology is applied versus a section on technology.” Irvin encouraged the board to pick a section to review first so he and other Village staff members can make sure all the information and research for that topic is assembled. The board decided to begin with transportation and connectivity. “It encompasses the whole village, it’s the network that overlays everything so we would be looking at all the areas at once,” board member Mary Collins said Lake Bluff School District 65 Board of Education Sexual abuse policy discussion continues in light of investigation of former teacher Katie Copenhaver Freelance Reporter The Lake Bluff School District 65 Board of Education’s Tuesday, March 14 meeting started similarly as the Feb. 14 meeting, with public comments from Jim Moss stemming from the criminal sexual assault investigation of former junior high teacher Charles Ritz. At the previous meeting, Moss, presented the board with a petition requesting it to conduct a special investigation of the alleged perpetrator and his victims, and suggested ways to prevent sex abuse in the schools going forward. The board rejected the petition, stating it does not want to interfere with an ongoing investigation by law enforcement. At this meeting, Moss asked them to reconsider their decision, leaving out “two elements of the petition that seek the school to interact with victims.” The other six elements of the petition — appointment of a special investigative council, assessing risk management framework, enhancing training programs, establishing a victim’s rights policy, establishment of standards for external reporting and enhanced hiring standards — can all be easily achieved without interfering with the ongoing investigation, Moss said. He went on to say that Lake Bluff should “be above the norm in the critical area of safety for its students” and it is not enough to “meet the requirements of state law.” He explained that it is not the “goal of Lake Bluff to be like everyone else.” “That is not the standard we measure ourselves against in academic offerings, art programs, academic achievement or education facilities,” Moss said. Moss suggested several ways in which the board could improve its policies regarding sexual abuse, including: searching national databases instead of Illinois databases of registered sex offenders and violent offenders when screening applicants; and establishing periodic spot checking to evaluate criminal activity of current employees. “We take great pride in going above and beyond,” Mark Barry, the board president said. “Our policies are strong and we intend to make them better. All your ideas are good.” Superintendent Dr. Jean Sophie said the administration is bringing in an outside policy expert to meet with the policy review committee after spring break. Board Member Susan Rider requested that Moss’s petition be a regular meeting agenda item once the committee has met. Board holds off approval of 2018 Washington D.C. trip The board also discussed whether to continue the school-sponsored eighth-grade trip to Washington D.C. The annual trip cost $1,055 per student this year and boasted 87 percent participation, which is around the same participation range it has been since the trip was held in the fall (it moved to February in the 2014-2015 school year). Previous to that, participation ranged from 65 to 88 percent. Barry and Vice President John Marozsan asked about the reasons some students do not participate, to which Lake Bluff Middle School Principal Nate Blackmer and Director of Finance and Operations Jay Kahn explained that some parents do not want their children to miss activities they’re involved with outside of the district and are uncomfortable with their children being away from home for three days. Sophie said they will survey parents and vote on weather or not to continue the trip at the Committee of the Whole meeting in April. Full story at LakeForestLeader.com.
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