McLean County Times

Town of Normal Zoning Board of Appeals met Sept. 18.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

Members Present:

Joshua Moyer, Corrine Brand, Matthew Coates, Wendell Haywood, Keith Palmgren, Craig Queen, Todd Anderson

Members Absent:

None

Others Present:

Planner Tessa Ferraro, Legal Corporation Council Steven Simmons, Inspections and Planning Associate Hannah Neal

Call to Order:

Mr. Anderson noted that a quorum was present and called the meeting to order at 5:00 PM Approval of Minutes:

Mr. Moyer moved to approve the minutes from the previous meeting on August 25, 2025, and Ms. Brand seconded.

Public Hearing:

a. 25-09-08-V: Proposed variance to permit less parking than required, 2219 W College Ave

Ms. Ferraro reviewed the staff report. Historically this property has been zoned for heavy industrial use. The property was built in 1991 and sits on 7.6 acres of land with a warehouse that is about 102,000 square feet. The property takes two access points off of college. The area is surrounded by M-2 zoning which is more of a heavy manufacturing zoning district. The property itself is shown as being M-2 zoning on the most recent version of the aerial map but was rezoned to M-1 during the Town Council meeting on September 15th. Rivian is looking to use the property for repairs and sales. Rivian will have the customer's order their vehicles online, and then have the vehicles shipped to this location, where it will sit for a maximum of 48 hours. This differs from a lot of similar businesses because the cars do not stay on the lot. Code requires1 parking space per 300 square feet of ground floor area which would equate to 340 parking spaces to be available. Rivian is proposing 216 parking spaces. The parking will be on both the interior and exterior of the lot, which is permitted by code. They would be adding about 150 new interior parking spaces.

Staff is supportive of this variance and finds that it would be in harmony with the zoning code. The Town Zoning Code was written for more of a traditional dealership, which is quite different from what is being proposed. Adding more parking would likely require the need to add more storm water retention basins, which would be a big expense. There is a nearby floodway to the east of the property, and adding harder surface could impact the flow of storm water. The extra expense to add in the parking would be an unneeded burden and could affect the return on the property. Staff finds the nearby floodway makes the property unique.

Staff has been wanting to review the parking code for some time and plans to do so in the next couple of years. After reviewing codes from other municipalities, it seems that parking often gets overestimated. The Town’s parking codes are also more restrictive than most. She also added some examples of what similar municipalities require, such as Bloomington, which requires 500 spaces per square foot.

At this time Mr. Anderson asked if there were any questions for Staff from the Board.

Mr. Haywood asked how long Bloomington’s parking code had been set to 500 spaces per square foot.

Ms. Ferraro said that to her knowledge, Bloomington did a zoning code change around 2020 and has done a zoning update recently, but she is unsure when the change occurred.

Mr. Anderson opened up the meeting to the public at this time.

Mr. Brian Flemming of 4036 Howard Ave, Western Springs IL approached and was sworn in. He was present to represent Rivian.

Mr. Anderson asked if Mr. Flemming had any additional comments to Ms. Ferraro’s presentation.

Mr. Flemming said Ms. Ferraro’s presentation was very thorough. He did want to state that when Rivian started looking for sites for this project, they found this one very appealing due to the proximity to the main Rivian plant as well as the large span. They are happy with the building and are hoping to not add any more asphalt to the site.

Mr. Anderson asked what the space had been used for recently.

Mr. Flemming said it was previously used to manufacture AC units. Some of the paving is in need of repair and will need to be asphalted.

Mr. Anderson asked how many employees would be on site.

Mr. Fleming said there should be about 40 employees. The expectation is that of the 60 exterior parking spaces, a majority of the parking would be for employees, leaving 20 exterior parking spaces for customers. The interior spots would be used to store vehicles for maintenance.

Mr. Anderson asked how many customers would be considered typical.

Mr. Flemming said regular servicing would be done on site. The services would have to be booked ahead of time so if there is not room on site, the client could not book an appointment. The Rivian user experience is to not have clients waiting in a waiting room.

Mr. Anderson asked if there would be vehicles on site to test drive.

Mr. Flemming said there would be 3 styles of vehicles on site to test drive.

Mr. Haywood asked about the service bays. He noticed that there were 12 docking bays on the property and wanted to know if they were meant to become service bays.

Mr. Flemming said they would not become the service bays. There is a forklift door already on the building That is what they would use to get the vehicles through. The loading docks will be used for parts, and the larger rolling doors will be used to get customer vehicles through.

Mr. Haywood asked Ms. Ferraro if any portion of the backside of the building could be used for parking.

Ms. Ferraro said there were five existing parking spaces in the back, but there are different requirements for how wide drive aisles and parking spaces needed to be. She reiterated that adding more hard surface would trigger some engineering work.

Mr. Flemming said there are 8 loading births that are covered. The eastern most is needed to turn around and back up. The western most will be used to drive out of the lot. The portion that Mr. Haywood is referring to has a dimension string with an overhead rolling door that might eventually end up being the exit.

Mr. Palmgren asked if the existing asphalt would be completely torn out for repairs or if they would just be patching the damaged areas.

Mr. Flemming said that Rivian would prefer to patch if possible. He will be confirming with his structural engineer to make sure the weight of the Rivian vehicles won’t cause extra wear on the existing asphalt.

Mr. Anderson closed the public portion of the hearing.

Mr. Anderson asked Ms. Ferraro what the landscaping requirements would be for this property.

Ms. Ferraro said that additional landscaping would not be required for code unless Rivian needs to completely tear out and repave the existing parking lot.

Mr. Anderson called for a motion.

Ms. Brand moved to approve the findings and recommendations as proposed by Staff. Mr. Coates seconded.

Mr. Anderson called for a vote

All in favor: 7

Opposed: 0

The motion carried.

With no further business, Ms. Brand made a motion to adjourn, and Mr. Queen seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 5:32 PM.

https://www.normalil.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/5401