Lincolnwood Board approves agreement to improve ambulance billing

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By JASON MEREL

The Lincolnwood Village Board of Trustees at its meeting Nov. 5 approved a recommendation by the Plan Commission to modify the village code to allow electronic signs and certain temporary signs that were prohibited on non-residential property.

The goal of the code amendments were to provide flexibility for commercial signs and expand opportunities for businesses to promote their products and services in order to reduce unnecessary restrictions and provide more business-friendly regulations, according to officials.

The Plan Commission held a series of workshops earlier this year that discussed sign locations and electronic message boards and digital display signs.

Some recommendations included monument signs to be located 5 feet from the curb line as long as they are on private property, allowing sign coverage materials for up to 120 days if the covering is identifying a logo of a new occupant or until a property is sold or leased if providing real estate information, temporary signs for up to nine special events per year, amount of allowed signs and size of the signs and waiving the existing prohibition on hand-written portable signs.

Regarding electronic message boards, the commission recommended certain hours of operation, sizing guidelines for multi-tenant and single-tenant properties, allowing signs with static images and messages to be used at non-residential properties on lots 7 acres or larger that face away from residentially zoned lots, brightness levels and sensors to dim the signs at night and prohibition of moving or animated images.

Thee electronic messaging signs would be permitted in B-1, B-2, B-3, O and S zoning districts and only on monument signs and not wall signs.

Trustees also approved an ordinance granting the village manager authority to close rights-of-way for the purposes of commercial filming. The ordinance also established a new fee structure for expenses related to commercial filming.

The fees range from $100 for an application fee, $150 per hour for total closures of public streets, $75 per hour for partial closures, $1,500 per day for disruptive use of a public building during regular business hours, and $750 for partial use of a public building.

The manager will be able to approve and manage commercial filming operations without having to wait up to 14 days to bring approvals before the board.

"It’s a very small timeframe for (filming companies) to find a site to work with and set up. What they’re looking for is a quick turnaround and our goal with this is more to make sure residents are not impacted by this negatively," assistant village manager Charles Meyer said.

"So when we get a request, we will send it to all of the department directors to see if there are any concerns from an operational perspective but we also work with the filming companies to make sure that if there is an anticipated impact to the community that residents are notified in advance to give them the right to protest." This would allow the village to provide and collect fees for services in a timely manner.

The board also approved an agreement with participating Mutual Aid Box Alarm System communities so patients can receive lower rates for ambulance services.

By entering into this agreement, emergency service providers called to assist in neighboring communities such as Skokie would charge the patient the resident rate of whichever community they live in.

Also, the board approved an easement agreement with Commonwealth Edison, a license agreement with the Chicago Transit Authority and an easement agreement with Builder’s Asphalt for the water transmission project that will bring water from Evanston to Lincolnwood.

The CTA and ComEd agreements are required because the transmission main will be crossing the CTA’s Yellow Line. The Builder’s Asphalt agreement is required because the transmission main will be crossing the North Shore Channel south of Oakton Street.

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