Group tries — again — to scuttle Blackwell maintenance facility

Residents opposing plans for a new fleet maintenance building at Blackwell Forest Preserve near Warrenville are hoping to defeat the project on a technicality.

On Tuesday, they asked DuPage County Board members to rescind an intergovernmental agreement they believe exempts the DuPage County Forest Preserve District from the county’s zoning laws.

Shannon Burns said she brought the request to the county’s development committee in response to forest preserve commissioners voting last month to build the $7.5 million, 29,000-square-foot garage near McKee Marsh off Mack Road.

“No business would be allowed to construct such a facility at the proposed location,” said Burns, who is part of the community group opposing the project. “We ask that you recognize this fact by rescinding the forest preserve district’s zoning exemption.”

But Anthony Hayman, the DuPage County assistant state’s attorney who advises the development committee, questioned whether the intergovernmental agreement is the reason the forest preserve is exempt from the zoning laws.

“Those exemptions exist under statutory law or common law,” he said. “It is not by virtue of this intergovernmental agreement.”

He said the agreement “perhaps, at most” recognizes there are other independent legal reasons for the zoning exemption. Still, he informed committee members he will do more research and report back during their next meeting.

“I’m guessing there is a little bit of confusion,” he said. “The county cannot contractually with the forest preserve exempt them from our zoning. If they’re exempt, they’re exempt.”

District officials said the Blackwell site was chosen, in part, because the land has been used for similar purposes for about three decades. Blackwell also is centrally located.

Burns said everyone agrees a new fleet services building is needed, but insists Blackwell isn’t the right location. She said the forest preserve district already owns land that is zoned for business use and would be a more suitable spot for the facility.