Buffalo Grove business will stay in town

A 16-year Buffalo Grove business looks good to stay even longer, now that the village board has given it the variances it needs to expand.

Fisher Container, 1111 Busch Parkway, will build additional warehouse space on the southwest corner of its property and a new parking area on the east side of the site, to replace some of the parking that will be lost to the addition.

Established in 1969, Fisher Container is a converter of flexible plastic films, pouches and bags.

CEO Donald Fisher told the village board, “We have been a happy resident of Buffalo Grove since 1998.”

He said Fisher took over a former bakery plant and turned it into a modern flexible packaging manufacturing plant. In the process, he said, they eliminated a lot of truck traffic.

“The baker had six bays that were always occupied in moving trucks in and out to deliver their products,” he said. “We use most of those bays for storage now” — an indication, he said, of why the expansion is needed.

He said 50 percent of Fisher's output is for the food industry, including packaging for dog and cat food, as well as Carnation milk.

He said Fisher has a Class 7 cleanroom, where it produces packaging material for electronics, medical devices and aerospace industries.

To accommodate the new parking area and the driveway to Busch Parkway, Fisher asked the village to modify a stormwater pond on the east side, including a retaining wall that does not meet the side slope standards of the village, thus requiring a variance.

Fran Fazio of Manhard Consulting told the plan commission at a prior hearing that the new parking spaces on the east side will encroach into the stormwater detention basin.

What will be lost in the northwest corner of the pond must be compensated for in the southwest corner, she said. This will involve putting in a vertical wall to accommodate the volume without taking up the slopes normally required.

Fazio said this would happen on less than 50 percent of the pond on its west side. She added a similar project was done by the medical facility near Milwaukee Avenue on Busch Parkway.

A variation is also requested to waive the requirement of a landscaped island for the parking area, which has 21 off-street spaces. An island is required for every 20. The island would cause the loss of two spots, Fazio said.

Village President Jeffrey Braiman told Fisher he was happy Fisher chose to expand in Buffalo Grove rather than leave.

“We appreciate all of our corporate residents,” Braiman said.