Lake Zurich to decide on fate of U-Haul facility
Lake Zurich village board members will have to contend with conflicting recommendations before they vote Monday night on a U-Haul facility proposed at Route 22 and Buesching Road.
U-Haul would renovate an 88,000-square-foot building at the northeast corner of Buesching and Route 22. The proposal is for a retail showroom in the redone structure, and self-storage units, trucks and trailers that would be rented out.
When the village board gathers Monday, the trustees will have to weigh a recommendation by the advisory planning and zoning commission in favor of the U-Haul project with five conditions attached, and the Lake Zurich administration's opinion against approving a special-use permit the company needs to operate at Buesching and Route 22.
At a meeting about two weeks ago, Lake Zurich planning and zoning commission Chairman Orlando Stratman contended U-Haul did not provide enough detail in a public hearing for a positive recommendation to be issued to the village board, which has the final say on issues.
"It's a lot of conjecture," Stratman told U-Haul representatives. "It's a business model you want to do, but not answers we need from a planning, zoning commission review standpoint."
But planning and zoning commission member Tom Tomsovic said he believed the advisory panel was supposed to focus on whether U-Haul's plan was worthy of a special-use permit, not necessarily all the details.
"I don't know if our mission here is to solve all these issues," Tomsovic said. "I think that's what staff does as it goes through the process."
Concerns about the U-Haul plan were raised by commission members, residents and others at the public hearing. The potential problems they cited included landscaping, excess light spilling into residential neighborhoods and the proposed parking of equipment near Route 22 so passers-by can see what U-Haul has to offer.
As part of the planning and zoning commission's recommendation for approval, the five conditions U-Haul would have to meet include screening all trucks and trailers, removing a water tower and pump shed on the site, and closing overhead doors during work in a dispatch and repair area.
Lake Zurich's acting director of building and zoning, Sam Hubbard, expressed concern about a lack of specifics on the idea of screening the trucks and trailers.
"For example," Hubbard wrote in a memo for Monday's village board meeting, "does 'screening' mean that trucks and trailers must be completely behind the building? Does 'screening' mean a row of evergreen trees? Does 'screening' mean a 6-foot-tall wood fence?"
Heather Skelton, marketing president for U-Haul's northwest Chicago area branch, said the company intends to make exterior building upgrades and install more landscaping.