U-Haul gets second chance in Lake Zurich
After rejecting a U-Haul facility proposed for Buesching Road and Route 22, the Lake Zurich village board agreed to give the company a second chance late Monday.
Citing the lack of a specific site plan, village board trustees first voted 6-0 against granting a special use permit that U-Haul needed for its facility. Before the vote, village officials had floated the possibility of letting U-Haul return to the advisory planning and zoning commission with a more detailed plan, but Heather Skelton, the company's marketing president for the northwest Chicago area branch, declined the offer and asked for a conclusion.
Later in the evening, the village board agreed to vote on U-Haul's request for a second chance and an opportunity bring a complete proposal to the planning and zoning commission. Mayor Thomas Poynton broke a 3-3 tie to allow the matter to go back to the commission.
"Just so the public knows," Poynton said, "this was an unusual occurrence for us. Anybody who brings a package for special requests can fly through the process if they've got all of their paperwork in order."
U-Haul wants to renovate an 88,000-square-foot building at the northeast corner. The proposal is for a retail showroom in the redone structure, and self-storage units, trucks and trailers that would be rented.
Skelton had expressed concern about not receiving an extension to close on the site at the northeast corner of Buesching and Route 22 from the property owner, which is why she originally pushed for a vote up or down on the plan.
"They have extended the contract in our property (for three months), which gives me time to get all of the site plans in order," Skelton said.
Concerns about the U-Haul plan were raised by planning and zoning commission members, residents and others at a 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.
Skelton said the company intended to make exterior building upgrades and install more landscaping.
U-Haul would have had to wait two years before submitting another plan in Lake Zurich if the village board did not take the second vote to let the company return with more specifics before the planning and zoning commission, officials said.