Decision looming for future of landscape facility in Carol Stream
Carol Stream trustees on Monday could move to terminate a permit for developers of a drop-off facility for landscape waste or give them more time to break ground on the project.
Organic Soils Inc. has yet to start construction on village-owned land within the Carol Stream Water Reclamation Center off Kuhn Road more than two years after the two sides signed a lease. The company also has not started paying the village $1,500 a month in rent, among other fees.
Trustees earlier this month tabled a vote to amend the lease and set new deadlines for Organic Soils. Those revisions would have required the company to start paying rent Nov. 1, to begin construction no later than June 1, and to obtain a permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to operate the facility by April 15, 2018.
Construction was supposed to start within 18 months after the village approved a special-use permit for Organic Soils in August 2014.
Trustees could either grant a deadline extension or start the process of terminating the permit and effectively quashing the project during their meeting 7:30 p.m. at village hall, 500 N. Gary Ave.
Neighbors, meanwhile, are planning to renew their objections to the project before the board.
John Jaszka, a Carol Stream park district commissioner who started a petition two years ago that collected more than 400 signatures, raised concerns that the facility will bring odor, noise and truck traffic along Kuhn Road and near Glenbard North High School during its operations six days a week.
The village board unanimously approved the lease allowing Organic Soils to develop a facility on the 1-acre lot, where contractors and waste haulers serving Carol Stream and neighboring towns would drop off landscape debris. From there, landscape waste would be transferred to larger vehicles and taken to a composting plant in Bristol, Illinois.
While he supports the idea of such a facility, Trustee Rick Gieser said he's "lost faith" in the operators. As of Friday, he's expecting to vote to terminate the lease, barring "any last-minute information" that should come to the board.
"There's been too many delays, too many issues," he said.
If other trustees agree, the village would have to follow a series of steps outlined in the zoning code. Plan commissioners would have to conduct a public hearing and make a recommendation to the village board about terminating the permit and rezoning the vacant site.
Robert McNees, an attorney for Organic Soils, told the board last month that the company took the blame for the holdup and can't proceed until it secures a wetlands permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.
"The (village) staff did point out right up front that there may be a wetlands problem here, 'you should look at it,'" McNees said at the time. "Well, the looking at it consisted of looking at maps that were not current, that did not show a wetlands, and that was a mistake."
Mayor Frank Saverino, who will not cast a vote unless there's a tie, stressed that no composting would take place at a facility strictly for yard waste and voiced frustration that the village has not received rent.
"It's a dead piece of land," he said. "I don't know what else would go there."