Lake Zurich village board rejects Quentin Road development

The Lake Zurich board of trustees rejected a long-discussed plan that sought to build new homes, a gas station and other commercial buildings on vacant land on the southwest corner of Quentin Road and Route 22.

The plan, which first came to the village around two years ago, was also rejected by the village's planning and zoning commission in March. After that rejection, the developers made some changes to their plan, including reducing the number of homes they wanted to build from 48 to 42. They presented their changes to the board Monday night and asked the board to let them take their revised plan back to the planning and zoning commission.

But the board did not think they had changed their plans enough.

"This has been two years now and we're not moving in big steps," Mayor Thomas Poynton said. "You're hearing us but you're not hearing us."

There was a lot of opposition for the developers to hear both from the board and members of the public.

Several people who live near the site, which is near the border of Kildeer and Hawthorn Woods, spoke against it at the meeting.

Ted Valenti, who lives in the Groves of Kildeer, said he'd received signatures from hundreds of people who opposed the plan, particularly about the gas station.

While residents' top complaint was the gas station, the top complaint of board members was the number of houses the developer was trying to fit on the site.

Not everyone was against putting a gas station on the highly trafficked intersection. Dale Perrin, the executive director of the Lake Zurich Area Chamber of Commerce, wrote a letter supporting a gas station that the mayor read a portion of at the meeting.

Trustee John Shaw said he'd heard from several residents who also supported a gas station being built there.

"People do want to see a gas station in this location, but it's got to be the right formula," Shaw said. "I'm not sure this is the right formula."

The board's decision means the developer can't come back to the village with the same plan for two years. They can come back to the village with a plan before two years if the plan is significantly different, however.