Wheeling settles dispute over zoning

Wheeling has settled a dispute with a Montessori school that centered around its issuing a building permit for unusable land in a runway protection zone.

The village has agreed to purchase the land -- 21,987 square feet -- at the southwest corner of Chicago Executive Airport for $263,844.

The village has also agreed to waive building permit fees, which would have been about $50,000.

The Alexander Graham Bell Montessori School, currently located in Mount Prospect, had filed a lawsuit against the village in June to recoup the costs of the delayed permitting.

The village originally issued a permit to the school in July 2006, but 20 percent of the 2.85-acre site was found to be in the protection zone.

The airport nearly had to close a runway to allow the school to be built and the Federal Aviation Administration threatened to pull funding from the airport.

In the end, the Montessori school redrew plans to move a parking lot out of the restricted area. The village also agreed to lower the parking requirements for the school, at 9300 Capitol Drive, to make the revised plan work.

"We don't want to detain them or hold them up any longer," said interim Village President Judy Abruscato. "I'm glad that it came to an amicable agreement; they can continue on with what they need to do to teach children."

Sandy Mosetick, board president of the school, said the property has been available for a year but hasn't been worked on.

"We had lots of legal expenses; we had lost operating income for a whole year," she said.

Mosetick said the school has also been losing money at its current site because it just isn't big enough to be profitable.

She said that while she would rather not have to give up property that the school was planning to use for a parking lot and play area, she was satisfied that the school had recouped money and was able to continue construction.

"The village cooperated with us vigorously to eliminate some costly requirements we otherwise would have had," she said.

Mosetick said the construction should be completed by June, in time for summer school sessions.

The new school will hold about 80 students compared to 45 at the Mount Prospect location.

"It's going to be three times the size and hold two times the number of kids," Mosetick said. "We're really excited about the new building."