Warrenville residents fighting garage

Neighbors of Blackwell Forest Preserve near Warrenville are upset with DuPage County Forest Preserve plans to build a vehicle maintenance garage there.

Several residents complained at Tuesday's meeting that such a facility near the McKee Marsh off Mack Road runs counter to the mission of the forest preserve district of preserving open land for passive use.

The district has been holding open houses to explain the need for the facility and why that location was chosen.

But resident Vicki Nowak, who lives nearby, it's a bad choice.

"This facility won't do anything to help the wetland, which is just a few feet from where this will be built," she said. "This can be built in an industrial park."

Commissioners are expected to vote on the proposal by the end of summer. The plan calls for the district to spend $7.5 million on a 29,000-square-foot garage with 16 maintenance bays. All of the district's vehicle maintenance operations would be moved to the new location. Currently, some of the district's vehicle maintenance work is done at a facility at Blackwell and the rest is done at Churchill Wood Forest Preserve near Lombard, officials said.

The district's land management director, Justin Frederick, said the Blackwell site was chosen for several reasons: The land has been used for similar purposes for roughly 30 years, half of the district's vehicle maintenance is done there, 80 percent of the maintenance equipment is already at the site and Blackwell is centrally located among the majority of the district's preserves. The district won't need to take any more open space for the new fleet services building, Frederick added.

Commissioner Roger Kotecki represents many of the angry residents. He said the district should investigate alternative sites before making a decision on Blackwell.

"We have not really looked at alternate sites very closely," he said. "We have to balance what's most cost effective and what's most beneficial to taxpayers."

Some residents complained that it's "hypocritical" for the forest preserve to fight with Naperville over the city's plans to erect a cell phone tower on land the district sold to the city for a fire station when commissioners are proposing such a use for forest preserve property.

"I feel deceived by the forest preserve and disappointed by commissioners because I thought my tax dollars were going to be used for the preservation of flora, fauna and scenic beauty like it says in their mission statement," said Mary Ann Palma, who lives near Blackwell.

Nearby residents say they have concerns about the safety of chemicals being stored at the facility and increased traffic.