Navistar plans making neighbors nervous

When Tom and Becky Stefely bought their home in Lisle's Pebble Creek subdivision in April 2008, they knew the former Lucent Technologies campus loomed just outside their backyard.

They didn't know that within 17 months they would be fighting to keep a new 150,000-gallon above-ground fuel tank and vehicle preparation station from going up just outside their bedroom windows.

By as early as April, truck-maker and defense contractor Navistar Inc. intends to acquire and overhaul the 88-acre former Lucent campus that fronts Warrenville Road in Lisle to include a massive research center on the northeast end of the property.

"We're really concerned with the potential environmental impacts of the aboveground fuel tanks and vehicle storage so close to our residential area," Becky Stefely said Wednesday. "Right now I look outside my upstairs windows and through the leaves I see the Lucent buildings and that's fine. But I also have safety concerns of a steel or cement wall going up that will allow anyone over there to look into my children's bedrooms."

A few doors down Pebble Creek Drive, MaryLynn Zadjel voiced similar safety concerns. She said she may even have more if Navistar had provided the neighborhood with more information.

"The size of the facility is absolutely a concern but we have not been able to understand the full workings of the proposed facility because Navistar submitted an incomplete application (to the village)," Zadjel said. "That's a problem because it's one thing to object to the impact of a proposal but they haven't told us what the impact will be."

Navistar has met with neighbors at least twice and company officials attended a Sept. 16 public hearing in the village. The next hearing will be Oct. 21.

Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley said residents have been vocal and he expects attendance will be high at the October meeting, but he suggested some opponents may be jumping the gun.

"Navistar sees this as a positive opportunity despite the current economy and we're investigating that," he said. "But this is a work in progress and absolutely nothing has been finalized."

The existing campus includes nine buildings connected by covered walkways and bridges. The Navistar proposal would demolish the two northeastern-most buildings and that quadrant would be redeveloped with three buildings to serve as engineering and development divisions.

The area would house the company's 335,000-square-foot Advanced Technology Center that will provide design, testing and engineering for product development.

A Design Lab would cover about 20,000 square feet and showcase innovations and products. A Vehicle Preparation Center would be about 25,000 square feet and include vehicles used in testing functions and fuel storage.

Village officials could approve the plan as early as December, although working out details of a tax increment financing district may take longer in separate meetings, a Lisle official said.

"There were many questions (about the design) that were brought up and we'll need to review the transcript and documents further," said Tony Budzikowski, community development director.

Zadjel and her neighbors are just fine with the process taking as long as possible.

"We don't understand the underlying urgency that this seemingly needs to be done very fast," she said. "Let's slow down and study the environmental impacts and see if this the right location for this project."

Stefely agreed, saying she would even feel better about the project just being moved to the northwest quadrant of the property, which currently houses a large parking lot and abuts the Danada Forest Preserve, a Hyatt Hotel and a children's day-care center.

"The winds come from the west so the smells and any emissions would still be blowing our way, but at least we'd have a buffer," she said. "Navistar told us they would plant pine trees to buffer those kinds of things, but they take 10 years to mature."

Wiley suggested the new buildings still may end up being built elsewhere, but preliminary engineering favored the proposed site.

"We put it there because in the planning stages that's where it works best," he said. "But, again, this is a work in progress and there are many steps in that progress we still need to take. We're not ruling anything out."