Key player enters Winfield zoning debate

As two political factions in Winfield battled over the possible rezoning of a strategic piece of property on Roosevelt Road, they forgot to inform a key player: the land's owners.

In a letter to village officials, P.C. and Falguni Patel said they oppose any move to rezone their Marathon gas station parcel at the corner of Roosevelt and Winfield roads.

They said such a step could lead to additional rezoning in the area that would be “done in a way that would no longer allow our gas station to operate at that location.”

Some village officials say the gas station site, along with two neighboring properties, should be rezoned from residential with special variance to commercial. They say a solid commercial block of properties would entice developers and eventually increase the village's revenue base.

Ultimately, they say, the extra money could help the village pay for long-overdue road repairs.

The Patels said they first learned of the efforts in a May 7 Daily Herald article.

Throughout the letter, the Patels indicated they believed they could be forced out of their gas station. Trustees tried to ease those fears at last week's meeting, but P.C. Patel said there were other reasons for opposing the zoning, too.

Patel said he feared the move could lead to rezoning a lot across Winfield Road for commercial use and open the way for a competing gas station.

Village President Deb Birutis said a comprehensive plan for Winfield still is being looked at and the Patel property is part of it.

“There is a plan being executed to get to where all of us want to be, but we want to do it the right way,” she said. “Particularly with the Patels not wanting to have their land rezoned, I will stand firm to say we need to have a clear plan.”

Hindering the push for change on the corner has been a lack of concrete interest from developers.

Trustee Jay Olson said creating a commercially zoned corner could draw that interest because developers tend to look at existing zoning when they create their plans. Also, he said Winfield has a reputation of being a less-than-professional community when it comes to development.

“Developers do look at zoning very seriously,” he said. “We will not attract any developers of any quality because we are construed locally, statewide and probably nationwide in terms of not being able to handle that process as well as we should ... We should consider moving forward with the petition to get these properties rezoned.”

Trustee Tony Reyes has said rezoning the Marathon station would be a step “in the right direction” toward developing Roosevelt Road and creating a larger revenue base. Also a part of the plan is an empty lot just east of the gas station and the fire station just north of the Patel property. Fire officials have indicated a desire to be rezoned commercially.

The property across from the Patels' has not been formally discussed other than the inclusion in the board packet of a 1992 court ruling in favor of the village. The ruling upheld the village's denial of a rezoning application that would have changed its zoning to commercial and that stemmed from the owner's sale of the property to Mobil Oil Corporation.

Reyes said sending the latest rezoning idea to the plan commission, which is where it sits after last week's debate, essentially will kill the plan. He challenged trustees Jim Hughes, Erik Spande and Jack Bajor, all three of whom said the idea needed more consideration from the plan commission.

“While the three of you would like to see it back to the plan commission, you want to pronounce it dead before we even deal with it,” he said. “We have people here with the guts to say let's put it out to petition.”

Trustee Erik Spande said the trustees pushing for the change should slow down.

“If we are going to commercialize it, it needs to be a calm, considered process and part of a comprehensive plan,” he said. “Pursuing this individually is the wrong plan ... I am uncomfortable with the village imposing its views on landowners without context. If the village is going to enforce its views for some greater good, we have to explain that in a calm manner.”