Fox Lake leaders approve new comprehensive plan

Developers and future village officials will have an updated plan to follow when considering business proposals in Fox Lake.

After months of research, meetings, and planning, the village board approved a new comprehensive plan during its bimonthly board meeting Tuesday night.

The plan is an overlay map of the entire village and is designed to tell developers, and future village, planning and zoning board members where various types of business — from commercial to manufacturing — can operate in the village.

For example, the comprehensive plan prevents a concrete grinding plant from opening in a residential area.

This is the second comprehensive plan in the village. The last one was completed in 2000 by a previous administration.

Mayor Ed Bender said the updated plan was months in the making, and is a great start to helping show a new direction of the village.

“It really is a work of art,” Bender said. “It's been over a decade since we last looked at it, aside from some minor changes here and there, so it was long overdue.”

It comes only days before developers announced a Thorton's Gas Station and convenience store is slated to go in at Route 12 and Grand Avenue, where the vacant Second Federal Savings and Loan building now stands.

Bender said developers have purchased the contract for the building and plan to start demolition in May.

He said the developers of the new gas station are falling in line with the updated plan and will adhere to new landscaping and architecture the board would like to see downtown.

“We probably would have liked something other than a gas station at that corner, but they aren't excluded from building something nice in that area,” he said. “When the developers came to us, we showed them the new plan and requested specific landscaping there like a brick wall to dress it up and make it look professional.”

Trustee Val Griseta, who has been working on the update since serving on the planning board six years ago, said she is happy to finally have a new, updated plan in place for everyone to follow.

“It's aesthetically pleasing with more walking paths and updates to what should be in the downtown area,” she said. “One of our goals when we were elected in 2009 was to update the plan to help spur development. Now we can focus on attracting new business.”