‘A step backwards’: Naperville neighbors, commission oppose gas station’s U-Haul parking plan

Neighbors in a Naperville subdivision have concerns with a gas station’s proposal to expand parking areas on the site off Ogden Avenue to accommodate U-Haul rental trucks.

There is extensive pedestrian traffic not only from Naperville North High School but also people going to the grocery store across the street from the Marathon gas station, said Diana McClaurin, president of the Cress Creek homeowner’s association.

“So we have amateur truck drivers driving in a pedestrian area in a very tight space,” McClaurin said.

After she and some other area residents raised complaints, Naperville planning and zoning commissioners recently voted against a conditional-use request to allow the service station to be expanded to accommodate U-Haul operations at the northeast corner of West Ogden Avenue and Royal St. George Drive.

Prior to 2016, automobile service stations were permitted in the corresponding zoning district. But changes to Naperville municipal code removed those businesses from the list of permitted uses and reclassified them as conditional uses.

“That code was specifically updated to improve Ogden by attracting certain types of businesses,” said Derek McDaniel, a member of the advisory commission.

He noted the Ogden corridor now has an Amazon Fresh — farther east of the gas station — and “a number of really nice restaurants.”

“In my view, this would be more or less a step backwards if we were to approve or agree and allow this secondary use U-Haul business to continue, more or less a step backwards in the wrong direction in our efforts to continuously improve Ogden,” McDaniel said.

The proposal called for expansion of parking areas on the site to accommodate U-Haul vehicles. The scope of work also would include a six-foot privacy fence.

Lacey Schnell said residents should be provided with taller fences and landscaping so that they “are fully screened from the storage of this product.”

“If it's not required, our property values will be reduced,” she said.

The Marathon property owner, Henry Patel, said he was willing to improve it.

“I'm willing to work with everybody and let's get a solution, and maybe I have to give up something,” he told the commission last week.

City documents noted that if the conditional use is denied, Marathon may continue to operate and maintain the accessory use as a “U-Haul Neighborhood Dealer” so long as the rental trucks are not parked in any of the 10 code-required parking spaces and are restricted to approved parking surfaces in compliance with the municipal code. Denying the request would prohibit the addition of the proposed new asphalt areas.

Commissioner Mark Wright said he could see both sides.

“I understand that the business probably needs to make some sort of additional income to make it a viable business. I understand that, but I also understand the neighbors’ concerns,” Wright said. “And I think they're very valid concerns.

“Normally, when we get these things, we have a myriad of engineering drawings, fence drawings, landscape concepts, traffic studies, where we can make a really educated decision on whether this is a good thing for the neighborhood or not,” Wright continued. “In this particular case, we just don't have that.”