Carol Stream residents wary of landscape waste transfer facility
Several local residents voiced their concerns at a Monday Carol Stream village board meeting about the possible consequences of a landscape waste transfer facility heading to the village.
“There is no reason this should be put so close to homes,” Barron Buchunas said, adding that the smell from the facility would affect property values.
The facility, to be operated by Organic Soils Inc., is slated to be a drop-off point for landscape waste haulers and contractors, and only landscape waste would be taken in to the transfer center.
Once the waste is dropped off, it would be placed in a larger trailer and taken to a composting facility in Bristol, Illinois. Organic Soils Inc. will be leasing the property from the village to operate the facility, which is to be located at the northeast corner of Kuhn Road and McNees Drive near the Water Reclamation Center.
Although the transfer trailers will be prohibited from using Kuhn Road north of the facility, there are no restrictions for other vehicles, such as those used by Flood Brothers waste haulers. The facility also could accept waste from other communities.
At Monday's meeting, residents filled most of the chairs in the village's board room. They expressed their fears about the location of the facility, with worries centering on possible noise and odor, as well as the additional truck traffic. The proposed facility's proximity to Glenbard North High School, recreational resources and homes also worried residents.
Dustin McGuire said he walks up Kuhn Road from Thunderbird Trail to a park, where a bike path is located. He said he already makes his two young children bike on the far side of the path because of the proximity to the street.
“Now you got big, old, giant garbage trucks … getting paid by the load, who don't necessarily care about the residents, streaming up and down there,” McGuire said. “That makes me worry about my 3-year-old and 7-year-old.”
The contested project is also the subject of a petition created by Carol Stream Park District Commissioner John Jaszka. The petition, which asks officials to work with Organic Soils Inc. to relocate the future facility to Carol Stream's commercial section, had 292 supporters as of Monday night.
At the meeting, Jaszka told the board he thinks more people would be satisfied with the facility if all traffic had to go to North Avenue.
“For all the good that you guys have done over the years … don't let this rumble of the garbage trucks going up Kuhn Road past our trails and high school, don't let that be the legacy that you're going to leave behind,” he said at the meeting.
Some residents expressed their support of the project as well.
The village recently created a Web page on its website filled with information about the facility. This informational hub also includes details on each time the public could have learned about the facility through sources like village board agendas and newspaper articles. It contains a timeline of events leading up to the eventual Aug. 18 approval of the lease agreement with Organic Soils, Inc.
“This wasn't something that we just woke up one day and said let's put this there,” Mayor Frank Saverino said.