Options abound for forest fleet building

From public comment at the DuPage County Forest Preserve District Nov. 16 meeting: At the Nov. 9 planning meeting a report was presented of the staff's evaluation of possible sites for the fleet maintenance building. The report concluded that the previously proposed site at Blackwell Forest Preserve was the best of those evaluated.

The proposed Blackwell site is not suitable for the building because of its proximity to McKee Marsh and other environmentally sensitive land, trails and other forest preserve land used by the public. Access to the site is by Mack Road, which is two lanes with a posted weight limit of five tons. Much of the district's equipment exceeds this weight and would cause excessive road deterioration.

Other forest preserve sites merit consideration: the East side of Naperville Road adjacent to the proposed Navistar facility; Danada Forest Preserve, south of the district headquarters; along Warrenville Road, between Herrick Road and the end of Washington Street, in the south end of Herrick Lake Forest Preserve; along Butterfield Road in Danada, Herrick Lake and St. James Farm forest preserves.

These sites are all served by suitable roads, have sufficient water, sewer and electric power service, and are more centrally located than the proposed Blackwell site.

I urge the district to locate a suitable site, with access via roads designed to carry the weight of the district's equipment, and where zoning would permit construction of such a facility. Private enterprise would not be permitted to build a facility such as the fleet maintenance building at the previously proposed Blackwell site without obtaining a zoning variance. While the forest preserve district is not subject to zoning restrictions, the district, as a good neighbor, can choose to comply with the zoning applicable to a property.

Barbara Whitney

Winfield