DuPage County rejects self-storage facility plan near Naperville
The DuPage County Board on Tuesday soundly rejected a plan to build a self-storage facility along 75th Street after neighbors and the city of Naperville opposed the project.
Only two board members supported the request to rezone the 3.5-acre site west of Wehrli Road to allow a 730-unit Extra Space storage facility. Fifteen other board members voted against it.
“We're pleased with the outcome,” said Tim Donnell, one of the neighbors who spent months fighting the plan. “We know the area will change direction. But if this is any indication, we also know that the area won't be industrial.”
Developer WM Ventures wanted to replace two houses with a two-story building that would have contained the storage units.
Neighbors, however, argued the storage facility would be an industrial use within a residential neighborhood. A resolution of objection against the project was filed by the city
In April, the county's zoning board of appeals voted against the plan citing the lack of other storage facilities in areas with the same zoning classification as the 75th Street property, which is for local convenience businesses.
But the county board's development committee was divided on the issue. On Tuesday, county board member Tonia Khouri urged the full board to reject the plan.
“One of our jobs as county board members is to listen to our residents,” Khouri said. “I have heard overwhelmingly from the residents. They oppose this project. The city of Naperville is unanimously opposed to this project.”
Board member Kevin Wiley, who supported the project at the committee level, changed his opinion and voted against it on Tuesday.
“I apologize for that,” Wiley said. “But the intensity of the building — the space on the frontage — is not as I envisioned it when I looked at the documents.”
Sam Tornatore and Grant Eckhoff were the only county board members who supported the proposal.
Tornatore said Naperville had the chance to annex the property but didn't. Meanwhile, he said, “All the regulations under our zoning ordinance have been met in order to ask for this relief.”