Rolling Meadows to sell land once intended for fire station
Rolling Meadows officials will try to sell a sliver of city-owned property on Algonquin Road that at one time was contemplated for a third fire station.
The 0.5-acre vacant parcel is in between a strip mall and a shuttered bank east of Meadowbrook Industrial Court.
"It doesn't really have a function other than it's just sitting there," Alderman Mike Cannon said. "I would like to see it marketed."
With an eye toward constructing Fire Station 17, the city purchased a portion of the land for $270,000 in 2008, to be combined with another piece that had been deeded over for a potential future road.
While the city's elected officials have debated what to do with the two existing fire stations for at least a decade, plans approved last year are moving forward to build two new stations in new locations. One of those locations is less than a mile west on Algonquin Road, where crews this week started tearing down a former restaurant.
The city-owned land next to the shuttered bank was appraised at $250,000 in 2012. A recent appraisal found it had the same value - but only if ComEd power lines could be relocated. Otherwise, the value dips to $45,000, city officials said.
City Manager Barry Krumstok said officials will first reach out to Byline Bank, which now controls the neighboring property and is trying to sell it, to see if it is interested in the city property. If not, the city could then enlist a professional firm to market it for sale.
While all four aldermen present for a committee-of-the-whole meeting Tuesday agreed with the idea of a sale, only two (Cannon and Rob Banger Jr.) wanted to do the same with another city-owned property.
A one-acre vacant parcel on the southeast corner of Kirchoff Road and Owl Drive - kitty-corner from city hall - will remain in city hands after aldermen deadlocked in a 2-2 straw vote. It's the remaining undeveloped parcel from the Wellington Riverwalk development of retail and residential buildings. Plans are to keep it as green space, where the city sometimes advertises community events on sign posts.