Mount Prospect asks court to shut down factory amid ongoing odor complaints
Fed up with odors that have been drawing complaints from neighbors for years, Mount Prospect is moving to shut down a local animal feed producer until it resolves its olfactory issues.
Mount Prospect and Prestige Feed Products have been involved in months of litigation, with the company attempting to prevent the village from shuttering its operations at 431 Lakeview Court.
The village amended its counterclaim Tuesday, asking a judge to order Prestige to cease operations until it contains the smell.
Village Manager Michael Cassady said the village is asking for an emergency hearing, which it hopes will happen next week.
"It was just a continued violation," he said. "They could not contain the odor, and that was having a material impact on the neighborhood surrounding," including both residents and businesses.
For now, Prestige continues to operate on a limited basis under the terms of an agreement with the village. But residents living across Wolf Road in the Longford Glen subdivision of Des Plaines said the smell remains overpowering.
Prestige has yet to install odor-controlling equipment as promised, Cassady said.
"The residents have had to live with this all summer and they continue to live with it, and so we're just trying to exhaust every possible remedy that we have. And unfortunately that requires us to work through a legal process," he added.
Ultimately, he said, Prestige might have to apply for a conditional use.
Attempts to reach Prestige's attorneys for comment were not successful.