There have been several concerns about the tree removal along 159th Street, as well as the pending storage facility. Below are the actual minutes from a county meeting that facilitated this project. Here, you will find how your local officials reacted to this project. If you have additional questions, please feel free to reach out to Steve Balich, or Angel Shake and they can share any other information that may be available. Thank you.
Boat and RV Stroage is coming to 159th
County has changed zoning on 159th from C-2 to I-1 causing issue with Homer Twp. (This happened in 2022)
The Boat and RV Storage that is being built on 159th was passed in the County at Land Use then the Full Board. Former Homer Glen Mayor Yukich was present but did not speak. Former Village Manager Carmen Maurella’s comments, Supervisor Steve Balich who is also on the County Board comments as well as former County Board Member Mike Fricilone’s comments from the minutes can be read below.
It will be clear the only Balich And Maurella tried to stop this project.
Member Balich stated the people in the room need to know that I am the supervisor of the township and Chairman of the Planning Commission for Homer Township. We objected to this also. You guys did a good job talking except for one thing you left out. The main reason we object from the township side and the village side…right now our zoning is C-2 for that whole corridor, and the county’s zoning was C-2 for the whole corridor. If we allow this at the county, then it becomes C-2 or I-1. Can the village take this to court and sue the county? What’s the next step for the village if this doesn’t pass? Because the township is going to be very upset about it. I resent the fact that a county would go into a city and change the zoning for a whole corridor by making it I-1. That means if you do it for one, you have to do it for all. What is your next step if this Board says to go ahead and do it? Then the money that was put into it goes down the tubes.
Mr. Carmen Maurella stated my next step is to wrap our heads around this with staff and see what our next move would be. We would like to see that corridor stay with the mixed use of C-2 and let the village control the development.
Mr. Carmen Maurella stated when we look at property that’s not incorporated into the village, we try to talk to the property owners to try to petition into it. A lot of these property owners held off because of the 159th Street corridor reconstruction and the (inaudible) sewer system because there was no infrastructure for that. Now that we have the infrastructure in there, we would like them to annex in. That’s the goal of the village, for sure.
Member Balich stated I am representing the township, Homer Glen, as the head of the planning commission. Our planning commission has four members from Homer Glen and three members from Lockport. I’m not talking only for Homer Glen; I’m talking for the township of Homer which includes mainly Lockport and Homer Glen. People in our planning commission comprise Lockport also, and they don’t like it. It was unanimous. Our planning commission said no. Again, I’m with the Homer township, the unincorporated part. That’s what I represent. I’m speaking for them. They all said no. I don’t know what else to say. The project itself looks nice, it’s just in the wrong area. Everything else can be either C-2 or I1. That changes what the cities do. I’m on the land use committee. It’s not right to do something like that without consulting the cities. There’s going to be a lot of other problems by doing this. If you do it there, now you can do it all over the county. That means all these cities that have C-2 can now be called I-1 and they’re not going to like it. This was done in an effort to streamline some of our County land Use cases. Whatever we do has to correspond to the whole county. There’s going to be a lot of issues with this because it hasn’t been thought through correctly in my mind. I’m voting no to it and I’m hoping everybody will support Homer township. Thank you.
Member Fricilone stated there’s no legal objection from Homer Township, I know there is one from the village. The problem is the village is missing a great opportunity to secure their boarder. Why they can’t come together for a pre- meeting, Will County Board October 20, 2022 Will County, Illinois Posted: Page 14 annexation agreement is beyond me. I live the closest to anybody to this development. I’m probably ½ a mile from this facility, I could walk. It’s going to be the best looking thing on the 159th Street area, so I’ll be voting for it. Member Balich stated I just want to clarify that our township did object, we just didn’t file a legal objection.
RESULT: APPROVED [21 TO 5] MOVER: Tyler Marcum, District 10 (D – Joliet) SECONDER: Rachel Ventura, District 9 (D – Joliet)
AYES: Newquist, Ogalla, Flagel, Moustis, Tyson, Gazanfer, Traynere, Fritz, Mueller, VanDuyne, Fricilone, Brooks Jr., Winfrey, Ventura, Coleman, Marcum, Berkowicz, Cowan, Pretzel, Weigel, Freeman
NAYS: Mitchell, Gould, Balich, Parker, Kraulidis
PZC: 5-0 Appr Map Amendment fro A-1/C-2 to I-1 PZC: 4-1 Appr Var for Maximum Self-Service Storage Bldg Height from 12 ft to 28 ft PZC: 5-0 Appr Var for Maximum Self-Service Storage Unit Floor Area from 600 sq ft to 700 sq ft LUD: 3-1 Appr Map Amendment from A-1/C-2 to I-1 2. Ordinance Amending the Will County, Illinois Zoning Ordinance Adopted and Approved September 9, 1947 as Amended, for Zoning Case ZC-22-015, Lorrayne, Ltd., Owner of Record (Christina Rowinski, 50% Interest; Peter Zeman, 50% Interest), Peter
Katowicz and Amy Katowicz, Agents, Requesting (M-22-006) Zoning Map Amendment from A-1/C-2 to I-1, (S-22-012) Special Use Permit for Self-Service Storage
