TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Dustin Anderson, Director of Community Development
SUBJECT:
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Ordinance Approving a Special Use Permit to Allow a Truck and Trailer Parking and Storage Lot, Located West of Vera Court, South of Oak Leaf Street (ZBA 2025-46)
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BACKGROUND:
The petitioner and property owner, Montana Investments LLC, is requesting a Special Use Permit to allow a truck and trailer parking and storage lot in the I-1 (light industrial) district within an existing industrial subdivision, located on the west side of Vera Court south of Oak Leaf Street. The proposed parking lot would contain around 26 trailer stalls and 38 passenger vehicle stalls. The owner plans to use the site primarily for overflow parking for nearby industrial properties also under their ownership, such as the adjacent warehouses at 540 - 600 Joyce Road. According to the petitioner, there is limited parking at the Joyce Road site and at other sites within the vicinity.
The property is located within the Oak Leaf Center industrial subdivision, which contains a mix of light industrial and commercial uses such as contractors, fabricators, and manufacturing facilities. The 2.1-acre subject site comprises three parcels on the southwest side of Vera Court that were developed with a gravel parking area and storage yard in 2011. Based on aerial photos, the site was mainly used for the storage of building materials until it was purchased in 2024 by the current owner. The site has two existing access points off Vera Court. The lots are enclosed by a solid 8-foot fence on the east and a chain-link fence on the other three sides. There is an existing detention basin on the south end of the site that was installed in 2011 when the gravel lot was constructed. The current owner recently paved the gravel area with asphalt and a concrete landing gear pad.
As part of this petition, the petitioner requested Variations from the landscaping regulations that apply to the development of the site. The Zoning Board of Appeals approved the following Variations at their meeting on October 16, 2025:
• Variation to reduce perimeter landscaping from 10 feet to 0 feet
• Variation to omit curbed landscape islands at the end of each parking row
• Variation to omit barrier curbing around the perimeter of the parking lot
Staff is not requiring landscape areas along the north and west sides of the site due to existing public utility and drainage easements along those property lines.
Staff finds that the request meets the following special use criteria: the establishment and operation of the special use will not be detrimental to public health and safety nor will it impede the normal and orderly development and improvement of the surrounding property. The subject site is in the center of an existing industrial subdivision and the proposed use is complementary to the existing uses in the subdivision. The site is served by existing public streets and will continue to use the access driveways off Vera Court. The trailer parking stalls will be subject to the payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program per the terms of the approved ordinance for truck parking facilities. A stormwater detention pond is provided onsite; pond capacity and drainage conditions will be evaluated as part of the required engineering review application.
ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS PUBLIC HEARING:
The Zoning Board of Appeals held a public hearing on this matter on October 16, 2025. Nate Washburn, attorney with KGG LLC, and Charles Sharp, property owner, represented the petition. No one spoke in favor of or in opposition to the petition. Meeting minutes are attached.
RECOMMENDATION OF THE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS:
Ralph Bias moved that the Zoning Board of Appeals recommend approval of the Special Use Permit to allow a truck and trailer parking and storage lot, located west of Vera Court, south of Oak Leaf Street, subject to the following conditions:
1. That an engineering review application shall be submitted, reviewed, and approved prior to occupancy of the site;
2. That the lots shall be consolidated into one lot through the Will County land consolidation process prior to occupancy of the site;
3. That the property shall be enrolled in the Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) program as per the terms of the PILOT Program Ordinance;
4. That the Special Use granted shall herein terminate and lapse unless a building permit or certificate of occupancy is obtained not later than 180 days of the effective date of this ordinance and the erection or alteration of a building is started or the use is commenced within such period. The Board may grant an extension of this period, valid for no more than one hundred and eighty (180) additional days, upon written application and good cause shown without notice or hearing. Whether or not there is an intention to abandon the Special Use, if any special use is discontinued for a continuous period of one year, or if an intent to abandon the Special Use is evident in a shorter period of time, the Special Use for such use shall become void, and such use shall not thereafter be reestablished unless a new Special Use Permit is obtained; and
5. Should the property be declared a public nuisance, it may be subject to a rehearing and a possible revocation of the Special Use Permit.
Jesse Stiff seconded the motion, which passed with six (6) aye votes and no nay votes. Voting aye were: Bias, Hennessy, Radakovich, Roehr, McGrath Schmig, and Stiff. Voting nay were: none. Absent were: Nachtrieb.
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
Staff concurs with the recommendation of the Zoning Board of Appeals and recommends that the Mayor and City Council adopt the following, subject to the same conditions approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals above:
1. Ordinance Approving a Special Use Permit to Allow a Truck and Trailer Parking and Storage Lot, Located West of Vera Court, South of Oak Leaf Street
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