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Schaumburg rezones restaurant corner near Woodfield without further restrictions

Schaumburg trustees Tuesday decided not to add limits after all to their rezoning of the southeast corner of Golf and Meacham roads on the outskirts of Woodfield Mall, therefore allowing a broader range of businesses beyond the three restaurant buildings there now.

The property owner's request for the general-business rezoning began this spring when he asked that the Bar Louie building become a recreational marijuana dispensary named Windy City Cannabis. But Mayor Tom Dailly said officials grew more comfortable with the rezoning in recent weeks with the certainty that the dispensary proposal had been dropped.

Property owner Tim Gallagher argued that the previous zoning classification put the corner at a competitive disadvantage, being the only site along the village's Golf Road corridor with zoning restricting its businesses to office buildings and restaurants.

In fact, the eight-story office building at 1000 W. Plaza Drive - immediately south of the corner property - is being prepared to be demolished soon, though no new use of that site has yet been proposed.

While both Gallagher and village trustees have described a preference to allow other retail uses at the corner, the general business zoning category that was requested and granted for the 3.7-acre site enables a wider variety of businesses than that.

Some trustees expressed concern about such unwanted businesses as a car wash or auto repair shop ending up on the prominent corner and suggested adding a list of prohibited uses to the rezoning.

Village Attorney Lance Malina said it can be complicated to create such restrictions in a way that would make them legally binding, but trustees did not demand that addition in the end.

Dailly suggested the real estate market itself wouldn't support the uses trustees feared at the highly visible corner.

Schaumburg Community Development Director Julie Fitzgerald said her staff is preparing to do a more widespread analysis of the business uses along Golf Road.

Meanwhile, the former Chevys Fresh Mex next to Bar Louie has already been approved to become a Japanese restaurant called Shabu-You, while Gallagher has received a letter of intent from a potential tenant to renovate the former Panera Bread there into a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant.

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