Gurnee board to consider plans for industrial complex near Great America
Just south of Great America sits a 35-acre, triangular parcel mostly made up of farm land bordered by Washington Street, Milwaukee Avenue and Interstate 294. It has long been seen by village leaders as the site of Gurnee's next big tourist attraction.
Monday night, however, the village board will discuss a very different plan by a prominent developer to build two massive industrial buildings with the capacity to unload more than 100 semitrailer trucks at a time.
Nick Segal of Bridge Development Partners already presented the plan to the village's planning and zoning commission in March. The feedback was chilly.
"To me, I don't like it all, I don't think it meets the character of the village," Commissioner Tim Garrity said at the March 3 meeting.
Jim Sula, the chair of the commission, said no matter how you slice it the plan calls for a big warehouse, which does not fit the village's vision.
"At this conceptual level I'm having a hard time being supportive," Sula said.
Commissioner Brian Baugh said the plan was completely out of character for that location.
Just because the project would generate tax dollars is not enough reason to go along with it, he said.
"Yes that's one component of viable development, but that's not the be-all end-all of good land planning for our community," Baugh added.
For more than two years, Gurnee leaders crafted a strategic plan that was ratified last year. In it, leaders referred to the parcel as a "community character area" because of its size, location and proximity to key transportation access and other community assets.
At the March 3 commission meeting, Segal admitted that the industrial plan didn't match the village's vision. But he said company officials think the site can be successful as an industrial complex similar to others they've developed across Lake County.
The plan calls for the construction of two large rectangular buildings that would run parallel to Washington Street.
Both would have truck ports, and between the two buildings would be a paved area that truckers would use to come and go.
The plan also calls for a small commercial area near the intersection of Washington Street and Milwaukee Avenue.
Segal said he didn't anticipate the interest for putting commercial real estate at that corner being very high. The owner of the gas station on that corner has refused to sell so they would likely build around it, he added.
The village board is set to discuss the plan and provide feedback to the developers at its meeting tonight.