North Chicago City Council on May 19 approved a rezoning request that shifts a site at 3601 Skokie Highway from light to heavy industrial to allow a truck repair center to occupy part of the facility, leaving neighbors concerned about what other businesses might step in.
Brems Realty, an affiliate with Emco Chemical distributors, submitted a request for a rezoning of an industrial site. According to Brems Realty, the locations rezoning change is to establish a truck repair center. However, the truck repair company will occupy a small portion of the building, leaving the rest vacant.
“This change will align our zoning designation with the adjacent property to the north, ensuring consistency in land use and planning,” Brems Realty said in its description of the proposed map amendment. “Rezoning to M3 will provide greater flexibility for business operations, attract a wider range of commercial and industrial tenants, and enhance economic opportunities for the area.”
Currently, the location is listed as an M1 industrial zone, which allows processing and storage of materials, as long as they are conducted within an enclosed building. An M3 classification would allow for heavy industrial use like chemical plants, waste disposal and heavy manufacturing.
Residents of the surrounding area apposed the change and expressed their concerns about an incoming business conducting large scale manufacturing and waste disposal 200 ft away from a residential area.
When the request was brought to the North Chicago planning and zoning commission, it was voted down 3-2 recommending that its zoning code not be changed. However, a month later, the city council voted 7-1 to approve the rezoning from an M1 to an M3.
Alderman Michael R. Jackson, who voted against the rezoning, said that after reviewing all the documents, he didn’t feel it was the right fit.
“If we wanted to do a truck repair center, couldn’t we just amend M1 to add that?” Jackson asked.
Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr., who supported the rezoning change, said the decision was made to give businesses an opportunity to come in and lease right away.
“If you look along that zoning corridor, you see a lot of M3’s that are there right now which are in close proximity to housing that was in question,” Rockingham said. “We want to make sure that if other companies are coming in, they don’t have to wait to go through a two-to-three-month process if they’re requesting an M3 zone.”
Rockingham said that if an incoming business were to lease the site, they would have to apply for a business license in the city of North Chicago. During the licensing process, the city would have a chance to review their business practices and remove any M3 privileges the city might not want them to have.
Chief of staff Gregory Jackson added that the city had the power to adjust M3 entitlements at any time. Businesses would have to submit a petition to gain access to anything outside of what’s allowed.
“If we had somebody come in that wanted to do asbestos production, we can remove that entitlement in the code as long as it doesn’t violate an official petition,” Jackson said. “We’ve got control over permitting, occupancy, how the Environmental Protection Agency gets engaged, and what entitlements will and will not be on M3.”
After multiple attempts to reach Brems Realty manager BJ Korman, who submitted the request, an Emco secretary called requested to be placed on a no-call list, stating, “Don’t call here again.”
