WOODSTOCK — Owners of a 204-acre property located about a mile south of Kishwaukee Valley Road and South Rose Farm Road in Seneca Township are applying to renew the property's conditional use permit to allow the continued operation of a gravel excavation and processing business on the property.
They’re also asking for a renewal of a conditional use permit to allow concrete recycling and a concrete ready-mix plant on a 5-acre portion of the property, which is causing some concern for residents in the surrounding the area.
Steve Gavers is an operator of the facility, run by Valley Aggregates LLC, and appeared at the hearing as an agent of his mother, Sally Gavers, according to the transcript.
The McHenry County Zoning Board of Appeals is expected to make a decision on its recommendation at 1:30 p.m. May 12 at the McHenry County Administration building, 667 Ware Road, Woodstock.
Kim Kolner, senior planner with the county, said after the board makes its recommendation, it will typically go before the McHenry County Board for final consideration at its next meeting.
The first conditional use permit was issued for the site in 1985, according to a staff report for the zoning board of appeals. Another was issued for concrete recycling and a ready mix in 1993, and both of the conditional use permits were renewed in 1995 and most recently in 2005, the report stated.
“There’s no change” to the property, Gavers said after the second hearing Wednesday.
At an April 7 McHenry County Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, attended by about 20 members of the public, Gavers testified about the detailed extraction and reclamation process that happens on the property, according to a meeting transcript.
Gavers said the business receives concrete and processes and recycles it on site. During peak time, there can be 15 to 20 trucks going through the property per day, he said.
The recycling operation occurs in the middle of the property, Gavers said. There is also a mixer near the recycling operation that hasn’t been put into operation yet because of the huge economic downturn, Gavers said.
If the recycling operation was put into operation, Gavers said it wouldn’t increase truck traffic because work would be being done in house. He also confirmed the business did not have any active violations from the county’s planning and development department and health department.
Donald Palmer, professional engineering consultant with Baxter and Woodman, has worked with the Gavers for 20 years, he said at the second hearing Wednesday. Palmer described the operations of the plant and fielded questions from the board before the public was allowed to ask comments and ask questions.
About 10 people were in the audience at Wednesday’s hearing, and they asked questions regarding their concerns on how the property’s operations will affect noise in the area, the environment and property values.
One resident who attended the meeting, Norb Ziemer, owns a property that borders the Gavers’ property.
“As neighbors and members of the community there, we hope to see a continuation of the present conditions, the use of surround lands as agricultural lands, and we are concerned to not see an increased level of truck traffic,” Ziemer said.
Ziemer, and another neighbor, Ben Widoff, said their concern is not as much with the property the way it is run now, but what would happen if another owner took over.
Some worried that an owner could expand the property to farmland on the property east of Rose Farm Road and south of South Street Road, but Gavers maintained the land would not be excavated.
Kolner said typically conditional use permits stick with the land and not the owner, which is why neighbors want to make sure their concerns are taken into consideration for the conditional permit.