Could a transportation garage be in the future for DuPage County fairgrounds?

DuPage County is eyeing the possibility of putting a multimillion-dollar transportation complex on the county fairgrounds property in Wheaton.

Not everyone is keen on the idea, especially some neighbors and an organizer of the county fair.

“We’re not happy with it. I think there’s other places it can go. It’s going to have a huge impact on the business of the fair and the fairgrounds and what we’re able to do,” said Jim McGuire, the executive manager of the nonprofit entity that leases the property from the county.

Officials have proposed moving major DuPage Division of Transportation operations — a highway garage, fuel station and salt shed — on the west side of County Farm Road to the fairgrounds. The garage in particular was constructed in the late 1950s, and the building needs major repairs.

“I respect and understand that we have infrastructure needs, and I’m absolutely willing to sit down and find the best outcome for all,” said county board member Lynn LaPlante, who has championed locating a performing arts venue on the fairgrounds property. “But, I don’t like the industrialization of the fairgrounds for the people of DuPage County. I think that’s really precious land.”

Neighbors are worried about the loss of green space and possible traffic congestion on and around the county campus.

“It’s not a very good plan to spring this on the residents. This is a residential area,” said Sheila Love, who lives near the fairgrounds.

Last year, county officials presented options for a new facility. Rebuilding or expanding the existing garage on the same site would not provide the needed space and would restrict traffic patterns for transportation vehicles, officials said. With an estimated cost of $70 million to $75 million, a potential location at St. Charles and County Farm roads was the most expensive of all the options at the time.

Another option was the main parking area of the fairgrounds along Manchester Road. Yet another would have the facility on the north end of the fairgrounds.

“It’s got to be by the train tracks. It can’t be by Manchester,” county board member Jim Zay said.

With an anticipated price tag of $73 million to $82 million, the county’s Division of Transportation would fund most of the multiyear project through its budget. The division proposes setting aside $28 million in the 2025 budget to get the project started.

The board is scheduled to discuss the plans for a new garage on Nov. 26 and vote on a resolution authorizing funding for the 2025 budget at their Dec. 10 meeting.

The north end of the fairgrounds is mostly open space. Barns at one time held horses during the county fair.

However, fair organizers have used the north side for outdoor events, including, in recent years, Ribfest, Eid Fest and the Chicago Scots Highland Games.

“There really is not a way for us to make up for that, and it’s a huge percentage of our business,” McGuire said.

He knows that the county’s garage is old. But he doesn’t think it belongs at the fairgrounds.

“I do believe they could put it somewhere else, where it’s not as impactful on this facility, which is a great benefit to the community,” McGuire said.

Zay said the county is trying to be fiscally responsible. The county wouldn’t have to spend millions of dollars to acquire land elsewhere for the project.

“This is the property that’s there and that we can get to,” Zay said.

County board member Mary FitzGerald Ozog, who heads the board’s transportation committee, voiced support for the project and said it would help meet the division’s needs.

“I think it’s going to be good for the county,” Ozog said. “It keeps everything in one place as the transportation division.”

Zay said the “fairgrounds with this proposal will coexist with the garage.”

The county would look to extend the north ring road farther east to connect to the area.

Trucks would be “coming in through the county entrance over by the parking garages. So I think that would alleviate a lot of the truck noise if they’d be worried about it on Manchester,” Zay said of neighbors.

Zay said he would like to see something like Wheaton’s Memorial Park band shelter with lawn seating at the fairgrounds.

“Hopefully, with this construction, we can revitalize it and give the fairgrounds a little bit of what they want,” Zay said. “And if we do put in some kind of band shelter or something back in there, that would help the fair even more.”

Asked about the band shelter, McGuire said that’s one of the things that “we had talked about in the past,” enhancing the uses on the grounds.

“Those are the areas I was hoping we were going, to improve what we do here for the community, to give us facilities to help us do it better,” he said. “And those were the things that I’m more hopeful for, that I hope will happen.”

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