Over objections from Crystal Lake, McHenry County Board OKs self-storage zoning

Despite an objection from the city of Crystal Lake, the McHenry County Board has approved a zoning change to allow a potential self-storage facility near city limits.

The County Board voted recently 14-3 to approve the change that would permit the business to locate at the former Flowerwood nursery site near the intersection of Routes 14 and 176. The property touches but is not within Crystal Lake city limits. Flowerwood still owns the property, but Prairie Enterprises LLC is under contract to buy it, according to documents.

Because Crystal Lake objected to the zoning change, 14 of the 18 County Board members had to vote yes for it to go through. Exactly 14 members of the board voted in favor of the zoning change.

Board members Brian Sager, R-Woodstock, and Gloria Van Hof, D-Crystal Lake, had explicitly said last week that they would not vote for the measure and stuck by that in the vote last week. Board member Carolyn Campbell, D-Crystal Lake, also voted against it.

Board member Joe Gottemoller, R-Crystal Lake, recused himself from the vote because the property owner is a client of his. Gottemoller left his seat when the zoning change was up for a discussion and vote.

Newly elected board members John Collins, D-Crystal Lake; Deena Krieger, R-Island Lake; Paul Thomas, R-Wonder Lake; and Pat Sullivan, R-Algonquin, all voted in favor of the change in one of their first votes on the board.

Leading up to the vote, board members Larry Smith, R-Harvard, and Matt Kunkle, R-Algonquin, expressed their support for the change as well as the processes leading up to the vote. Smith said he thought the zoning board members did a good job explaining how they got to their opinion, a unanimous 6-0 thumbs-up. Smith said he strongly agreed with their opinion and he would be voting yes.

Kunkle said that when he started on the County Board, he got some advice from board member Pamela Althoff, R-McHenry, to “trust in the process.”

“The process has done its job, worked its way through. Very good, competent people have worked this process,” Kunkle said. “For any of us to stand up here now and say, ‘No, we’re saying we’re smarter than the process, we’re better than the process' – no, it’s politics and bureaucracy.”

Kunkle said the board needs to set that aside and let commerce move ahead.

Board member Jim Kearns, R-Huntley, said the topic had been kicked around and that he felt the petitioners hadn’t been treated fairly.

“If the city of Crystal Lake doesn’t want them, I welcome them into our county and [into] our business organization,” Kearns said.

The board had delayed the vote on the zoning change earlier this year to try to give the city of Crystal Lake and the petitioner time to work out their issues.

Self-storage facilities have been somewhat contentious in Crystal Lake in recent months. The city of Crystal Lake floated a 5% self-storage tax, but it was tabled after self-storage leaders pushed back. Lake in the Hills had a similar proposal on the table, but local officials chose last month not to move forward on it.

After the County Board took its vote, Crystal Lake City Council member Brett Hopkins spoke but stressed he was speaking for himself and not representing the city.

Hopkins said he didn’t initially understand the county’s approval process but gets it now. He said Crystal Lake has a bit of a different approach that takes in not just zoning but use as well.

Hopkins also took issue with some perceptions of Crystal Lake not welcoming businesses.

“I want to make it explicitly clear that we welcome businesses to Crystal Lake,” Hopkins said.

The issue in this case was the city didn’t feel it was the right piece of property for that type of business, Hopkins said.

Other members of the public who commented Thursday, including people from the self-storage industry, spoke mostly in support of the change.