Proprietors want to open a gravel pit near Marengo. Neighbors are upset.

A farm field near Marengo could soon be home to a gravel mine and ready-mix plant.

But many of the neighbors who live near the property are upset about the possibility of the field being converted to that use.

McHenry County officials are reviewing a proposal to renew a conditional use permit for Maple Valley Materials to operate a gravel pit with the addition of a ready mix facility on the property, which is immediately west of Maple Street near Marengo and south of the Maple Street-Coral Road intersection.

The property is near an existing Ozinga operation off Route 23 south of Marengo toward Interstate 90. The plant is visible in the distance from Maple Street, and some of the residents who oppose the Maple Street enterprise have said Route 23 is a better spot for such operations.

Steve Gavers, the petitioner for the project, said his operation will be nothing like the Ozinga one. “We’re a small family company,” Gavers said.

The property has had the conditional use permit since 2003 for earth extraction, according to county documents. The permit is up for renewal and the Gavers is seeking to also build a ready-mix plant on the site.

Gavers serves on the Woodstock Plan Commission and is also the founder of the Gavers Community Cancer Foundation’s Barndance.

Gavers is listed as the applicant on the application, but other family members or their trusts are listed as the managers for the company, Maple Valley Materials.

The Gavers family has another operating gravel pit near Woodstock, just off Rose Farm Road. That operation raised opposition from residents as well back in 2016, the Northwest Herald reported at the time.

Gavers, who said they have owned the Marengo property since the late 1990s, said there’s never been any complaints or problems at the Woodstock site.

Back near Marengo, neighbors have mobilized against the plan and spoke at a county meeting Tuesday. Those who came out to express their opposition to the gravel operation made up most of the crowd and they filled most of the audience space in the County Board room.

A Change.org petition calling on the County Board to reject the petition garnered over 350 signatures as of Wednesday.

Environmental and noise impacts are among the issues residents raised Tuesday evening.

Ryan McGrath, who lives on Maple Street, told the board Tuesday evening his house was built in 2004; he and his family moved in in 2016 “after immediately falling in love with it on first sight.”

McGrath said in the past 20 years, the area “has shifted towards a more residential focus.”

McGrath said approving the gravel pit would impact the character of the community, people’s daily lives and the environment.

“These effects cannot be ignored. This great neighborhood will turn into an industrial corridor,” McGrath said.

Jacqui Mitzelfelt said her family has been part of the Marengo-Riley community since the 1950s. She moved out to the rural area to give her children a healthy and safe environment.

Mitzelfelt said the plant would generate silica dust. She and her family farm, and she said silica dust can cause respiratory issues in animals.

“Silica dust is dangerous to everyone, especially our children and elders and the thought of it contaminating our air is terrifying,” Mitzelfelt said.

She said her husband handles concrete daily and he comes home many nights “coughing and blowing his nose, black concrete particles coming out.”

Gavers said there will be a recovery system to capture the cement dust, like a giant vacuum on the truck.

Theresa Kyriazes spoke about the noise that could arise from the potential plant.

“This isn’t just about occasional noise disturbance. It’s about constant, injurious noise that will fundamentally change our lives,” Kyriazes said, mentioning findings from a noise study included in zoning board materials.

The damage to the community if the permit is approved could never be undone, Kyriazes said.

The hours of operation would be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekends, according to county documents. Those hours are a condition on the current permit, and county staff is recommending that condition be continued.

Gavers said truck traffic is variable, but having the ready-mix plant on site cuts the truck traffic down by about two-thirds.

“That is the biggest thing,” Gavers said, adding everyone hates trucks.

County documents indicate the site is located in a sensitive aquifer recharging area, and there is a potential for contamination, which is another concern of opponents.

“The applicants are required to install monitoring wells on the site, which will be actively monitored by McHenry County,” according to county documents.

Among the conditions county staff has proposed for the operation include “no earth extraction and/or mining operation(s) is permitted to operate in such a manner that the groundwater table of surrounding properties is adversely impacted.”

It’s a condition that Gavers said during a zoning board hearing, he agreed to.

The proposal is before the McHenry County Board with a negative recommendation from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

Most of the County Board hasn’t weighed in during public meetings about the topic, but after about half a dozen residents had expressed their opposition Tuesday, board member Brian Sager, R-Woodstock, responded to the comments.

Sager said his comments weren’t meant to indicate how he’ll vote on the matter but he thanked the members of the public for speaking up and speaking out, noting it’s often hard for people to speak before public bodies.

He noted the research the residents embarked on and how they used it justify their position.

“It’s very obvious that you all have worked together as a community to identify how you were going to present tonight and I think you did so in a very effective manner to express your individual and collective opposition so I want to commend and to thank you for that,” Sager said.

County Board rules state for a conditional use permit to get the thumbs-up, it needs a “simple majority” of the board to vote yes on it. The rules are silent on any potential override conditions.

Some of the neighbors have noted in public comment, however, that no backyard should have a gravel pit.

“This is not a ‘not in my backyard’ issue. This does not belong in anybody’s backyard,” Joel Kyriazes said at a county meeting last week.