Plans for a new industrial development on Glenview’s west side received unanimous approval from elected officials this month amid opposition from nearby residents and one trustee’s attempt to put limits on the types of trucks allowed to use the site.
The Glenview Village Board on April 7 voted 6-0 in favor of several measures that will allow developer Scott Gibbel to create Sanders Corporate Park, described as a “clean and light” industrial park with four buildings consisting of a total of 382,460 square feet of space and 53 truck bays on 29 acres of land southwest of I-294 and north of Willow Road.
An initial proposal that appeared before the Glenview Development Commission last year called for three buildings on the site. The plan was revised to include two buildings and revised again with four buildings.
The site currently consists of two vacant office buildings from the former CVS Health corporate campus, and undeveloped land belonging to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
The new corporate park, if constructed, will be located just up the road from a 10-building industrial park under development at 3075 Sanders Road, the former Allstate headquarters.
The Glenview Village Board also agreed to support the developer’s application for property-tax relief from Cook County in the form of a 6(b) Real Estate Tax Incentive. If granted by the county, the incentive will reduce the assessment rate of the property from 25% to 10% for the first 10 years. While this will lower the amount of taxes paid by the property owner, the village expects to see a sizable increase in property tax revenue if the land is developed—an estimated $15.7 million in taxes collected over 12 years, Director of Community Development Jeff Brady told the board.
Residents from an adjacent neighborhood in unincorporated Cook County filed an objectors’ petition to the development, presenting concerns they had expressed during earlier meetings about truck traffic, pollution, decreased property values, incompatibility with decades-old residential areas and unknowns concerning future tenants.
A statement read by members of the opposition group said rezoning a portion of the land to match the industrial zoning of the remaining acres “introduces significant safety, traffic and land-use risks without providing any demonstrated benefit. The developer has no confirmed tenants, making it impossible to evaluate future operations, truck volumes, environmental impacts or safety hazards.”
Shannon Zorn, who co-led the April 7 presentation objecting to the corporate park project, said she and other neighbors are “deeply disappointed” with the trustees’ vote.
“Those of us who live here and use these roads every day have already witnessed a dramatic increase in semi‑truck traffic, despite repeated assurances that such trucks are not permitted on these routes,” she said.
“This decision will only make our streets more dangerous. Once again, the trustees have allowed financial interests to outweigh what is truly best for the community.”
According to the ordinance approved by the Village Board, prohibited uses within the new industrial park include data centers, “intensive” logistics centers involving “constant semi-truck movements,” waste and recycling businesses, sexually-oriented businesses, and processing centers, like chemical manufacturers, petroleum refining and more.
Examples of potential tenants include food processors, beverage distributors, freight logistics companies, machine shops, printing businesses, research labs, warehouse and storage facilities and manufacturing, packaging, fulfillment and processing facilities, among others.
Gibbel said trucks will enter and exit the property at a traffic traffic signal south of residential areas and will be prohibited from turning north onto Sanders.
In a lengthy address, Trustee Jim Bland championed the project, saying the property in its vacant state is “generating nothing for the taxpayers of Glenview” and that anyone hoping for office tenants to return “has been waiting through 15 consecutive quarters of proof that they are not coming.”
He disagreed that issues with truck traffic and pollution would materialize, and also noted that the objecting residents do not reside in Glenview.
“Our obligation is to every resident and taxpayer of the village of Glenview—not to a single neighborhood and not to the residents of unincorporated Northbrook whose concerns, while understandable as neighbors, do not fall within our jurisdiction,” he said.
“It would be a distortion of our role to let the opposition determine a decision that affects all of Glenview’s residents.”
At one point during the nearly three-hour discussion, Trustee Adam Sidoti inquired if the ordinance before the Village Board could be amended to put restrictions on certain truck sizes and weights in order prevent large, heavy vehicles from using Sanders Road to access the property.
Gibbel said such restrictions would make potential tenants look elsewhere, while Bland accused Sidoti of trying to “kill the deal” with his suggestion.
“A 53-foot trailer prohibition is completely unreasonable,” Bland said. “It wouldn’t make this marketable. Trustee Sidoti knows that.”
How truck size restrictions would be enforced was not part of the discussion, and no motion was ultimately made to include limits in the language of the ordinance.
Sidoti ultimately voted in favor of the project without the restriction, but acknowledged it was “a very hesitant yes.”
Trustee Gina DeBoni expressed concerns about carcinogenic chemicals potentially used by future tenants of the industrial park and their impacts on people in and around the area.
“I feel very strongly that class one carcinogens in businesses should not be used in this type of facility,” she said. “That’s pretty much a deal breaker for me.”
Ultimately, an amendment to the development ordinance was made to specifically prohibit manufacturing that uses class one carcinogens as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Another amendment requires a village review of any tenants looking to occupy more than 50,000 square feet of space in the corporate park.
