Village Board reviews conceptual plans for the construction of a new industrial building in Huntley

HUNTLEY — As many may remember, a property owner known as Huntley Development Limited Partnership (HDLP) had come before the Village Board back in August 2021 seeking an amendment to the I-90/IL 47 Gateway Plan of the village’s Comprehensive Plan to allow HDLP to rezone parcels of vacant property it owns.

The amendment would accommodate “BP” Business Park zoning for 29.7 acres of land located near the northeast corner of Route 47 and Freeman Road.

At that time, HDLP had told trustees that they didn’t have any bids from developers for the vacant parcels of property, but it seems that has since changed with a company known as MG Logistics (MGL) now proposing to purchase, subdivide, and develop approximately 20 acres of land located immediately south of the Village Green shopping center.

According to the Sept. 8 Village Board meeting agenda packet, MGL’s proposal includes the construction of a 213,745-square-foot industrial building in which MGL will be the sole occupant.

MGL is a company that operates nationwide in the freight arrangement, ground transportation, and equipment leasing segments of the logistics industry and has been in operation for nearly 20 years. Currently, MGL has 150 U.S.-based non-driver employees and plans to consolidate all existing offices in and around the Chicagoland area to its new headquarters in Huntley.

Village staff stated that a site access plan and an associated traffic study will be reviewed by the village’s transportation consultant as part of the formal development application for the property.

One of the major bonuses presented to trustees regarding the proposed site plan included the building’s “L” shaped configuration, which will provide further shielding of the truck courts as would be viewed from the Village Green shopping center.

It is intended that primary semi-truck access will be off Freeman Road and the improved Weber Access Road, stated village staff. Passenger vehicle access may be provided by two right in/ right out access driveways and one 3/4 access along Route 47.

Following the presentation of the proposed plans, trustees were allowed to give their feedback to the petitioner.

Trustee Curt Kittle asked the petitioner about their traffic estimates for their warehouse location.

The petitioner for MGL stated that they compared their warehouse to other typical distribution centers and found that MGL’s truck traffic is approximately one-third of what other distribution centers typically have.

The petitioner estimated that his warehouse would have about 55 to 65 truck trips a day, while also stating that if the company were to start with 75 employees, those individuals would generate about 215 passenger vehicle trips going in and out of the facility.

Trustee Harry Leopold did not object to the petitioner’s plans and was happy to hear the building would be occupied by actual employees.

“They’ll buy gas here and they’ll eat their lunch in the restaurants here hopefully. Just three things. No truck traffic from Oak Creek Parkway, the one that goes in by Wendy’s. No truck traffic up there,” Leopold told the petitioner. “All trucks have to come in from the south. Secondly, I’d like a lot of landscaping to screen the building as much as possible and thirdly, I’d like to see a lot of lighting on the outside of the building.”

Trustee Mary Holzkopf had no further comments to add, while Trustees Niko Kanakaris and JR Westberg both agreed with Leopold on having extra lighting for the outside of the building.

“I appreciate you guys coming to Huntley. It’s a good fit. If there’s no commercial being built here, we might as well build more industrial,” stated Kanakaris.

The last of the trustees, Ronda Goldman, was a bit concerned about the addition of a new warehouse in the southern region of Huntley.

“Part of me wants to kind of wait and I know you don’t want to, but I want to kind of see the impact that the truck traffic will be like on [Route] 47, [I-90], [and], etc. once we get going on other buildings that have already started to be built,” Goldman told the petitioner. “But I know that you’re eager to get started. So, I’m glad we’re going to do a traffic study. That’s really good because that may reassure me too.”

Mayor Tim Hoeft liked the overall concept of the warehouse plans and only had the suggestion to add an accent piece on the roof of the building for the west and north elevations to give the building “more character.”

Seeing as the plans that were presented to the trustees were just conceptual, the board was not required to take any further action that night.