Last week, the Lake County Regional Planning Commission voted against recommending rezoning and a Planned Unit Development (PUD) for the 109-acre Dimucci property on the southeast corner of Rte. 12 and Old McHenry Road.

At 5 p.m., Wednesday, July 18, the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) will begin its deliberations on the request to rezone the property from residential to commercial, as well as a request for a conditional use permit and a PUD. The public hearing will be held at Concorde Banquets in Kildeer. 

According to Eric Waggoner, director of planning building and development for Lake County, this first meeting will begin with an introduction of the request and the petitioners will present their case. 

“The ZBA may ask questions of the petitioner, and any other interested parties, who have asked to do so, may also question the petitioner or petitioner’s representatives,” Waggoner said.

Next, organizations (such as villages), which have requested, may make a presentation and the organizations may be questioned by the ZBA as well as by the petitioner.  Waggoner said this part of the hearing might continue on to a second date.

The general public will also have an opportunity to comment, but that is unlikely at the first date, Waggoner said.  

After the general public comment, the petitioner and organizations would have an opportunity to make closing statements. After all the testimony is concluded the ZBA would begin its deliberations. 

Waggoner expects that the process will involve several meetings over the next several weeks. 

The plan is being opposed by the villages of North Barrington and Hawthorn Woods, the Barrington Area Council of Governments (BACOG) and Active Citizens for Responsible Expansion (ACRE), based in Lake Zurich.

Protect Lakewood has recently joined the opposition and is urging those on its email list to attend the meetings. Protect Lakewood is headed by attorney Loraine Ray, who is also an RPC member. At the RPC deliberations, Ray argued that the PUD is too vague and that the proposed commercial development does not fit the character of the neighborhood at Rte. 12 and Old McHenry Road, which includes an equestrian community. The south end of Lakewood Forest Preserve is just to the north of the proposed development.