Warehouse, Office Complex Plans up for Debate

December 10, 2007

By TONY GRAF STAFF WRITER

LOCKPORT -- Plans for a 228-acre warehouse and office complex near Homer Glen's Stately Oaks subdivision will be reviewed Tuesday by the Lockport Plan Commission.

ML Realty Partners is seeking preliminary plan approval for a complex southeast of 143rd Street and the Interstate 355 tollway. The development would include segments of land to the immediate south and west of Stately Oaks, and would be near other Homer Township residences off 143rd.

The planned facility would include about 12 lots for buildings, according to a Dec. 4 city staff report. The buildings would vary in size from 65,975 to 440,000 square feet, with the average building size being 218,694 square feet, the report said.

The preliminary plan lists a total of 378 truck docks, 268 potential truck docks and 400 potential trailer stalls.

The 440,000-square-foot building would be near the tollway on the west side of the development.

On the east side, near Stately Oaks, six buildings are planned, with square-footage measurements of 171,000, 167,055, 147,900, 116,000, 67,860 and 65,975.

Dozens of truck docks are planned for these buildings.

Homer Glen resident Dave Sniegowski owns a home to the east of the property, and he plans to show up at Tuesday's meeting.

Sniegowski recalled concerns that residents brought up when Lockport considered the project's concept plan in August and September.

"The concerns that we had were all the truck traffic and certainly the noise, the noise pollution and the safety issues with the school buses," Sniegowski said.

Since then, he said, plans for another large Lockport warehouse complex have been delayed in a separate case. Those plans target land southeast of 159th Street and I-355, and developers have asked Lockport to hire a consultant to determine the best use of the land in question.

"They were going to have a special consultant come up with the best uses of the property, and I would hope they would apply those same standards with this property," Sniegowski said, referring to the property near his home.

"This is kind of all in the same context, right down the tollway," Sniegowski said. "They could look at it all at the same time."

The plan commission meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the third-floor chambers of the Central Square building, 222 E. Ninth St.