At the Thursday, May 21, Lombard Village Board of Trustees meeting, a vote on second reading was anticipated with the respect to the indoor auto storage and Octane Lounge projects slated for 865 E. Roosevelt Road.
However, after public participation and discussion among the trustees, Village President Anthony Puccio suggested that the votes on second reading be delayed until the June 17 meeting.
The board had voted on first reading at the May 9 meeting, with Trustees Brian LaVaque (District One) and Jessica Hammersmith (District Two) voting no on the indoor auto storage and LaVaque voting no on the Octane Lounge project.
Trevor Dick, director of Economic Development and Planning, previously outlined how the petitioner and property owner, Ahmed Khan, “proposes to convert the existing building on the property to a multi-tenant commercial building,” adding that there will be four small tenant spaces in the north section of the building for restaurants and retail/services, as well as patio seating outdoors.
To the south, Khan wants to operate a business called Octane Lounge, which Dick described as “a membership-based business that offers car storage for high-end personal vehicles and space for members to gather and socialize.”
“Three of the existing bays in the building will be maintained for auto detailing and similar services,” he added.
Dick noted that no building additions are being proposed and the parking lot “will remain largely as-is, with minor modifications to address circulation around the cross-access connection with the Creekview development to the west (855 E. Roosevelt Road).”
He also explained that “The car storage and lounge space use does not exist in the Lombard Zoning Code,” therefore the petitioner is requesting conditional use along the B4A Roosevelt Road Corridor District.
During the May 21 meeting, several residents again expressed concerns about traffic and noise.
Adam Johnson said he was speaking “out of concern for the safety of our community in that neighborhood,” adding that “We already have an overflow of traffic.”
He then played a recording of an undetermined number of loud vehicles from Saturday, May 16, purportedly in the vicinity of the Pep Boys building.
James Barnett spoke of his concerns about the nature and wildlife in the area, saying that “We’ve lost a lot of wildlife, which I worried would happen.”
He believes the petitioner is “happy to have the land and they’re trying to figure it out.”
He also cited noise concerns, saying of loud cars that “If my wife hears it again, she’s going to call the police.”
“This car thing is too much, I think,” he added.
Doris Dornberger opined that “This project doesn’t make sense,” and related back to the last meeting when “most of you [board members] had significant questions.”
“I am concerned there will continue to be issues coming up,” she said. “I encourage you to continue thinking about it.”
Anne Tobey-Garcia said she lives closer to High Point Centre but shares concerns about noise and believes there is “too much noise and not enough parking” nearby.
District Three Trustee Bernie Dudek said if the alleged incident with the vehicle(s) indeed happened on the project property, “I have a big problem with that.”
“I don’t understand at all what happened on Saturday,” he continued, also wondering if such an incident might happen in the future.
LaVaque commented that he sees the Butterfield Road corridor as “a better fit” for the project, adding, “I don’t see it being a fit for Roosevelt Road or the [village’s] Comprehensive Plan.”
He also called the project “a square peg in a round hole.”
District Four Trustee Patrick Egan asked the petitioner’s attorney, Mark Daniel about “valet” services, to which Daniel responded that it would not be valet parking but instead, valet employees driving vehicles in and out of the garage, so with respect to parking, “Nothing is changing.”
District Six Trustee Bob Bachner, whose district the project is in, said in response to one comment that since the building was already there, “We’re not affecting nature in the area or the flood plain.”
“I think it’s a business we should pursue,” he added.
Daniel spoke to the alleged car “meet” as Johnson described it, saying, “I can’t tell you where that car came from,” also commenting that from the recording, the noise was “not much louder than what you hear from Roosevelt Road.”
Daniel said the petitioner, Ahmed Khan, is currently out of the country and was unavailable to address the incident.
“The only reason this is going on is because we’re not occupying [the space],” he continued.
“Nobody knows what happened Saturday night,” Daniel said, mentioning how employees from adjacent businesses “noticed nothing out of the ordinary.”
He was emphatic in insisting that there was “no connection at all to us.”
The attorney said that should an incident such as this occur, “There’s going to be a call made,” with Police Chief Joe Grage saying there was no call to the Lombard Police or the DuPage County Sheriff’s Office about loud vehicles that night.
Puccio said there is “no definitive proof” that the vehicle noise stemmed from the property at 865 E. Roosevelt Road, and that it would be fair to delay any vote until Khan and Trustees Hammersmith and Dan Militello could be present to “weigh in.”
“For me, personally, this is more [about] zoning issues,” Puccio commented. However, “We’re going to have to have some strong assurances.”
It is anticipated that the board will vote, on second reading, at the June 17 board meeting.
