Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns on Monday voted in favor of a 55.62-acre annexation, which will include a 719,200-square-foot warehouse, known as Venture Park, on Geneva’s east side.
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In a series of split votes at a special meeting Monday, Geneva City Council members approved a 55.62-acre annexation, which will include a 719,200-square-foot warehouse on the city’s east side.
The vote was 10-0 for annexation with Mayor Kevin Burns voting yes and Fifth Ward Alderman Craig Maladra absent.
The other three votes were for:
• A Comprehensive Plan Amendment changing it from commercial to industrial
• A zoning map amendment to light industrial from rural single family upon annexation
• Site plan approval for a 719,200-square-foot industrial building and ancillary site improvements.
Council members voted 6-3. All three nay votes were from Third Ward Alderpersons Becky Hruby and Dean Kilburg and Fifth Ward Alderman Robert Swanson.
Venture One Acquisitions LLC is seeking to annex nearly 55 acres on Geneva’s east side to allow for a warehouse distribution center. The city council approved the annexation earlier this week.
Courtesy of city of Geneva
The site is generally east of Kirk Road between Old Kirk Road to the north and Fabyan Parkway to the south, City Administrator Stephanie Dawkins said.
“The applicant, Venture One Acquisitions LLC, is seeking to annex the property into the city to develop the site as a speculative industrial facility for one or two prospective tenants in line with the city’s … light industrial zoning district,” Dawkins said.
In addition to the warehouse, the site would include two access points and a signal at the intersection off Kirk Road, across from the entrance to the Fox Valley Ice Arena, Dawkins said.
Another access point would be off Dawn Boulevard at the south end of the site, she said.
The site also would feature 119 dock positions, four drive-in doors, 555 car parking spaces, and 145 trailer parking spaces, records show.
In a 4-1 vote May 9, the city planning and zoning commission did not recommend approval.
Community Development Director David DeGroot said the signal would relieve pressure from additional traffic at the existing lights at Fabyan Parkway and Kirk Road and Illinois Route 38 and Kirk.
“That signal could also relieve pressure from the Fox Valley Ice Arena and from the Cougar Stadium when they have events,” DeGroot said.
Andrew Bowen, a traffic engineer with KLOA Inc., said adding a signal would create another point where people stop on Kirk Road — but it would have a very small impact.
“This would be an actuated signal and it would give almost all of the green time to through traffic,” Bowen said. “It would stop pretty irregularly. This is partially because it will be coordinated with the Kirk and Fabyan signal, which is a pretty long cycle length. And since the development itself won’t generate that much traffic, it only needs a small percent of that cycle … like 90% of the time, it’s going to be like through traffic.”
The intersection off Kirk Road would get traffic signals across from the entrance to the Fox Valley Ice Arena as part of the development of the warehouse complex at Old Kirk Road to the north and Fabyan Parkway to the south in Geneva.
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Mark Goode of Venture One said the city’s South East Master Plan says the area “may be best suited for light industrial land use as an extension of the land uses to the south and east.”
Goode said it will take 15 to 18 months to build. He said he does not have a tenant yet, but as a developer of larger buildings, he expects it to be leased by the time it’s completed in December 2025 or spring 2026.
Based on a similar-sized building in Huntley, 60% of the property already is leased by the Sanfilippo nut company, Goode said.
“Chicago is the second-largest … the most vibrant industrial market in the country right now,” Goode said.
Second Ward Alderman Bradley Kosirog asked why the parcel originally was marked for commercial as opposed to industrial.
“The South East Master Plan was adopted by the city in 2012,” DeGroot said. “At that time, there were plans to really improve the Settlers Hill area with an amphitheater, hotel, other recreational uses. The idea was the site could support those commercial uses as well as the Cougar stadium and the ice rink. That development has not occurred.”
Fifth Ward Alderman Robert Swanson said at issue is the size of the development as well as the number of other warehouses in the area.
“The residents on the east side of Geneva are just tired of it,” Swanson said. “They would like to see a pause and wonder when it’s going to end. … It is a loud street. And it’s only going to get worse.”
Swanson said with this development, the city is adding more truck traffic to the area.
“I side with the residents on the east side of Geneva,” Swanson said. “They’re seeing the landscape around them deteriorate and they’d like to see us doing something about it.”
Kosirog countered, saying, “I just don’t even understand what commercial would be successful in the middle of a bunch of industrial buildings.”
“This is a beautiful building … I just think this is what we were waiting for,” he added.