‘NO TRUCKS’: More than 500 residents attend testy Deerfield Plan Commission hearing on industrial business park proposal for Baxter site

It wasn’t a basketball game against a rival or a graduation ceremony that drew more than 500 people of all ages to Deerfield High School’s gymnasium on Thursday night.

Instead, it was collective anger and trepidation over a proposal by Bridge Industrial to redevelop the 101-acre campus of Baxter International’s headquarters into a large industrial park that brought the community out to a Deerfield Plan Commission hearing on the plan.

As residents of Deerfield and Riverwoods flashed signs that said, “NO TRUCKS,” “We say yes to safety” and “Keep our kids safe and healthy,” a team of close to 10 Bridge Industrial representatives and consultant presented its plan and was grilled by members of the seven-person commission for three hours.

The commercial real estate company is asking the village of Deerfield to annex the land, currently in unincorporated Lake County, into the village.

Bridge is requesting zoning changes in order to demolish the Baxter complex and build an 896,562-square-foot industrial building, a 228,369-square-foot industrial building and a 155,940-square-foot recreational facility.

After a determined push from Thorngate residents, a large subdivision in Riverwoods which shares a stoplight with the Baxter headquarters and the proposed industrial business park, the local opposition to the proposal has swelled into the thousands.

Many of the opposed community members point to planning documents projecting that around 600 trucks could travel along Saunders Road each day if the facility is built, though Bridge representatives downplayed that figure and the potential increase in emissions during their presentation.

Deerfield resident Dana Shiery said he came out to the meeting because he believes the project would negatively impact Deerfield and the area, including some family members who live very close to the Baxter site.

“We don’t need semi traffic coming up and down Lake Cook Road, Deerfield Road, Saunders,” he said. “This community really needs more green space, more parks, more recreational areas.”

Shiery said approving the plan would be a hypocritical move by the village.

Deerfield leaders have identified a goal of converting the village fleet to electric vehicles, and they plan to reach carbon neutral status by 2050. Earlier this year, the village installed a handful of electric vehicle charging stations at its public works building, with new installations set to follow.

“We’re really trying to find out what this is all about, put a stop (to it) and put our voice forward to let everybody in this development project know that Deerfield is not going to tolerate that industrial traffic in this community,” Shiery said.

Bridge Industrial representatives laid out a significantly altered proposal which scrapped the initial concept of an indoor recreational facility, which they intended to lease to the Deerfield Park District, for an outdoor facility.

Members of the plan commission looked on throughout the meeting with focused, intent expressions, many of them taking notes.

Unimpressed audience members occasionally booed or laughed at various points throughout the presentation, despite pleas for quiet from commission Chair Al Bromberg.

“Ladies and gentleman, stop,” Bromberg warned early in the meeting. “You’ll get your chance (to comment). Everybody will get your chance.”

Cheers broke out from the crowd as commissioners asked stern questions of the company representatives, intent on learning more about reports completed by consultants who argued the project would bring more business benefits than environmental harm.

One consultant explained that while particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions are projected to increase in the area if the project goes through, carbon monoxide levels are projected to decrease.

Plan commissioners Blake Schulman, Ken Stolman and Lisa Crist pushed for more specifics on how traffic and environmental data was compiled, including how the current pollution from nearby Interstate 94 — where about 180,000 vehicles pass through daily, according to Illinois Tollway data — played into the calculations.

In response to Crist’s question about how far particulate emissions from trucks can travel, a consultant said that wind, speed and other factors play a role. He also said weather data shows that the wind often blows toward I-94 to the east, rather than from I-94 west to the Baxter site and the Thorngate subdivision.

That assertion might only deepen concerns about the project for a broader pool of residents, especially in Deerfield to the west of the project, including the Clavinia subdivision.

The proximity of a trio of schools to the Baxter headquarters has also heightened concerns from residents about traffic congestion, the safety of young drivers and school drop-offs and pickups.

Later in the hearing, Stolman pressed Bridge’s team about whether it has conducted post-project studies on similar projects, which was not answered directly.

Schulman questioned the relevance of one consultant’s presentation about how the buildings will not be visible for some residences in Thorngate, and how home values in other areas with similar projects have not seemed to decrease in correlation with nearby industrial construction.

“It’s not necessarily about the sightlines, it’s about the location, the access and the one shared roadway between the two areas,” Schulman said. “As Chair Bromberg was saying, unless you have a before and after (study), it doesn’t really show us the change in (home) market value.”

Initially set for April 27, village officials postponed that hearing to Thursday after it was clear there were too many attendees who would be unable to participate in and witness the hearing, which could have potentially violated the Open Meetings Act.

Many attendees on Thursday night complained during and after the meeting that they were still unable to hear speakers over considerable noise from fans and audible feedback from the sound system.

Due to time constraints, a presentation against the project from an attorney representing the Thorngate Homeowners Association and public comments did not take place, and commissioners continued the hearing to June 8.

Jonathan Pozerycki, a Bridge partner in the Chicago region, and David Meek, an attorney representing the Thorngate Homeowners Association, declined to comment after the meeting.

Schulman was the lone vote against the continuance to June 8 because he said he would not be able to be present that day.

If Deerfield does not grant the zoning changes for which Bridge is petitioning, the company could also turn to the Lake County Board for project approval, though the current zoning designation for the unincorporated land would appear not to allow the project to be built at the proposed scale without similar zoning alterations.

Lake County Planning, Building & Development Director Eric Waggoner said Friday that the county has not been approached, nor has it received any development plans to pursue the project.

“As such, in light of the complexities involved in reviewing any given nonresidential development request, we are not in a position to speculate about the suitability of the site for the project were it to remain unincorporated,” Waggoner said.

An online petition launched ahead of the planned April 27 meeting has more than 4,500 signatures from people voicing disapproval for the plan.

Landmarks Illinois, a historic preservation group, also recently classified the Baxter site as the second-most endangered historic landmark in Illinois. Built in 1972 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the complex is a remnant of the midcentury modern architectural style.

Signs opposing the project have appeared in front of homes and around town, and a Facebook group called 60015 Unite Group has swelled to more than 1,500 members, buzzing with discussion over the proposal and how residents can lend their voices to stopping it. Community members also protested outside the school before the hearing began.

Shiery credited Thorngate residents, who “spearheaded this movement” against the project.

“Once they really moved that forward, the rest of the community jumped onboard and said, ‘Yeah, you’re right. We really can’t let this go through,’” he said. “Especially considering what the village has already promised to their constituents and the community at large.”