Monday, March 7, 2011

Guess What They Want to Build in Glen Carbon

A Sam's Club AND an expansion of the WalMart! That's right, folks. We avoided the Walton Corporation's previous attempt to fill our town with more traffic from their proposed SuperCenter expansion of WalMart. But Sam's descendants are back again. They presented a new WalMart expansion proposal to our Building and Development Committee in February*. And now they want to put a Sam's Club at the corner of 159 and Goshen/Center Grove Road. The old Goshen Do-It Center building and Four Flags are up for grabs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm tired of seeing an abandoned building as much as the next resident. But a Sam's Club? Imagine the traffic piling up at that intersection from 270 and points South as well as Governor's Parkway.

Our Village has a set of FOUR meetings scheduled for March; the final meeting potentially approving the project. That seems like a pretty quick process, doesn't it?

The Village home page announces a "special" Building and Development meeting coming up TOMORROW. But you have to look up the Agenda to find out what this meeting addresses; it is devoted solely to consideration of the Sam's Club proposal. In additon, the meeting nights for both the Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning and Zoning Commission have been changed. Interestingly, they are now being held in the proper order for having a propsal passed.

The agendas have yet to be published for March meetings of Planning and Zoning, Zoning Board of Appeals and the Village Board's second meeting.

Two sources, however, have shared the following with us:

  • March 8, 5:00 pm Special Meeting of Building and Development, one item of business: propsed Sam's Club (published information)
  • March 16th, DATE CHANGE, Zoning Board of appeals will consider the Sam's proposal
  • March 17th, DATE CHANGE, Planning and Zoning will consider the Sam's proposal
  • March 22, Village Board will consider and potentially vote on the Sam's proposal

Citizens, if you have an opinion on the proposals for the WalMart expansion and/or Sam's Club, you know what you need to do. Go to these meetings to be heard. Send letters, emails and call your Commission members and Village Board members.

And you better do it now, because they could start building in April at the rate this is being rammed through the system.

*www.glen-carbon.il.us/archives/53/BldgDevCommAge022811.pdf



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