Elgin-based Plote Inc. will have to post a million-dollar bond before the Chicago Zoning Board of Appeals will grant it a zoning variance to operate a controversial concrete-crushing machine near three North Side schools.
But even that won’t be enough unless the city’s Environment Department approves a special-use permit as well.
Roger Staudohar, chief zoning officer for the board, said Monday that the bond is the first imposed by the board. He said it is being imposed as a guarantee that Plote will clean up the 6-acre site southeast of Addison and Rockwell Streets once the operation is over Oct. 31.
The zoning variance and its requirements will be included in a board resolution to be issued next week, Staudohar said.
Meanwhile, Monday evening, the city Department of Environment held a public hearing co-sponsored by Ald. Eugene Schulter (47th) to get comments on the site.
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About 200 people, including school officials, residents, city and health officials and organizations, including the American Lung Association, gathered in the auditorium of Lane Technical High School, 2501 W. Addison St., to voice opposition to the company.
Warren Fuller, attorney for Plote, told the audience that the site and job was only a process that would take place during the Kennedy Expressway construction until the end of October. He said the property would be restored to better than its original state, but he did not elaborate.
Because of the large crowd, the company was asked to take note of the questions and submit answers to them in writing for public record in the next two weeks.
Fuller said the site was chosen because it was less than a mile from the construction and was some distance from residential areas. The present site is about 1,000 feet from any residence, he said.
But residents in the audience protested, saying it was closer to schools and shouted “Shame on you.”
At the hearing, James Parker, a member of the Lane School Council, showed a videotape recorded March 23, taken during the morning and again in the evening. The tape showed trucks speeding and not stopping at stop signs, and dust from the site moving toward the school campus.
Health professionals attending the meeting said the school had about 200 students who suffer from asthma, and the dust would be harmful for them and other people from the community.
Originally, the site was covered with hundreds of cottonwoods, oaks, poplars, horse chestnuts, hackberries and other trees. But those were cut down March 2 through 4 to prepare the land for the concrete-crushing operation.
On March 5, city environmental officers, with police, forced the company to stop dumping concrete on the site until a zoning variance and a special use permit were obtained.