Lincolnwood Village Board members backed a zoning change Tuesday, lifting a longtime provision prohibiting fast food drive-thrus along Touhy Avenue and overriding concerns raised by some neighbors that a Culver’s with a drive-thru lane planned for the area would bring unwanted traffic and noise.
Trustees were divided Tuesday night on the proposal to group Touhy Avenue’s B-3 zoning district in with other commercial areas in the village, all of which permit drive-thru lanes as a special use. Up until now, fast food restaurants with drive-thru lanes were banned from a stretch of Touhy Avenue near Lincoln.
The conversation of whether to lift the ban was prompted by a proposal brought to the board in April to open a 4,000 square-foot Culver’s with a drive-thru lane and an outdoor patio on the 4400 block of Touhy Avenue, on a vacant sliver of land at the southeast corner of West Touhy and North Kilbourn avenues.
Residents of Barclay Place, a condo building adjacent to the parcel of land where Culver’s would open, came out in throngs to the Village Board meeting to oppose the proposal to allow drive-thrus in what many residents claimed should be preserved as a residential area.
Although the Wisconsin-based fast food chain known for its “ButterBurgers” sparked the discussion on drive-thrus, Lincolnwood’s community development director Steve McNellis said “a handful of developers have discussed with staff the concept of a drive-thru in the B-3 area, with one drafting a site plan for preliminary internal discussion.
Because no formal development applications from any of those retailers have been submitted, McNellis declined to name any of the potential developers.
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Attorney Zave Gussin acted as the spokesperson for the 70 or so residents of Barclay Place who packed Village Hall to oppose drive-thrus coming to the neighborhood.
“It is very difficult to squeeze Culver’s onto that site without adversely affecting many residents in that area,” Gussin said.
Despite the opposition, Lincolnwood mayor Jerry Turry voted to support the measure to allow drive-thrus as a special use, breaking a tie vote that divided Trustees Barry Bass, Ron Cope and Larry Elster—who voted against lifting the ban—with Trustees Craig Klatzco, Jesal and Jennifer Spino—who supported it.
“At some point in time, the board passed an ordinance that said ‘no fast food (drive-thrus) in this area,'” Trustee Larry Elster said. “And I don’t see any compelling reason to change it.”
The amended ordinance, which will be on the consent agenda at the August 16 Village Board meeting, paves the way for Culver’s to apply for permits to eventually open the burger joint on the site, but Turry said it wasn’t an open pass for Culver’s to enter the village.
The franchiser would still have to go through the public hearing process as village officials consider traffic, safety and other implications of the new constriction.
“I’ve heard a number of times from you folks that you live in a residential area, but you live on the busiest avenue in the village and maybe in the state of Illinois, and that’s anything but residential,” Turry said of the Lincoln-Touhy avenue intersection near Barclay Place. “This is a difficult issue that affects your entire community, and the village as a whole has to consider our entire population and what this would mean going forward.”
Natalie Hayes is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.