City Council Decides Against Bringing CostCo Into Local Community

Lake Forest, IL - The Sierra Club and residents of the city of Lake Forest breathed a sigh of relief last week when the City Council denied CostCo the zoning rights to build a new superstore in the community. The warehouse would have been built on environmentally sensitive land, and adjacent to a 576-acre savanna and wetlands preserve that is home to two federally listed endangered species.

The Lake Forest City Council had been considering allowing Costco to build on the site since last year. Sierra Club joined in the fight at the beginning of this summer, encouraging local members to write letters to the city council and to attend Planning Commission meetings where the issue was being discussed. Members participated in several organized events, including a social event to prepare for a Planning Commission meeting. A group of 25 Sierra Club members and concerned local citizens also gathered at the Middlefork Preserve in July where they learned about the potential impacts on the fragile ecology of the area.

“Building a commercial warehouse and a 16 pump fueling station right next to environmentally sensitive land would have unavoidable impacts on the natural ecology of the area,” explains Evan Craig, conservation expert and chair of the Woods & Wetlands local Sierra Club group. At the Middlefork gathering, he explained that the CostCo would have adversely affected the preserve in a variety of ways, including light and noise pollution, and chemicals carried by surface runoff from both the parking lot and gas station. The construction would have also destroyed several acres of wetlands, of which Illinois has already lost 90%.

After months of debate, the City Council finally decided against CostCo's proposal at their meeting last Thursday. The city will be buying the 40-acre property as a location for its new municipal services facility, selling 25 acres to the Forest Preserve to be added on to Middlefork Preserve.

“I'm very pleased with the decision of the City Council,” explains Kara Kapp, a summer organizer with the Illinois Chapter Office. “The current lack of legal protection of isolated wetlands means we have a local responsibility to protect the few remaining wetland areas in Illinois.” She applauded the decision of the City Council along with 100 other spectators, including Sierra Club members, corporate developers, officials from the Forest Preserve District, the presidents of two local Homeowner's Associations, and other concerned local citizens.

“Countless cities across America are now facing the similar threat of urban sprawl from large-scale commercial development like CostCo,” explains Jeff Walter, a summer organizer at the Illinois Chapter Office who also attended the City Council meeting. “This is a real victory for open space protection. When a community takes a stand for wetlands-protection and against urban sprawl, it gives me hope that we can still save the few remaining natural areas in America that we have left to enjoy.”