Protest Petitions Could Make Elmwood Park Walmart More Difficult

A protest petition in Elmwood Park against rezoning a piece of residential land for commercial use could up the ante for village trustees.

The petitions are another tactic being used by residents to try and stop  from building a Neighborhood Market on any land other than the two acres already designated for commercial use. The company  as well as the residential parcel directly south to build a 40,000 square foot grocery store.

How many signatures are actually needed to qualify as a protest petition is unclear because village ordinances do not address them specifically. Village Clerk Veronica Rudychev is checking with Tim Pruitt, a local attorney who specializes in municipal matters, to get some clarity. If there are enough people signing on, any vote to amend the parcel’s zoning would require a super majority vote of 5-2 instead of a simple 4-3 vote.

According to state statute, a petition qualifies as a protest petition if the objection includes 20 percent of those living "immediately adjacent extending 100 feet therefrom, or by the owners of 20% or more of the land directly opposite." But, until a perimeter distance and appropriate calculations are determined, how many signatures make up the required 20 percent is still anyone's guess.

Elmwood Park adopted a comprehensive land use plan in 2010 that clearly spelled out how much of the tiny village would be available for commercial development. Any changes to that plan or to , which is .

Rudychev received four notarized petitions Friday; three of which are signed by residents and one belongs to the commercial property owner just west of the old Kohl’s property.

There’s also an informal petition in the form of a survey that was read into the record at the Aug. 9 Village Board meeting. Scott Russell presented the hand-written survey with several pages of signatures responding to the question, “Should the property remain residential or become commercial?”

Attached to Russell’s survey were pages of signatures Russell said were from 181 residents at 200 homes indicating they oppose rezoning the residential property for any commercial use, not necessarily just because Walmart is interested in locating there.

Trustees meet again on Sept. 13, just five days before a scheduled .