P&Z: Wheatland Township Truck Facility Wins Rezoning Recommendation and Fence Variances

Will County Planning and Zoning Commission | October 6, 2026

Article Summary: The Will County Board Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, acted on all six requests in a single zoning case for a truck repair and tow yard on U.S. Route 30 in Wheatland Township, granting three fence height variances outright and recommending a 1.48-acre rezoning and two equipment sales special use permits that still require Will County Board action. No rezoning takes effect and no special use is established until the board acts.

Money Tree LLC Case Key Points:

• Case ZC-26-049 bundled a map amendment from A-1 to I-1, special use permits for heavy and light equipment sales and rentals, and three variances allowing a 10-foot perimeter fence.
• The commission recommended rezoning approximately 1.48 acres, eliminating a split-zoning condition across five parcels at 25300 and 25210 U.S. Route 30.
• Each special use permit carries five staff conditions, including compliance with a Village of Plainfield letter dated Sept. 3, 2026, requiring a 30-foot landscaped setback and 52 evergreen trees along Route 30.
• A traffic impact study found no turn lanes are warranted, but the owner must reconstruct and widen the Route 30 access drive and obtain Illinois Department of Transportation permits.

WILL COUNTY — The Will County Board Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026, worked through six separate requests for a single Wheatland Township property, advancing a package that would let a truck repair and towing business at 25300 and 25210 U.S. Route 30 begin selling and leasing trucks, trailers and automobiles, and wrap the site in a 10-foot security fence.

The owner of record is Money Tree LLC. Philip Fornaro of Fornaro Law represented the applicant, with Timothy Foley of the same firm also identified as counsel.

Zoning Administrator Marguerite Kenny, AICP, who presented, told the commission the case did not appear as a numbered agenda item because the department had tried a new format. “If we did it the old way on our agenda, there would be like eight different agenda items,” she said. She also drew a clear line on what Tuesday’s votes settled: “The map amendment and the two special uses will proceed forward to the Will County land use department Nov. 5. The variances would be heard to conclusion tonight for this case.”

Draft ordinances in the agenda packet state plainly that the map amendment and both special use permits require passage by the County Board before taking effect. The three fence variances are final commission action.

What the Applicant Wants

Kenny said the applicant already operates a truck repair facility and tow yard on the site, both permitted uses in the I-1 limited industrial district. To better align the property with what Kenny called a transportation support business, the applicant wants to sell and lease trucks, tractors, trailers and automobiles alongside the repair and tow work — hence special use permit S-26-024 for heavy equipment sales and rentals, covering truck sales and leasing, and S-26-025 for light equipment sales and rentals, covering automobiles.

The applicant’s supplemental narrative, signed Sept. 18, 2026, by Foley, states the trailer-leasing operation is anticipated to include approximately 20 refrigerated 53-foot trailers generally leased for terms of six months or longer, and that four to five passenger vehicles would be available primarily for drivers whose trucks are under repair.

The map amendment, M-26-009, rezones about 1.48 acres from A-1 to I-1 — the entirety of PIN 07-01-29-101-006-0000 and part of PIN 07-01-29-300-012-0000 — to unify a split-zoned property under a single district. The draft map amendment ordinance describes the area in two parcels, of 40,693.126 square feet (0.934 acres) and 23,835.498 square feet (0.547 acres). The property comprises five PINs owned and operated as a single zoning lot totaling about 7.87 acres, bounded by U.S. Route 30 on the west and the railroad on the east, with Route 30 crossing at a diagonal that leaves an irregular, roughly triangular parcel.

Two buildings exist on the site, of approximately 3,412 square feet for offices and 1,205 square feet for storage. A third building of about 8,725 square feet, intended as the repair facility with six service bays, is under construction under Permit 2501853. Fornaro told the commission the applicant has since received approval for that building to operate and is in compliance with the building code — information that does not appear in the agenda packet.

The site would employ approximately nine people, with hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. Towing would be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Kenny said, “because trucks drive all hours and if they break down, they want to be able to get to them appropriately.”

The preliminary site plan shows 24 truck repair spaces, 13 new trailer sales spaces, 13 used truck sales spaces, 12 automobile leasing spaces and 23 employee parking spaces, though Kenny said the applicant is proposing fewer employee spaces than shown.

Fence, Traffic and Plainfield’s Conditions

The three variances — V-26-151, V-26-152 and V-26-153 — allow a 10-foot perimeter fence where the industrial district restricts fence height along street and side yards. The street setback variance increases the allowable height from four feet to 10 feet along Route 30; the two side yard variances increase it from eight feet to 10 feet on the north and east sides.

Kenny said the fence would run along the 10-foot side setback lines and the 30-foot right-of-way setback line, securing and screening a site already subject to screening requirements. “Given the size and height of semi-trucks and other commercial vehicles, the increase in height would be consistent with adding some proper screening as well,” she said.

IDOT annual average daily traffic data in the staff report puts U.S. Route 30 at approximately 16,200 vehicles per day in the vicinity, including roughly 2,000 trucks. The road is a Class II State Designated Truck Route under IDOT jurisdiction.

A traffic impact study prepared by Kenig, Lindgren, O’Hara, Aboona, Inc., dated Sept. 14, 2026, and based on classification counts taken Tuesday, May 26, 2026, concluded the roadway network has sufficient reserve capacity and that neither a separate left-turn lane nor a right-turn lane is warranted at the facility entrance. Under projected Year 2032 total conditions, the study shows the northbound 252nd Avenue approach at Level of Service D with 27.1 seconds of delay in the weekday morning peak hour, and the facility access drive approach at Level of Service C, with 17.4 seconds of morning delay and 18.7 seconds in the evening. The study reported no crashes at U.S. Route 30 and 252nd Avenue over the five years from 2020 through 2024.

The existing gravel access drive, about 1,470 feet northwest of 252nd Avenue, is to be reconstructed and widened to provide a 28-foot inbound lane, a nine-foot mountable median and a 28-foot outbound lane under stop-sign control, with larger turning radii on both sides to accommodate semi-trailers. Final access design requires IDOT review and permits.

The Village of Plainfield, whose corporate limits sit immediately north, submitted a letter dated Sept. 3, 2026, from Stephen Broadwell, AICP, Planner II, stating the village’s planning department “is supportive of the proposal with the following agreed upon recommendations incorporated into the proposal.” The letter requires a 30-foot setback along the Route 30 frontage kept free of fencing, vehicles and paving materials; landscaping within that setback calculated at 30 plant units per 1,000 square feet of buffer yard, reduced 30 percent because of the 10-foot fence, yielding 207 plant units across roughly 20,700 square feet, to be placed entirely as evergreen trees for a total of 52 trees; and lighting meeting whichever is more restrictive of village Section 9-121 or the county standard.

Staff attached five conditions to each special use permit: a right of entry for Land Use Department and Sheriff’s Department employees on 14 days’ written notice; transferability to subsequent owners; compliance with the Plainfield letter, with the county’s lighting standard identified as Section 155-14.110; completion of the driveway improvements, installation of a stop sign at the egress and documentation that all required IDOT permits have been issued; and site development permits before any gravel parking expansion or driveway work begins.

Fornaro told the commission the applicant accepts all of it. “All the conditions specified from both Plainfield and staff, we fully agree and adhere to,” he said, calling the review “a collaborative process.” He added that notice went to every municipality within a mile and a half — “everyone touched 1.5 miles, surprisingly” — and that none responded. Fornaro also said that while the site plan shows a 30-foot setback from the right of way, the development sits “probably closer to 80, 90 feet from the actual roadway.”

Agency Comments and Site History

Of the agencies notified, none objected. The Will-South Cook Soil and Water Conservation District found in Natural Resource Information Report #5903, dated June 29, 2026, that the activity “will have little to no effect on the existing land.” The Illinois Department of Natural Resources reported in EcoCAT Report #2617067, dated June 8, 2026, no record of state-listed threatened or endangered species in the vicinity. The Will County Health Department, Plainfield Fire Protection District, IDOT, the city of Aurora, Naperville and Plainfield Township submitted no comments.

Kenny said a LESA score was not calculated for the property, and that while residential development predominates within a mile and a half, the uses along the Route 30 corridor nearest the site are largely agricultural or railroad right of way. Staff found the rezoning compatible with the surrounding pattern, noting the 45-acre parcel immediately north lies within Plainfield and is zoned for office, research and light industrial use, and that the railroad on the east provides a buffer from residential development in the village. There are no inventoried wetlands, though a small Zone A floodplain sits to the north, outside the development area.

Asked about the site’s history, staff confirmed a commissioner’s recollection that a propane tank delivery operation once occupied the property.

No objectors appeared. Each of the six requests was taken up on a separate motion and roll call, and all were approved. Under the standard advisories in the staff report, a special use permit is void if a building permit or certificate of occupancy is not obtained and work or use commenced within two years, while a variance granted by the commission expires one year from the date of the order unless established, subject to extensions. The property is in County Board District 8.