We helped residents of a 329-home community (home to Jeremy S. Baker) defeat a proposed 1 million sq/ft cross-dock warehouse facility (think massive Amazon distribution center) that would have destroyed the community. The long-planned project – negotiated quietly between the Fortune 500 company property owner, the major developer which tried to buy the property for $90-$100 million, and the local municipality – was sprung on residents with the appearance of lawn signs advertising an April hearing before the Plan Commission, giving the community only two weeks to respond. Spearheaded by Baker and his 1,000 neighbors, the community mobilized rapidly. Their strategy of overwhelming the April hearing with concerned residents succeeded: the crowd overflowed City Hall and spilled into the street, effectively violating the Open Meetings Act and forcing the Plan Commission to postpone the hearing until June. This provided crucial time to organize, to secure 5,000-plus signatures on a petition, to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for legal costs, and for Baker to retain land use attorney David Meek as co-counsel, and together to assemble a formidable team of expert witnesses – in traffic engineering, land use, supply chain management, property valuation, air quality, acoustics, and architectural preservation – ready to testify in opposition to the project and its harmful impacts. The June hearing, moved to the High School to accommodate the expected overflow crowd, saw well over 500 residents turn out in vocal opposition. This show of force, combined with the disclosure of Baker and Meek’s expert witness roster, led the developer to withdraw its proposal in June. The project, which would have routed 700-plus daily semi-truck trips, along with hundreds more box trucks, delivery vans, and employee vehicles, through the small intersection that serves as the sole entry and exit point for 1,000 community residents, also threatened the demolition of the architecturally significant existing building, a Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) design. Baker and his neighbors leveraged a dedicated Facebook group with some 1,900 members to galvanize opposition. This concerted, strategic effort not only protected Baker’s neighbors and the neighboring communities from a devastating influx of vehicles but also saved the SOM-designed facility. Jeremy S. Baker was featured on the front page of the Chicago Tribune for his efforts.
