Really.

That’s what one section heading of a subcommittee draft of the Economic Development chapter in the McHenry County 2030 Plan says. Here’s the whole paragraph on page 7:

LULUs or Locally Undesirable Land Uses

Recognized as the “unwanteds”

• airport expansion to accommodate corporate jets,



• nuclear reactors,
• ethanol plants,
• refineries,
• wind farms,
• electric generating plants,
• pipelines,
• rail lines,
• landfills,
• landscape-composting sites,
• transfer stations,
• prisons/jails,
• intensive agricultural operations,
• transmission/ communication towers and
• the like,

can in fact, provide an economic windfall for local governments.

When sited with rigorous regulations and host fee agreements, these local undesirables can peacefully co-exist in most ag or industrial areas. McHenry County’s regional neighbors, Will, Lake and Kane Counties have a proven track record of allowing LULU sites within their jurisdictions and are continuing to benefit from profitable fee schedules and in some instances, open space possibilities.

I am tempted to invoke the dumb and dumber analogy.

“Unwanteds” is too weak a word for some of these uses.

A section of “Forbidden” uses would be more helpful.

Among them, I would list anything that could endanger our water supply.

Remember, we have to make do with our shallow and deep aquifers. McHenry County shall get no Lake Michigan water.

Shallow aquifers can be refilled by rain, but also can be polluted. Just ask the EPA about county clean-ups from spills from relative small leaky gas station tanks.

The deep aquifers are more difficult to pollute, but it is imprudent, shall I suggest, to take more water out that enters it in Wisconsin.

We are already being imprudent.

Landfills?

There has never been a more contentious topic in McHenry County zoning annals. The first proposal was in about 1974 directly east of the north leg of Route 176 where it intersects with Route 47. I still remember how Chicago city engineer Don Crowell supplied the arguments to derail that puppy.

All subsequent landfill proposals have collapsed under the weight on their certainty to pollute the water table. To put it in the words of environmentalist Lou Marchi, “All landfills leak. It just a matter of when.”

Ethanol plants?

Why would anyone want an ethanol plant that would suck millions of gallons of water per day out of our already overused aquifer? (One near Urbana was proposed to draw two million gallons a day. The city planned down there noted that water is “a pretty valuable resource.” Maybe McHenry County should hire someone with his perspective.

Crystal Lake, by the way, used “only” 1.7 million gallons of water in 2007.

Note that water sucking “electric generating plants” are also included.

Remember the “Stop the Stacks” signs on Route 47, Route 176 and Dean Street Road. Two companies wanted to take advantage of the convergence of a gas pipeline and Com Ed’s high power lines.

Maybe the county board won’t have as short a memory as the subcommittee.

Refineries?

There’s a real potential water polluter.

New pipelines are not necessarily to be feared. Local pressure will make them as safe as possible.

It is more the old pipelines we should fear. They are the ones that might start leaking. McHenry County is crisscrossed with them.

Who in their right mind wants a refinery in McHenry County? I has to be someone who has not lived in McHenry County very long. Besides being a potential polluter of both water and air, it is anathema to the lifestyle people seek when they move to McHenry County. (One of the great benefits of the decrease in air pollution in the Chicago metropolitan area is that we no longer can smell the refineries in Gary, Indiana, when the wind is from the southeast. Trust me. We used to be able to smell the sulfur in the early 1970’s.)

Airports for bigger corporate jets. Want to see a roomful of people protesting noise pollution? Propose a new airport.

Why do you think so many pilots live in McHenry County? Maybe to get away from the noise of jets?

And what about visual pollution?

From personal experience west of Lakewood Road near Algonquin Road, I know that people do not want to live next to high power lines.

Part of the opposition was about the potential for electromagnetic injury, but part was the visual pollution of the towers themselves.

And then there was the controversy about cell towers being put up with county zoning approval which the county zoning department and county board refused to even send notices out to neighboring property owners, even though county government had the data base.

Now this document is proposing wind farms.

There are advantages for wind farms. I certain am willing to concede that.

But, there are downsides concerning visual pollution. They are not pretty…unless one is driving by on an Interstate.

In any event, it will be a vibrant debate.

And, what’s the deal with prisons?

Is McHenry County’s economy so feeble that we should seek a prison, public or private?

Not that it would have much of a deleterious effect.

It’s the discordance with our lifestyle I would like to point out.

Why are prisons mentioned in the proposed document?

= = = = =
The message on top is from the draft chapter on Economic Development in McHenry County’s 2030 Plan.