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DEERFIELD, IL — Opponents of the proposed development of more than 100 acres of the Baxter Healthcare Corporation campus are gearing up for another fight after Bridge Industries abruptly canceled a meeting with Deerfield Plan officials last week to discuss its petition and annex and develop the property.
The Chicago-based commercial real estate developer was scheduled to meet with Deerfield Plan’s Plan Commission last week before the village announced the company had withdrawn its petition. A public hearing was scheduled for June 7, but the village announced that the meeting had been canceled without providing more details.
But Bridge Industries has now requested a meeting with the Planning, Building and Development Department of Lake County to discuss an “unincorporated development” for the 101-acre Baxter property, according to members of the 60015 Unite Group, who announced the developer is now targeting Lake County officials.
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Residents opposed to the project remain unsure why Bridge International pulled out of last week’s meeting during which the developer was to have discussed plans for its project with village officials.
Since plans for the proposed redevelopment project went public, more than 5,400 local residents have signed a petition, pushing back against the proposed redevelopment. At issue is an estimated 600 semi-trucks per day congesting the streets of Saunders, Lake Cook, and Deerfield roads that would take place during the redevelopment, local residents said. A GoFundMe effort has also raised more than $3,000 to oppose the development project.
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While local residents who oppose the project were prepared for last week’s Plan Commission meeting, they now will turn their attention to the meeting requested with Lake County officials.
“As we say, we won the battle — not the war,” Riverwoods resident Caron Blitz told Patch on Monday. “But know this isn’t over, but it was a major battle.”
She added: “It’s clear that people, the constituents are not in favor of this and the government officials need to be aware of that.”
The group opposing the redevelopment has prepared a land-use study and a traffic study at a time when Blitz said local residents have banded together to inform others about what Bridge Industries had planned for the Baxter property.
Bridge had said previously said it had planned to construct three buildings on the property including:
Bridge said it anticipates truck traffic to be a mix of different vehicles, but also believes it will be primarily semi-trucks. It anticipates peak traffic on weekdays will be between 7:45 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. in the morning, and 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. at night. The company said weekend traffic will “generally be lower” during the aforementioned hours.
Blitz said the difference between this project and other Bridge Industry development plans is that the one involving the Baxter campus is situated in such a densely populated area. Blitz said that opponents went from being stunned by the lack of community outreach to local residents to being outraged by the number of trucks that would be traveling through the area and the potential pollution that would be created.
The GoFundMe page states that the impact of a proposal “of any size or scope” from Bridge is a threat to our environment, our safety, our roadways, and our welfare, the group wrote. And it extends to the entire 60015 area that extends from Deerfield to Northbrook to Bannockburn and Riverwoods and Thorngate.
Earlier meetings about the proposed development drew more than 600 people and caused overcrowding, which caused more discussions about the project to be postponed. But now that Bridge Industries pulled its petition from Deerfield last week, residents are now prepared to take the fight to the county level.
Blitz won’t speak to what caused Bridge Industries’ officials to abruptly cancel its meeting with Deerfield’s Plan Committee. But with Crain’s Chicago Business reporting that it’s not expected that Bridge will abandon the Baxter campus project altogether, she and fellow residents are prepared to move forward.
“We can’t wait —we have our ducks in a row, we have our experts lined up,” Blitz told Patch on Monday. “I don’t know if it will come to that, but we would certainly welcome the opportunity to educate Lake County officials.
She added: “I always say, ‘Look at the names of our communities — Deer-field, River-woods – we moved here for that reason. You don’t see industry anywhere in those names.”
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