McHenry City Council votes against proposed gravel mine

Following a three-hour public hearing Monday night and with a five-to-three vote, the McHenry City Council rejected a request to annex a proposed sand and gravel mine into the city.

Mayor Wayne Jett was the deciding vote, joining Alderman Frank McClatchey, 3rd Ward, and Alderwoman Chris Bassi, 4th Ward, to deny the annexation agreement. A super-majority of the board was needed to approve the request.

Jett thanked the council and city staff for their hard work but said he had to go with a gut feeling when voting no.

He still believes the site will become a gravel pit but did not want to be the politician who approved it.

“I will not have that laying on me,” Jett said.

Following the vote, the council took a 10-minute recess to allow the petitioner, Jack Pease and Super Aggregates, time to decide whether they wanted to pull the proposal. They did so.

If he did not, the council had three more agenda items to consider related to his proposal.

Pease said before the pause that he would be willing to negotiate with the city while also pursing a mining permit from the McHenry County Board.

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The McHenry City Council on Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, addressed a Jack Pease proposal to mine 110 acres at Route 120 and Chapel Hill Road. The meeting was held in McHenry High School’s Upper Campus auditorium. (Patrick Kunzer for Shaw Local)

The vote followed more than speakers at the McHenry City Council meeting Monday evening, most of whom urged the council to vote against the proposed sand and gravel mine in the city.

The meeting included more than 2 1/2 hours of testimony from McHenry planning and zoning officials, a hydrologist hired by the city to review the site, the public and Pease.

Both those for and against his plan spoke at the meeting, held at McHenry High School’s Upper Campus to accommodate the crowd of more than 300 people.

Objections ranged from the impact of additional dust and traffic on nearby homes, as well as possible air and water contamination from a gravel mine.

“As a realtor, it is tough to sell [homes] near gravel pits,” resident Chris Pry said.

Buyers will cancel sales contracts because of gravel pits, and with the a low inventory of available homes for sale, “it is better to approve [annexation] for a housing development rather than a gravel pit,” Pry said.

Monday’s expected vote followed more than two months of debate over the mining operation, appearing on two City Council agendas beginning June 5.

Pease sought to annex 110 acres to McHenry at Route 120 and Chapel Hill Road and to receive a special-use permit to allow a wet dredge sand and gravel mine.

After removing the top layers of soils, the company would use an electric dredge mounted on a barge to vacuum sand and gravel from the bottom of a man-made lake sitting in the water table. A pipe would take the mixed sand, gravel and to a tower where it is sorted by a conveyor belt and separated into gravel, sand and super-fine sand.

The water would then be pumped back into the lake.

Several proposal changed were made since the first meeting in June, McHenry Community Development Director Ross Polerecky said, including removing a rock crusher from the site, adding paved areas between a wash station and Route 120 and increasing the number of monitoring wells.

Pease also agreed to bring both sewer and water lines to the site for future commercial developments and post a higher bond for future reclamation costs, Polerecky said.

Working with an engineer, city determined what would be the per-acre cost for future site reclamation. The new bond required would be “a number that is adequate for reclamation and 25% on top of that,” Polerecky said.

In a prepared statement sent to the Northwest Herald, Pease said he, the city and residents collaborated on the final plan presented to the council.

“A collaborative approach was used ... to mitigate any adverse effect of the interim lake construction/mining development component,” Pease said in the statement.

Pease also thanked Jett, the council, city staff and residents “for all the time and effort working on this development.”