The Lee County Board has approved a zoning change that marks the completion of a step needed for a Chicago developer to turn the former Magnuson Hotel near Dixon into apartments.

A Lee County judge in late 2024 ordered the former hotel at 443 Route 2 in Dixon to close due to safety concerns. The new owners, Tomasz Klimowski and Edin “Eddie” Begic, needed to change the property’s zoning from general business to multi-family residential before they could move forward with their plan to convert the building into a modern, 70-unit apartment complex. The zoning change was approved April 29.

[ Chicago developer seeks to convert Dixon’s former Magnuson Hotel into 70-unit apartment building ]

Klimowski pitched that plan to Lee County Zoning Hearing Officer Brian F. Brim at a hearing March 25. Based on that hearing, Brim wrote a recommendation that the county board approve the change. The change previously received a vote of “no objection” from the Palmyra Township Board and Dixon City Council.

All county board members, except for Jason Anderson who abstained, voted yes. Board members Tom Kitson, Mike Book and Katie White did not vote as they were absent.

Nobody spoke against the change at April’s board meeting, but Klimowski faced much opposition during the zoning hearing from residents of the subdivisions Castellan and Castellan Heights, which are located directly behind the former hotel.

Residents said that a large apartment complex would vary greatly from the character of their small, quiet neighborhood, strain its infrastructure and drive down their property values.

“It’s really not in our welfare, and the job of the county...is to make sure that it’s in the best interest of the people who live there [and] the people in the county,” Castellan resident Theresa Cisneros said at the March hearing.

But Lee County officials said the opposite, believing it would positively impact the area because the county needs more housing, and residential zoning would limit what the property could be used for.

Klimowski testified at the hearing that he and Begic bought the building because they were told apartments were needed in this area. He also testified that based on his many years of experience with this type of work, turning the vacant building into apartments would raise the property’s value.

When making zoning decisions, local governments are required to look at the La Salle factors, which is a list of criteria intended to balance individual property rights with public welfare. In Brim’s recommendation to the board for this rezoning, he wrote that the project met the criteria.

Specifically, for three of the factors that relate to property’s existing use and zoning, Brim’s report said that multi-family residential would be a more suitable zoning designation because it would more closely match the residential and agricultural zoning districts around it. It would also act as a “buffer” between the single family housing of Castellan and the high traffic of Route 2.

For the factors relating to public welfare, Brim’s report said, “there is an increase in public welfare in having additional housing in the area. In addition, the current condition of the building is a public nuisance. Any better use of the building would be in the public welfare.”

Overall, in the report, Brim acknowledged the residents’ concerns, but felt they were outweighed by the benefits the project would have to the county as a whole.

“The immediate neighbors are rightly concerned about adding 70-some apartments to the area. However, the builders are experienced in building apartment buildings, have a track record of success and are attempting to self-fund the building,” the report said. “The factors in support are the many benefits to the community and public welfare. Not only in adding apartments, but in remediating the many problems that the Magnuson Hotel became.”

Prior to the hotel’s 2024 closure, the former owner was operating it as an extended-stay hotel and there were many issues that negatively impacted the area, specifically subdivisions Castellan and Castellan Heights, Lee County Zoning Administrator Alice Henkel told Shaw Local.

The Magnuson “went through a really bad period there and the neighborhood is scarred,” Henkel said. County officials “heard of standoffs, police presence, raids, people running through yards.”

One such event happened in late 2023, when one of the hotel’s residents threatened a man with a gun and triggered a lengthy armed standoff with police.

“Our goal is to see that that does not happen again in the future,” Henkel said, adding that she believes the zoning change will accomplish that.

The change is just an early step for Klimowski and Begic to move forward with their plan. Before they can start building, they will need permits issued by the county.

Lee County Administrator Jeremy Englund told Shaw Local on Friday that Klimowski and Begic haven’t applied for those yet.

The project will be subject to the new building codes that the county board unanimously approved April 29.