Meyer Zoning Board Meeting, Thursday February 11

Thursday night is the night Meyer Material Company will stand in front of the Zoning Board to make their case for a time extension to thoroughly clear the pit of any remaining gravel. Although mining operations were to stop this year, Meyer wants the mining to continue for two years, with one year for "restoration" of the land.

The meeting is being held in at the Holiday Inn in Crystal Lake at 7:30 (February 11, 2016). This is the best opportunity to let the Zoning Board publicly know of your feelings in regard to this matter. The Zoning Board will make a "yes" or "no" recommendation that evening, so your voice is essential.

Here are some key points to consider:

• If Meyer does not get the extension, Cary still gets a lake, an asphalt path around that lake and a small parking lot with access via Klasen Road. The lake will be only slightly smaller than the original plan.
• Many people assume that this land will be like the Three Oaks facility in Crystal Lake. It will not.
• Meyer will continue paying the Village impact fees, but they have not offered anything to the residents of Fox Trails.
• Meyer signed the original deal in 2008 and agreed to hefty monthly penalties if they did not finish mining by 2016.  Meyer does not want to pay these fees, so they simply want to extend the time frame. Should Meyer not pay penalties for breaking the contract? If you or I were to break a contract or not meet a deadline, there would be consequences we would not be able to brush away with a two-year time extension.
• Also, let us not forget that Meyer Material is owned by Aggregate Industries, which is owned by the large Swiss-based multinational Holcim, ltd. They make over $15 billion a year.

The fact is this: the Village likes having Meyer. As was stated at a previous Village Board meeting last summer, Meyer's impact fees make a "significant" part of the Village budget. What has the village been doing with this money? 

If Meyer were to get this extension, we should ask for something in return; something that would particularly benefit the residents of Fox Trails. Now Meyer did pay some of the residents through a homeowner's assistance program. Should that be reinstated?

Think about it.

Let the Zoning Board know. 

Your comments at the Zoning Board will go into the public record and will be available for the Village Board when they make their decision, which will most likely be in March or April.

The meeting begins at 7:30.

Hope to see you there.

What about that Lake?

In the recent letter sent to Fox Trails residents, Meyer claimed that they wanted an extension in their mining operations in order to "expand the lake as much as possible."  That misleading statement is meant to convey the idea that the purpose of the gravel pit is to make us a nice lake. This is a gravel pit first and foremost.  Meyer is in the aggregate business and is owned by Holcim, Ltd. headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. The annual profits of this conglomerate average around $15 billion or so.

Due to various reasons, Meyer will not be able to finish mining gravel by the June 2016 deadline. In order to avoid paying the agreed-upon penalties of $100,000 a month, Meyer wants to extend the contract through 2020, with mining continuing until June 1, 2019 and restoration finished by June 1, 2020.

The picture below is the most recent Google Earth image of the gravel pit, taken in June, 2015. Rollover the image with your mouse to see some details about the gravel pit and the areas still left to mine. The area that still needs to mined is directly adjacent to the Fox Trails subdivision.
         

But what about that lake?

Originally, Meyer stated that the finished lake would be about 94 acres. But, due to the problems they have had with overburden, the new estimated size will be around 89-90 acres.

If they do not get the extension, Cary still gets a finished lake, but it will be around an estimated 76 acres or so with more land around the lake.

Roll your mouse over the image below to see the roughly estimated sizes of the shoreline.



What does Cary get out of this when all is said and done?

When the mining operations are finished, Meyer will present Cary with a lake. There will be a multipurpose path around the lake and a small parking lot located off of Klasen Road in the village of Algonquin.

The banks of the lake will be seeded, like they have already started doing in 2015. Below is an image of the western portion of the lake and the bank that was seeded early last year.

This is more of what the banks will look like when completed. This is a view of the south eastern portion of the lake that was one of the first areas to be finished a couple of decades ago.

A multi-use path will be built around the lake, regardless of its final size with a small parking lot located in the south east portion of the property. This is the original proposal of what the lake and grading will look like, as presented by Meyer:

Many residents outside of Fox Trails believe that this is going to be a recreation area on par with the recently opened Three Oaks Recreation Area in neighboring Crystal Lake.  I hate to disappoint people, but this is not the case.

First of all, the village of Crystal Lake spent $14.37 million converting a portion of that former gravel pit into a recreation area. Although nothing has been decided as of yet, the Village of Cary and the Cary Park District will have to work out a plan. Anything beyond what Meyer deeds to the Village of Cary will be costly in terms of upgrades and maintenance. Plus, as half of the property is actually located in Algonquin, rights and access will need to be negotiated between the two government bodies.

Here is what we need to find out:  Meyer has paid the Village of Cary $250,000 a year in impact fees since the start of the mining operation for a total of $2.5 million (and an additional $2 million total to a Land Conservancy fund). What has Cary done with that money from impact fees?

During the July 7, 2015, board meeting, Trustee David Chapman admitted that the Meyer payment is a "significant portion of the Village's budget."  So where has that money gone?

Based on this alone, I am convinced the Village will grant the extension just in order to gather those impact fees for a few years more.  But what do we, the residents located next to the pit, get?

Four more years of dust and noise, to be sure.

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The Zoning Board and Appeals meeting is set for Thursday, January 28.

Meyer Material, Round 4 Begins in January

What did you get for Christmas? We got a nice letter from Meyer informing us of their intent to request an extension on mining next to the Fox Trails Subdivision until 2020.

This new letter is very misleading.  It begins, "As you may have read in the local newspaper, we will be filing a petition to extend the time to mine our Cary property, so that we can expand the Lake as much as possible." [emphasis mine]

What? It's one thing to ask for an extension, but do not pretend that it is being done for us. The purpose of the extension is not to make the lake bigger, but to remove the gravel. It is a gravel pit. Plain and simple. Last summer, even the Northwest Herald referred to Meyer's gravel pit as a "lake project." It is not a lake project. We can't let them reframe the purpose of the extension.

It all comes down to this: Meyer is asking for the extension because they do not want to pay the $100,000 monthly penalty for failure to complete the mining operation by June, 2016, as was the original deal.

If Meyer wants to extend their time, they also must be willing to give something for it.  Some ideas floated by people in the neighborhood:

• a reinstatement of the home-owner's assistance program, prorated for the time frame
• building of a sidewalk on Foxtrails South

If you have other ideas, please leave them in the comments. You can read the entire letter below:


The Zoning Board Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, January 28th when Meyer will officially ask the Zoning Board for the extension. We encourage everyone to come.  If Meyer does not get the extension, Cary still gets the lake. And let's not be deceived: the lake we are getting will be nothing at all like the lake at Three Oaks in Crystal Lake, as some people believe. What we will get is a lake, a small parking lot located in Algonquin off of Klasen Road and a path around the lake.  That is it.

So mark your calendars. The Meyer show is back in town!

Not over yet......

Last night's unanimous "NO" vote for the Meyer time extension is good news to be sure.  Dozens of concerned Cary citizens spoke out against the extension.  In fact, other than the completely irrational and inappropriate outburst by Joe Tournier, it was a calm meeting.  People were determined and spoke forcefully.  They knew that they had the moral upperhand:  Meyer had signed a contract.  End of story.

But it is not the end of the story.  This vote was just a recommendation, that is all.

Meyer can (and most likely will) bring the petition to the Village Board in the coming weeks.  The Trustees of Cary will have to make a decision.

Last time, Mayor Lamal worked out a deal with Meyer that resulted in the pit.  I have a feeling the same thing will happen.  Mayor Tom Kierna sees Meyer as a "good neighbor." After all, Meyer was awarded the 2009 Community Relations Award.  And the mayor was there to pose with them.

Tom Kierna (Left) poses with representatives from Meyer Material after being awarded the 2009 Community Relations Award.

Stay tuned.  This is not yet over.

This is what Meyer does.

Here comes the Meyer Material sob story.....Get your Kleenex.

In June, Meyer Material went to the Village Board and presented the company’s annual status report regarding their operations in the Village of Cary.  Spokesperson Randi Wille set up the entire argument that Meyer will be making to the zoning board on November 10: he said that this past year has been a “challenge” for Meyer Material because of the “weak economy.” 

There it is:  Meyer Material is experiencing some problems in this economy, therefore they need more time to extract the gravel from the land adjacent to Fox Trails.

Here is what he is not going to tell you:

1.     Meyer Material is owned by Aggregate Industries, which is owned by Holcim, LTD.  This is the second largest producer of concrete in the world.  They employ over 80,000 people worldwide and operate in more than 2,500 locations in 70 countries.

2.     This is a foreign corporation, headquartered in Switzerland.  

Holcim LTD is not hurting, despite what will be stated at the meeting.  Let’s look at their profit over the last couple of years:

Net Income for Holcim, LTD (taken from the 2010 annual report):  

2009            1.958 billion CHF  ($2.27 billion US)

2010            1.621 billion CHF  ($1.88 billion US)

Yes, they lost money from 2009 to 2010.  But, so far in 2011, Holcim has seen a 29.7% increase in profit for the first half of the year and they are set to surpass their 2009 performance. (Source)

How many of us can say that?

The CEO of Holcim is Markus Akermann.   In 2010 he made 8,713,996 CHF (source).  That is equal to over $10 million US.

And they want to continue mining in Cary for another 6 years? 

That’s another six years of low property values.

That’s another six years of dust and noise.

That’s another six years before they come to the village again with another request to extend mining operations.

You can see that coming, right?  When will it stop?

Meyer Material wants to change the agreement they made with Cary in 2008.  Yet how many of us can change the terms of our mortgages so that we don’t have to pay a penalty?  How many of us would like more time to pay off loans? Try calling your credit card company and asking to be free from the penalty that you will be receiving because of a late payment.  How sympathetic would they be?

Here is what needs to happen:

Meyer needs to finish mining by June 1, 2016.  If they can’t do it, then they need to pay the $100,000 penalty per month beyond that date.

End of story.  They signed an agreement.

If they don’t want to do that, here’s a novel idea:  hire more workers and get it done in time.  Then, if they can’t sell the material at the moment, store it for a later date.  After all, gravel doesn’t go bad. 

See how easy that was.  And I don't make $10 million a year.