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McHenry County board tables off-site services change after residents and members raise enforcement concerns
Summary
After hours of testimony, the Zoning Board approved most UDO housekeeping changes but postponed a proposal to permit off-site service businesses as a conditional use in A‑1, directing staff to craft clearer standards and categories first.
The McHenry County Zoning Board of Appeals voted to approve a package of housekeeping updates to the Unified Development Ordinance but tabled a contested proposal that would allow 'off-site services' as a conditional use in the A‑1 agricultural district.
Adam Wallen, the county's director of planning and development, told the board the conditional-use path would allow case-by-case review and standards for operations that increasingly appear in rural areas. "This would allow the county board to assign some standards, deny them, approve them, whatever it may be," Wallen said. Opponents and several board members said the current OSB definition is too broad and could permit intensive, disruptive operations on farmland.
Multiple residents urged rejection or rewriting. Michael Stumbaugh, a resident of Union, told the board the amendment would let "any type or size of business on farmland" and urged a split definition for light and heavy operations. Another resident, Nancy Stovall, described living next to a large off‑site operation and said, "This business runs at all hours of the day…My heaven on earth has turned into a war zone." Board members signaled they want more precise categories and enforcement guidelines before permitting any new conditional-use path for off‑site services.
The board approved a motion to adopt the staff package with two exceptions — the fence-definition language and the off-site services provision — and unanimously directed staff to return with recommended OSB standards and categories.
