Compass Truck School to be Phased Out After Village Annexes Land

Village of Burr Ridge staff is working on an annexation agreement with Compass Truck Sales, 15W580 N. Frontage Rd., that would incorporate the currently unincorporated land where the business is located and give Compass until March 1 to phase out its truck driving school at that location, which has been the source of numerous residential neighbor complaints.

Compass, which also sells trucks, originally asked for one year to eliminate the school, the company’s legal counsel Tim Dwyer said, then discussed a May 1 deadline with village staff. That date, however, did not get the support of trustees, several of which said at the board’s Sept. 24 that May was too distant.

The updated agreement came back in front of the board Monday with a March 1 deadline to eliminate the school and a clause demanding that all nighttime outdoor school activities, which currently take place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, will be eliminated by Nov. 1.

“We want to work with the village,” Dwyer said. “We don’t want to be at odds with the village.”

Dwyer said complaints from residential neighbors typically concern the noise created and the dust kicked up by the trucks used to train students in Compass’ gravel lot. Compass is laying down asphalt over the gravel to eliminate the dust as the school is phased out.

Other complaints have been a reaction to increased truck traffic in the area as a result of the school.

If it so desired, the Village of Burr Ridge can force-annex the Compass property because it is completely surrounded by incorporated village land. If annexation was forced, the village could seek to shut down the truck-driving school itself because such a business is not permitted by the village’s zoning code.

Instead, the annexation agreement is being pursued. The Burr Ridge Plan Commission will hold a public hearing on the annexation agreement at its Oct. 15 meeting and its recommendation will likely get a Board of Trustees vote on Oct. 22.

Trustees voted unanimously Monday to table a forced-annexation ordinance, keeping it on its Oct. 22 agenda so that if something goes wrong during the finalization of the agreement with Compass, a vote to force-annex can be made at that meeting.