Elmhurst Restaurant Battles Neighbors Over Parking Lot Plan

ELMHURST, IL — A restaurant in the Spring Road business district wants to build two parking lots for its business and the next-door office building that it owns.

But neighbors oppose the idea, saying it would increase traffic and flooding and hurt their property values. The matter had been set to go before the city's Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday, but on Friday, it was delayed until Jan. 19.

Roberto's Ristorante & Pizzeria, 483 Spring Road, is asking the city for conditional use permits for the parking lots for the restaurant and its office building at 481 Spring Road. The lots would be on the north and south sides of Eggleston Avenue.

On Wednesday, resident Shannon Kelly posted to the Elmhurst, IL News and Comment Facebook page about neighbors' concerns with the proposal. She and others have formed a Facebook page called Elmhurst Neighbors United and created yard signs.

Kelly said the parking lots would allow a special commercial use in a residentially zoned area. Besides the traffic, flooding and property values, she said, "We have several families with young children on Eggleston, so this proposal is also a concern for their safety."

Neighbors also have set up a Change.org petition page against the restaurant's proposal. As of Thursday morning, nearly 400 people have signed it.

The petition states that Elmhurst turned down a similar parking lot proposal years ago.

"Spring Road district already experiences severe drainage and flooding issues," the petition says. "The parking proposal would only exacerbate these problems and infringe on our rights as residential property owners."

Roberto's, which is owned by the Moreci family, put forward its arguments for conditional use permits for the parking lots in a 30-page application.

According to the application, the areas east of Spring Road were zoned single-family residential, but in 1970, the Hatch family, which owned greenhouses near Spring and Eggleston, sued the city and claimed the single-family rule for that area was unconstitutional.

The court sided with the family and allowed them to develop their property into apartment complexes. Several are in that area today. But the neighborhood still includes much single-family housing.

In the application, the Morecis said houses on the proposed sites would cause more flooding than would parking lots. And they said the permits would require no change in the residential zoning.

The family commissioned a parking study that showed that the Spring Road business district contains nearly 500 parking spaces, both public and private. By one measure, the district has a deficit of about 200 spots north of the Illinois Prairie Path during peak demand, the study said.

The family's proposed parking lots would create 59 spots for its customers.

In an interview, Otis Dungan, who has lived at 270 W. Eggleston for 25 years, said the Morecis plan to demolish a rundown house next door and then build the parking lot within about 10 feet of his home. This, he said, would cause his property value to fall sharply.

"This has not been done anywhere else in Elmhurst. This would set a precedent," said Dungan, president of Elmhurst Neighbors United. "People are going to park 9 feet from my house. How long will it be before someone runs into my house?"

In an email, Pasquale Moreci of Roberto's said the family is a longtime corporate resident of the city and sensitive to neighbors' concerns.

"We are very proud of our business and relationship with the Spring Road business district," Moreci said. "We believe that the neighbors are misinformed on some of the facts!"