Buffalo Grove trustees grant auto dealership permit

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Updated: February 27, 2012 8:40AM

Car sales will continue at 88 E. Dundee Road now that Buffalo Grove village trustees have approved a special use permit sought by a resident who wants to open an auto dealership there.

Michael Orik, owner of M & I Imports, Inc., on Monday received the trustees’ blessing to expand his business onto the former site of the now-defunct Prestige Leasing. The board created a special use for the lot in 2005, and last updated it in 2007; Dundee Road at that time was one of the area’s prime car dealership locations.

Orik noted that while his stock and clientele should be similar to Prestige’s, M & I has no connection to the company that disappeared in October — or to the customers who made payments for cars they never received.

“I don’t think there’s anything I can do about that,” Orik said.

One Buffalo Grove resident on Monday expressed great displeasure that the lot he lives across from on Dundee Road would again host a car lot. Frank Sears recalled fighting against the special use permit in 2005, noting that village codes call for dealerships to be on properties of at least four acres, and said he was still unhappy more than six years later.

“It was a disgrace and an insult to good government everywhere,” Sears said. “I would call on this board to rescind this transfer. In doing so, they would correct the image that that approval gave to this government.”

Village President Jeff Braiman and Trustee Mike Terson asked Sears what damage placing a car lot on that space had done to Buffalo Grove.

“In the six years it’s been in existence, I haven’t heard that many concerns,” Braiman said.

Sears brought up concerns about how Prestige had conducted its business; Orik on Monday said he planned to stick close to the restrictions of the permit.

“I don’t want to hurt anybody in this community,” he said. “We’re not going to do anything out of the ordinary.”

Goodbye to Hendrix

Also during Monday’s meeting, Braiman lamented the death of a former trustee. Chuck Hendrix died Friday. He was 71, and had served on the Village Board from 1991-2001.

“He was a hard worker, very dedicated to the village,” Braiman said. “Our sympathies and our thoughts go out to the family.”

An earlier version of this story misidentified the person who appointed Chuck Hendrix to the Village Board.