Gurnee planning board recommends rezoning seven Warren Township parcels to Public Lands to enable annexation

The Village of Gurnee Planning and Zoning Board on May 6 voted to recommend that the Village Board approve a zoning map amendment to rezone seven Warren Township parcels totaling about 75.25 acres from unincorporated Lake County residential (R4) to the Village of Gurnee Public Lands district.

Township representatives said the rezoning aligns the township-owned Warren Township Center and Warren Township High School Almond Campus with village zoning and is intended to make permitting, planning and emergency response more consistent. The township board previously voted on Oct. 13, 2025 to move forward with the application covering the Township Center and the high school campus; township presenters emphasized the petition does not include neighboring homes and is limited to the campus parcels.

Warren Township supervisor Elmer Fall identified himself for the record. Residents asked whether annexation would affect taxes or township services. A village staff member answered that annexation of the specific township properties would have no effect on taxation for residents outside the annexed parcels and would not change the township’s elected offices or functions; the primary changes would be that the Village of Gurnee would provide police response on the annexed parcels and the village would handle permits and inspections for work on those properties instead of Lake County.

Why it mattered: township officials said the change should reduce overlapping enforcement at the nearby high school campus (the village currently provides student-resource officers inside the school while the county provides outside enforcement), improving consistency of police response on campus and simplifying permitting for campus improvements.

The board recorded a motion recommending approval to the Village Board with a roll-call vote; the transcript records all commissioners voting in favor. The motion listed the seven parcel addresses proposed for rezoning (recorded in the meeting minutes). The board’s favorable recommendation does not itself enact annexation — annexation would be a separate decision by the Village Board.

What’s next: the Planning and Zoning Board’s recommendation will be transmitted to the Village Board, which will consider annexation and final zoning action in its separate proceeding.