Chick-fil-A will be able to open a restaurant where it wants in Waukegan, but not before a narrow City Council vote and the objections of two multinational corporations which will flank the planned eatery. Before it can build its restaurant on the southeast corner of Northpoint Boulevard and Waukegan Road, across from the Fountain Square shopping center, Chick-fil-A needed a zoning change and other modifications from the city because the lot is designated for light manufacturing. Representatives of Astronics Connectivity Systems & Certification, a publicly traded $800 million company providing technology to the aerospace industry, and Overture, a $300 million business which creates branded merchandise, objected to the city allowing Chick-fil-A as their neighbor. But, the City Council voted 5-4 to rezone the proposed Chick-fil-A site Tuesday at City Hall over strenuous objections from two council members and no voiced support from those approving the measure. Ald. Victor Felix, 4th Ward, was one of the five council members voting for the zoning change. He said after the meeting he had looked at the proposed Chick-fil-A location and concluded it was the right move. “I drove by there and saw the parking lot. It is very, very large and it will work for Chick-fil-A,” Felix said. “We should all be able to work together,” he added, referring to the objections raised by Astronics and Overture. All properties on the east side of Waukegan Road from the south city limits to Northpoint are zoned for light industrial and warehouses. So are those on the west side up to Lakehurst Road. They include some major employers. Chick-fil-A will be the first of its type on the east side. Ald. Thomas Hayes, 9th Ward, said allowing the zoning change gives Chick-fil-A a competitive advantage over more than a dozen restaurants operating on the west side of Waukegan Road which comply with the zoning requirements there. “To have someone come in and say you need us more than we need you is a little bit shocking to me.,” Hayes said. “Why are we willing to bend to Chick-fil-A and say you can have the competitive advantage? Why are we giving you the advantage over all these other restaurants who had to play by the rules.” Jason Hill, the director of construction and development for Chick-fil-A, said during the meeting the company has sought a location in the Waukegan area for several years, and the southeast corner of Northpoint and Waukegan is the only one suitable. The west side of the street is not, he said. “There is very little opportunity to develop in this area and have frontage on Waukegan Road,” Hill said. “There are several use restrictions several of our competitors have over there that front on (the west side of) Waukegan Road.” Overture CEO JoAnn Gilly said during the meeting the restaurant will be on the parking lot for the business, where 110 people work in their warehouse daily and another 90 are there several days a week. She has traffic and safety concerns. “Chick-fil-A will use our entrance for their drive-through, and reroute our exit past our two doors on the other side of the building where every warehouse employee comes in and out of that locker room door,” Gilly said. “I’m really concerned about the safety of my employees.” Scott Gendell, the president of developer Terraco Inc., said during the meeting Chick-fil-A will be the equivalent of three blocks from Astronics, and when the building is complete it will not interfere with Coverture. “We’re planting 140 trees on this property,” Gendell said. “We’ll have solid screening between us and Overture. We have a totally isolated site regulated by a traffic light on the north, and will not harm the traffic flow within the industrial/research park.” Astronics President Michael Kuehn said a zoning change which alters the character of a neighborhood of light manufacturing and warehouse space removes a degree of certainty and increases risk. “You are altering the zoning and, from a corporate perspective, insecurity and the unknown, just like in the stock market, is something we don’t like,” Kuehn said. “When we look out five, ten years, is there another variance in the future. If you approve this, our risk assessment goes up.” Voting for the zoning change with Felix were Ald. Sylvia Sims Bolton, 1st Ward, Ald. Jose A. Guzman, 2nd Ward, Ald. Keith Turner, 6th Ward and Ald. Michael Donnenwirth, 7th Ward. Joining Hayes opposing the project were Ald. Juan Martinez, 3rd Ward. Ald. Edith Newsome, 5th Ward and Ald. Lynn Florian, 8th Ward.