New Lenox Proposes New Zoning Criteria to Prevent Future Hotel Market Oversaturation

New Lenox Village Board of Trustees Meeting | April 13, 2026

Article Summary: Anticipating rapid commercial growth around the Crossroads Sports Complex, the New Lenox Village Board heard the first reading of an ordinance that would heavily regulate future hotel development. The proposed rules would classify hotels as “special uses” and implement strict occupancy benchmarks to protect existing hospitality businesses.

Hotel Zoning Key Points:

• Zoning Shift: The ordinance reclassifies hotels from permitted uses to “special uses” in C2, C3, C6, and C7 commercial districts, and removes them entirely as permitted uses in the I-1 industrial district.

• Occupancy Benchmarks: Once the Village reaches 700 active hotel rooms, future developers must produce a STAR report proving existing hotels operated at an 80% occupancy rate over the preceding 12 months.

• Delayed Enactment: To protect two hotel projects already in the Village’s development pipeline, the new ordinance would not take effect until January 1, 2027.

The New Lenox Village Board on Monday, April 13, 2026, reviewed the first reading of a highly specific zoning ordinance designed to prevent the oversaturation of the local hotel market as commercial interest surges near the Crossroads Sports Complex.

Community Development Director Robin Ellis explained that the Village has already fielded intense interest from hospitality developers. However, concerns have been raised regarding how many hotels the local market can reasonably support before businesses begin cannibalizing each other’s profits.

To address this, the proposed ordinance amends Chapter 106 (Zoning) of the Village Code. It removes hotels as a permitted use in the I-1 Limited Industrial District entirely and shifts them to a “special use” category in the C2, C3, C6, and C7 commercial districts. This change guarantees that every future hotel must come before the Village Board for individual approval.

Crucially, the ordinance establishes a strict market-driven benchmark.

“At such time as we reach 700 units or 700 hotel rooms, that part of the special use process would include a STAR report, which is an industry-standard report on hotel occupancy,” Ellis explained. “They would have to demonstrate that existing hotels have operated at an 80% occupancy rate for the preceding 12 months.”

Because the Village is already actively working with developers on two new hotel properties adjacent to the sports complex, the ordinance is drafted with a delayed effective date of January 1, 2027. This ensures the current projects will not be forced to navigate the special use process retroactively.

“The other thing we want to be careful of is we don’t want to just have any type of hotel go up and thrown up,” Mayor Tim Baldermann said. “We want to make sure we have the right hotels for our area, for what we’re trying to accomplish… We don’t want to be oversaturated, and that’s one of the things we talked about negotiating with the land sale over there.”

Because this was a first reading, no formal vote was taken. The ordinance will be brought back to a future meeting for final adoption.