Government
Old Top Die Casting Site Heads Back to County Zoning Board With a Lighter Request
Thursday, August 6, 2026
A plan to turn a long-idle factory building just north of Marengo into five contractor spaces goes back before the county's Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday, August 13, with a lighter request this time. Last month the board split 4-3 on a proposal to zone the whole site heavy industrial. Carl Bronge has since filed a new application that would put the entire property in the county's light industrial district instead. That would actually lower the zoning on the two lots where the building sits, which are already zoned heavy industrial.
The property is 3805 N. Illinois Route 23, four small lots totaling about 2.16 acres on the west side of the highway south of River Road. It sits just outside Marengo's city limits in unincorporated Marengo Township, which is why the decision belongs to the county rather than city hall.
Longtime residents may know the property as Top Die Casting Co. The company's name was lettered across the front of the building, still legible in 2015 street imagery, and its outline can still be made out from Route 23 today. County property records show the McCurdy family, owners of the South Beloit die casting company, held the site until May 2025, when Bronge, who runs a construction business, bought the four lots through Bronge Enterprises, LLC for $185,000. Bronge told the zoning board at its July 9 hearing that the manufacturing operation there, which he recalled as Top Tool, kept adding onto the building, outgrew it, and moved to Beloit, and that the building spent roughly its last decade as a warehouse. His architects' plan would strip the building's add-on structures and divide what remains into five leasable units, each with an office, warehouse space, a restroom, and its own overhead door. Bronge would keep one unit for his own business.
His first application, case Z26-0027, took a different route. The building sits on two lots already zoned I-2, the county's heavy industrial district, and Bronge asked to rezone the two outer lots to match. That is what split the board, 4-3 in favor, one vote short of the five needed to recommend approval. "I am grateful that somebody is coming around and actually trying to conform what has been nonconforming for quite some time," said Vicki Gartner, who chaired the hearing, and Charles Eldredge, also voting yes, noted the area has been used as industrial land since the mid-1960s without official objection. The no votes were less about the project than the label. Board member William Kurnik pointed out that permitted I-2 uses "include asphalt concrete batch facility, include sawmill, include recycling collection centers, include recycling processing centers," and that "those are uses to which this property can be put at any point in time, without coming before the board," because a rezoning attaches to the land, not the project. "I'm not against the project because I think it's appropriate," Kurnik told the applicants. "I'm just against the way you're approaching it." Duane Dahlman said he liked the reuse but did "not think I2 is appropriate for the entire site," and Robert Kosin, the third no, said Bronge "should be applauded for recognizing the potential that he brings to this parcel" but voted no on process grounds. No members of the public spoke, and staff told the board no objections had been filed by the City of Marengo or any other unit of government.
That split carried consequences. By the county's own accounting, a petition that arrives at the County Board without five zoning-board votes in its favor needs 14 of the board's 18 members to pass instead of a simple majority. Staff told the applicants on July 9 that their request would go to the board on August 18 anyway, with no recommendation. It is not on the county's current list of zoning items for that meeting. Instead, a new application covering the same four lots, case Z26-0044, is set for hearing August 13. Bronge's filing does not say why he started over. Its stated goal is consistent zoning across the property, with the five-unit plan unchanged, and the district it asks for, I-1, was among the alternatives Kurnik named from the dais in July. The refiling needs six variances instead of four, because the two center lots are now being rezoned too, though the dimensions requested are the same: relief on lot size, road frontage, a rear setback, and a parking aisle.
Where the heavy-industrial idea came from was itself disputed in July. Bronge told the board the I-2 approach came out of an early meeting: "they steered us to this. This wasn't our idea." Asked by Kurnik whether staff had told the applicants it recommended I-2 for all the lots, planner Melody Jacobson said, "No. Staff did not make that recommendation." What is not disputed is that staff's early discussions with the applicant ran on the county's 2030 comprehensive plan, which mapped the area for industrial development, and that the 2050 plan adopted in January designates it open space. "So that's where the confusion is," Jacobson told the board.
The site sits in a sensitive aquifer recharge area. The soil and water conservation district found a full natural-resources review unnecessary, citing previously disturbed soils and minimal expected impact, and identified no wetlands or floodplains on the parcels. That review was written for the first application; county staff say it remains valid for the new one. Staff offered no objection to the requested variances, while noting Bronge must still show they meet the ordinance's approval standards.
The new hearing is Thursday, August 13, at 1:30 p.m. in the county Administration Building, 667 Ware Road in Woodstock, and the public can comment. Five or more yes votes would send the plan to the County Board with a favorable recommendation, needing a simple majority of the full board so long as no formal objection is filed. An objection from the township plan commission, the City of Marengo, or enough neighboring landowners would push the requirement back to 14 votes. In July, staff said no governmental unit had objected. A final vote would likely come in September.
