Most mornings, Elmhurst resident John Pesek doesn’t need an alarm clock.

That’s because Pesek, along with eight or nine other homeowners on a remote strip of South Riverside Drive, claim the incessant banging and noise of neighboring business CE Rentals at 6:30 a.m. wakes them up.

And even after the City Council granted a conditional use for CE Rentals to build a parking lot on an area abutting the residences Oct. 19, Pesek and his neighbors say they won’t give up their fight that’s lasted nearly 10 years.

“The parking lot isn’t a big deal to me, it’s heavy equipment making noise,” Pesek said. “We’re going to look at the terms of conditional use and we’re going to hold (CE Rentals) to whatever the terms are.”

The spar between neighbors began in 1998, when a developer rezoned the property into commercial and residential districts.

CE Rentals moved in, and has since attempted to use one of the unused parcels of land as a parking lot for his business.

Pesek and his neighbors said no, and after the City Council voted in favor of the residents, the fight continued to a lawsuit, which CE Rentals lost.

Since then, CE Rentals has reapplied, and finally was granted the land with the conditional use that it only be used for parking and not for storing heavy equipment.

Aldermen voting in favor of the measure liked the idea of crafting a conditional use, as well as CE Rentals’ attempts to separate themselves from the residential area with a 6-foot solid fence, an 8-foot landscape buffer and nine maple trees that have grown for the past five years.

But the residents say good fences don’t make good neighbors.

“I noticed on the back of the Jewel on York and Butterfield (roads) they have a notice telling truck drivers to keep the noise down since they’re directly abutting residential there,” Pesek said. “But CE Rentals doesn’t see us so there’s no regard to keeping any of the noise down.”

Robert Sloan, who owns CE Rentals, said he’s excited that his plan was approved and he will stick by the conditional use by keeping the lot for parking and light storage for his 11 employees.

“I’m thankful to the City Council that finally common sense has prevailed,” Sloan said.

Pesek thinks the council just got tired of dealing with the issue that affects only the most outlying part of town.

“If they said no, (Sloan) is just going to come back again,” Pesek said.

Resident Bob Lambke was also adamantly opposed to the CE Rentals parking lot, but laments that his part of town may not be foremost in the council’s eyes.

“We got rural mailboxes, it’s not like part of the city, there’s a farm across the street from me,” he said. “I couldn’t believe after the judge ruled against (CE Rentals) that the city would even talk to him ... but I just figured eventually we could see it coming just from the tone of the (planning, zoning, and economic development) commission.”