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Westchester Officials Hit Pause Button On Townhome Development 


Sunday, June 20, 2021 || By Michael Romain || @maywoodnews 

Back in March, when the developers seeking to build luxury townhomes in Westchester presented a scaled down version of their plans to address concerns expressed by village officials and residents, it seemed that the proposal, at least two years in the making, was finally on the fast track to actually happening. 

Since then, however, the proposed development has once again come to a halt due to widespread concerns among community members about the proposal’s impact on the nearby Wolf Road Prairie Nature Preserve and the Hickory Lane buffer lands. 

During a regular meeting on June 8, the Village Board decided to defer taking action on a series of zoning relief measures required for the developer, Countryside-based Gallagher & Henry Construction, to build 180 townhome units at 2 Hickory Lane.

The board’s decision came after the village’s Plan and Zoning Commission held a public hearing on the request for zoning relief on June 7. During the hearing, at least 100 people packed into the Court Room at 10300 Roosevelt Rd. in Westchester — virtually all of them vocally against the development. 

Although the commission voted unanimously to recommend that the Village Board grant the zoning relief, they made the decision contingent on the developers satisfying 10 conditions. 

Those conditions included providing proof of utility easement rights and government permits, providing “additional environmental documentation regarding the property and soil conditions,” and agreeing to “meet in a public forum to discuss impacts to Ashley Woods Homeowners Association and Save the Prairie Society,” among other conditions. 

Ashley Woods is a subdivision in Westchester near the development site and Save the Prairie Society is the nearly 50-year-old nonprofit chartered to preserve and restore the 80-acre Wolf Road Prairie and buffer lands. 

Representatives for Gallagher and Henry, and Continental Properties, the Wisconsin-based firm that will manage the townhome community they’re calling Springs at Wolf Prairie, have explained in their presentations to village officials that the development will generate an estimated $1 million in annual tax revenue and infuse an additional $12 million in annual projected resident spending in the local economy. 

The developers also explained that the 180 multi-family development, which would include nine buildings, would have 325 residents at full occupancy, “30 of those being school aged children.” 

The rental units would range from $1,300 for a roughly 600-square-foot studio to $2,400 for a roughly 1,400-square-foot 3-bedroom unit. The developers have argued that the townhomes will be a welcome addition to an area that currently has multiple abandoned homes that, according to Westchester Police, attract vagrants. 

The developers said that if village officials approve their zoning requests, they would anticipate breaking ground in August, with all nine buildings completed by June 2023. The recent decisions by the village to hold off on granting the zoning requests, however, may impact that timeline. 

Many opponents of the development are concerned about the environmental impacts of the townhomes. 

Wolf Road Prairie is widely recognized as “one of the largest and best quality black soil prairies east of the Mississippi River,” according to the Salt Creek Greenway Association, an organization that works to preserve natural ecosystems. 

Save the Prairie officials, along with other community members who are opposed to the development, have pointed out that Hickory Lane, the roughly 60-acre land area that includes the 15 acres that Gallagher owns and on which it plans to build the townhomes, is next to the old Sexton Landfill, which was closed in 1982. The Chicago Highlands golf course is to the west of Hickory Lane. 

At the time, there were roughly a dozen homes in the area built between the 1940s and 1970s whose owners were possibly affected by toxic compounds from the landfill that leaked into Hickory Lane’s groundwater, according to Save the Prairie officials and Chicago Tribune reporting. 

“The Forest Preserves acquired four of the twelve plots of Hickory Lane,” Save the Prairie officials explained in a statement. “One was converted into the [Forest Preserves of Cook County] police station. The other three were incorporated to Wolf Road Prairie, the houses quickly torn down and the land put to active ecological restoration, as will all of Hickory Lane be if acquired as a nature preserve. 

“There’s a fifth plot that is part of the nature preserve, but owned by us, Save the Prairie Society, and we actively house legal tenants on that property as a source of passive income. All plots that have houses on them belong to the state and the village, and are beyond our jurisdiction or ability to manage.” 

Save the Prairie officials added that they believe the best way to avoid those environmental and health hazards, and for the village to benefit from the natural ecosystem’s capacity for flood and pollution mitigation, is to avoid construction. 

“The dolomite beneath those 15 acres might still contain a cocktail above the legal limit of certain carcinogenic, neurotoxic, and asphyxiant greenhouse gas compounds such as vinyl chloride, chloroform, and methane,” they said. 

“And atop this, that dolomite beneath Gallagher & Henry’s property retains the groundwater and runoff which feeds the high quality, biodiverse wetlands on the [Forest Preserves] police station and in the southwest of Wolf Road Prairie. These wetlands and the surrounding prairie are the most effective and cheapest tools known to us for biodegrading and dispersing pollutants and pathogens alike, if their natural hydrology is maintained, which cannot happen if the land is developed.” 

The proposed development also encountered some pushback from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). 

“In the petitioner’s presentation, he stressed numerous times that he’s focusing on the western boundary, Chicago Highlands — no mention of Wolf Road Prairie,” said Greg Kelly, an IDNR site superintendent. 

Kelly argued that the village should hold off on granting the developers the zoning relief until the issue of utility easements is cleared up. 

“We have not seen any legal documentation as for the legal easements for the utility corridor,” Kelly said. “Until those documents are produced through IDNR and through the village, I think it’s prudent for the village to table this vote. Why go down that road if there’s not a legal corridor for utilities? It’s a moot point. I’ve heard over and over that these documents exist, but for whatever reason they cannot produce them” 

Kelly also addressed the vacant dwellings on the Hickory Lane property, explaining that the properties will be addressed without Gallagher and Continental building townhomes on top of them. Kelly said the vacant homes “are indeed owned by [IDNR],” and that he’s working to transfer the properties over to the Forest Preserves District of Cook County. 

“Their first act of business is going to be to tear down the dwellings,” Kelly said. “I know they attract nuisances. We’re doing everything we can to tear down those buildings. We’re working hand-in-hand with Cook County and we feel like we’re going to get that issue resolved in short order.” 

During the June 8 meeting, Westchester Village President Frank Perry said that he was trying to balance the interests of the developers with the concerns and interests of community members. 

“We’re just trying to be fair to everybody,” Perry said. 

Read our previous coverage on this issue here, here and here

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