Creating a pedestrian-friendly New Lenox Commons will require some tinkering with the town’s building regulations, the Zoning Board of Appeals learned last week.
The pedestrian-oriented atmosphere envisioned for the proposed town center calls for buildings closer to the sidewalks than village rules require, a contradiction that brought Library Director JoAnn Potenziani to the Zoning Board of Appeals to ask for a setback variance.
A new library will be the first building on the site south of U.S. Highway 30 and north of the Village Hall on Haven Avenue, where infrastructure and construction work are expected to begin this summer.
The New Lenox Commons plan also calls for green space, a gazebo, a veterans memorial, a pond and, eventually, a park district recreation center and a new village hall.
Library officials are reviewing construction bids and getting ready to build, so Potenziani asked the board to approve a setback variance.
“If they had to push [the new library building] back 15 feet, it would really impact the whole development,” said Robin Traubenik, the village’s planning and development administrator.
But board Chairman Cory Lund said circumstances did not justify altering regulations, making a variance “a bad precedent. This is an expediency issue. I think this is very dangerous,” he said. ” If the Village Board has to pass [a different] ordinance, let them do it.”