An Orland Park Village Board committee Monday postponed further public discussion on a proposed row house development west of Centennial Park following a contentious debate that included questions about safety and aesthetics.
Development Services, Planning and Engineering Committee Chairman Kathleen Fenton said she wanted to engage in more conversation with Development Department staff and developer Tom Cachey before bringing his Park Boulevard Townhomes project back to the next meeting Dec. 15.
Cachey’s plan for about 70 row houses on an approximately 3-acre site northwest of Park Station Boulevard and Scotsglen Road reportedly needs a decision from the village by the end of the year.
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A different developer proposed building four condominium buildings containing 96 units on the site in 2005, but the project faltered and only one building was constructed before the property went into foreclosure.
Cachey’s project was conditionally endorsed last week by Orland Park’s Plan Commission, sending his proposal — accompanied by a dozen dissenting residents — to Monday’s committee meeting.
Cachey told the three-member committee, which includes trustees Dan Calandriello and Patricia Gira, he had responded to several concerns by recirculating the parking and driving aisles.
“Instead of having one drive aisle, we have two aisles,” he said.
The redesign also includes 80 new parking spaces, including 39 on Park Station Boulevard for guests, which Development Services Director Karie Friling termed, “on top of what was requested.”
Fenton appeared unimpressed, noting the boulevard parking borrows from the property’s right-of-way, basically “taking green space to make parking spaces.” Fenton later said she was also concerned about safety issues posed by the new on-street parking.
Mike Cody, a principal at Chicago-based Fitzgerald Associates Architects, said the Park Boulevard Townhomes project is “similar in site and scope” to 20 urban projects with which his firm has been involved.
Cody said the buildings’ outward appearance would vary.
“We will have a couple of different unit types,” altering the elevation “a little bit to provide more interest,” he said.
Village Planner Nectarios “Tari” Pittos, who acted on behalf of Friling during much of the preparation prior to last week’s Plan Commission presentation, said the new development provides an opportunity to extend the current bike path to 159th Street.
Acknowledging there currently is no parking on Park Station Boulevard, Pittos told Fenton that people “probably park at the Metra (parking lot) to use the park.” The lot, which directly accesses the Centennial Park’s west-northwest side, is roughly four blocks north of the proposed new on-street parking.
Responding to Gira’s questions about landscaping, Pittos said there is “additional distance between the single-family homes and townhomes with the parking,” which he estimated at “90 feet or so.”
“That’s distance, not landscaping,” Gira responded.
Learning the west buildings would have balconies, she said, “So, the balconies of these building will be looking into the backyards of the single-family homes.”
George Canellis, one of several residents to address the committee, said he and his wife moved to their home on Julies Way “because of the original plan” for the subdivision.
“The best thing about Orland Park is the neighborhood feel we have,” Canellis said.
Contrasting the distance between homes, he praised “the ability to move around and not be on top of each other.”
Canellis termed the row house project a “material and substantial variation” from what he and other residents agreed to.