Preliminary plans for a 101-townhome development on Western Avenue near downtown Des Plaines are awaiting city council approval and have drawn questions about marketability and parking.
The project, known as Colfax Crossing, would be built on nearly eight vacant acres in the 7th ward, near where it borders the 1st ward. A vote on the initial plans was postponed at a recent council meeting because of the absence of 7th ward Ald. Don Smith.
In 2007, the council approved plans for a development of 106 townhomes on the site, but that project never materialized, said senior planner Scott Mangum.
Orleans Homes, the developer of Colfax Crossing, is proposing 101 two- and three-bedroom townhomes, ranging from about 1,700 to 1,900 square feet, each having a two-car garage, according to a memo from city staff. As part of the project, Evergreen Avenue, which is located north of and perpendicular to Western Avenue, would be extended to form a cul-de-sac at the southwest end of the site, the memo states, and Western Avenue also would be improved and widened.
The roadway extension would provide approximately 30 new on-street parking spaces, Mangum said.
But Alice Chrostowski, a resident of Stone Gate condominiums, which is located just south of the proposed development, said she and others at the condominium complex “are concerned very much about parking. I’m also concerned, frankly, in a more global way, about the marketability of these units, these town homes,” given noise from nearby trains.
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. At Stone Gate, Chrostowski said each condominium owner has one or two dedicated parking spaces within a garage, in addition to between 90 and 100 visitor spaces in the complex’s central courtyard. With about 265 condominium units, she said, cars parked on most city streets in the area are “bumper to bumper” by evening.
Thirty visitor parking spaces “is not sufficient for a development of that size,” she said, referring to tColfax Crossing plans.
Several aldermen shared Chrostowski’s concerns.
“On-street parking is a commodity within the 1stt ward and that section of the 7th ward,” said Ald. Patricia Haugeberg, 1st.
“I’m a little bit uncomfortable with the lack of parking,” said Ald. Mark Walsten, 6th. “As (Chrostwoski) stated, her development has quite a bit of parking outside of what’s required for the units themselves.”
But Rick Zurk, director of land acquisition for Orleans Homes, said one area resident told him that if more visitor parking were provided, residents of the town homes would park their cars in those spaces and use their garages for storage.
Zurk said the idea hadn’t occurred to him before, “but it did have me walking away saying, that’s kind of true.”
The plan commission has recommended approval of the preliminary plans. If the city council approves them at a future meeting, final plans would go before the plan commission, then the city council.
Lee V. Gaines is a freelance reporter.