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player ready...The Vernon Hills Village Board voted Tuesday to approve a special use permit to allow Urban Air to open an adventure park with trampolines, laser tag, Go-Karts, climbing walls and other attractions at the 413 N. Milwaukee Ave. site of a former Ashley furniture store.
Vernon Hills Director of Community Development Andrew Jennings said the village views the proposed venture as another way to bolster occupancy at a shopping center “on its second life.” The business would be located near a Steinhafels, Home Depot and JOANN Fabric and Crafts.
“You have to look at (businesses) on a case-by-case basis, and see if they’re a good fit for the area in terms of traffic and the other uses near there,” Jennings said. “In a case like this, you’ve got the shopping center, (which) has a significant amount of vacant space, and you’ve got a different type of land use interested in it.”
Potential franchisee operator Neil Hoffner told the board Tuesday about planned attractions at the 61,000-square-foot building, shared ticket prices and the proposed business hours.
The board voted unanimously to approve the special use permit over an objection from nearby Sky Zone Trampoline Park, a business operating about a quarter-mile from the future site of Urban Air.
At the board’s January Committee of the Whole meeting, attorney Lenny Asaro argued on behalf of Sky Zone that the businesses are so similar, and given their close proximity, that Urban Air opening is “not the situation of a McDonald’s being located next to a Burger King.”
“The amount of money that has been invested in Sky Zone, to locate where it locates, it locates there for a reason because you want to limit where you are locating in terms of competition,” Asaro said. “You may get an Urban Air, if you approve it, but you also may lose a Sky Zone if you do.”
Asaro also argued that Urban Air’s petition did not demonstrate its opening would not have an injurious effect on Sky Zone.
After trustee David Oppenheim asked about Asaro’s note about the potential negative impact on Sky Zone, Jennings said the Planning and Zoning Commission considered points brought up in Sky Zone’s objection before finding in favor of Hoffner and Urban Air.
Village attorney James Ferolo concurred with the Planning and Zoning Commission’s decision, saying the zoning code was not intended to limit competition for current permit holders and that the commission was presented with enough evidence that zoning standards would be met.
“The Planning and Zoning Commission heard evidence and determined that all six of these standards have been met,” Ferolo said. “This particular standard at issue really goes to whether or not a use and its factors, its characteristics such as hours of operation, traffic, noise, odors, garbage, any kind of nuisance aspects of the use and would really negatively impact the area surrounding this particular use. It doesn’t go to protecting competition within the village.”
Hoffner said hours of operation would fit around school hours, with plans to open at minimum from 3 to 8 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays.
Tickets would range from roughly $30 after fees, which include the purchase of socks, to just under $50 for all the “premium” attractions, which typically include the Go-Karts, Urban Air’s Sky Rider indoor zip line course and other select attractions. Patrons could pay just under $20 for a trampoline-only pass.
Jennings said next steps for the project include the review of Urban Air’s building permit application. The Lake County health department and local fire protection district will also have to review the plan and could add requirements to the construction plan.
Jennings added that the Vernon Hills police department requested that Urban Air formulate a security plan for approval.
Urban Air has swelled to more than 200 stores around the country since opening its first location in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs in 2011. Sky Zone, meanwhile, operates over 100 trampoline parks in the United States and overseas.
Both chains have drawn some scrutiny in the southwest suburbs in recent years.
A man was arrested at Urban Air’s Mokena location in 2021 after allegedly fighting with an armed security guard, who pulled a gun.
Orland Park revoked Sky Zone’s business license several weeks earlier in 2021 following an emergency call about a fight that drew an estimated 50 police officers to the business, where they said they cleared hundreds of minors from the location
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.The Daily Southtown reported that Orland Park restored the business license later that year after settling on new operating procedures, including the hiring of private security on Fridays and weekends.