A nationwide homebuilder is proposing a mix of single-family attached and detached homes in Tinley Park on land that for decades had been headquarters to Panduit.
D.R. Horton’s Oak Ridge subdivision would be built on 39 acres east of Ridgeland Avenue and south of Oak Forest Avenue, with Cook County Forest Preserve District property to the east.
The Texas-based company is proposing 162 attached town house units and 81 detached single-family homes.
The Plan Commission reviewed the plans Dec. 2 and the proposal will return for a public hearing and vote. Any recommendation by the commission would go to the Village Board.
Founded in 1955, Panduit’s electrical and network infrastructure products are used by customers to manage and automate communications, computing, power and security systems in a building or other physical location, according to the company.
Privately held, Panduit in 2010 relocated its global headquarters from the Ridgeland location to a site south of Interstate 80 and east of 80th Avenue in Tinley Park.
The company still maintains a research center, the Jack E. Caveney Innovation Center, on part of the land next to where homes are proposed.
Under D.R. Horton’s plans, town houses would be two levels and the detached single-family homes offered in both single-floor and two-level styles, according to plans.
The company said that it expects the town houses would be more appealing to younger buyers, while the detached homes, particularly the one-story version, may be more in tune with the needs of older empty nesters.
A 3-acre park is planned in the subdivision.
There would be two access points into the subdivision from Ridgeland as well as a single access off Oak Forest Avenue, according to plans.
Panduit had, at one point, nearly 757,000 square feet of office and manufacturing space on a larger 57-acre parcel, and village officials had long believed the property would at some point be redeveloped for homes rather than commercial uses.
The company donated a bit more than 8 acres at Ridgeland and 175th Street to the village, that was turned into a water retention pond.
The village said it needed the pond to provide off-site stormwater detention for development in the downtown Oak Park Avenue business district, and the basin was also designed to accommodate stormwater storage needs for future redevelopment of the rest of Panduit’s property.
The property D.R. Horton plans to build on is part of a tax increment financing district, which could benefit the builder.
Incremental increases in property tax revenue generated within the TIF can be used to help pay for public improvements, such running new streets and utilities through the Panduit site as part of a redevelopment of the land.