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Palatine gives boost to trio of stalled housing developments

A trio of stalled housing developments in Palatine may finally be gaining some momentum.

The village council Monday approved requests that officials hope will lead to construction at Cornell Commons near downtown, Nick’s subdivision to the east, and a Michigan Avenue development to the south.

The most controversial of the three proved to be Michigan Avenue proposal, which prompted a lengthy discussion and comments from several neighbors with concerns over flooding and drainage patterns.

In the end, the council unanimously approved preliminary plans for the development, which calls for 14 single-family homes. Developer Greg Rose agreed to reduce the plan by one house in order to increase the average lot size.

Village Manager Reid Ottesen assured residents that final engineering plans will undergo far more review and require another public hearing.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done before this would ever come back for (village council) approval,” Ottesen said.

Neighbors who live on Cheryl Lane to the north said they already deal with frequent flooding and don’t see how building 14 homes immediately west of Salt Creek won’t further burden them. But both the project and village engineers say the work will alleviate flooding because Rose plans to reroute water away from those neighbors, past a culvert and into the creek downstream. Plans also include a detention area significantly larger than required.

“It’s actually a better situation in terms of discharge into the creek system,” village engineer Mike Danecki said.

Council members also gave the go-ahead to wrap up work at Cornell Commons, a 17-unit townhouse development at Cornell Street and Eric Drive. The complex originally was approved in 2005, but the builder went bankrupt after completing just 12 units.

Its current owner, State Bank of Countryside, has contracted with KF Walter Homes, also led by Rose, to finish the interior build out of the final five units on Jayden Drive.

Finally, the council approved transferring development responsibilities of Nick’s subdivision from Lennar Corp to K. Hovnanian Homes along with minor changes to the proposed homes. Only two single-family homes have been built on the 12-lot property, located at Northwest Highway and South Wilke Road.

Rose said he hopes to start construction there sometime next month.

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