Lombard's 'rules' for what's going north of Yorktown mall
To prepare for development of the area just north of Yorktown Center, the Lombard plan commission has recommended “rules of the game” that would require a variety of uses on the land, including retail and housing.
Bill Heniff, the village's director of community development, said the 15-acre area includes the long vacant Bamboo Room bar, the largely vacant Yorktown Convenience Center, part of the parking lot north of JCPenney and about 5 vacant acres south of Target.
The owners of Yorktown came to the village asking for more regulations on land — which they also own — to “make sure whatever gets built there is an enhancement to their assets,” Heniff said.
The commission then held three workshop sessions to discuss the future of the properties and establish a “form-based code” for the area, which focuses more on the function of future buildings and what they should look like rather than building setbacks and separation.
“This is a little bit of a unique item for us,” Heniff said. “We worked in lockstep with the Yorktown staff. The idea was to transform this long somewhat dormant area into a mixed-use development area that can really provide long-term sustainability to the mall and tie the mall better into the overall fabric of the community.”
Yorktown was built in the 1960s, at a time when shopping centers were surrounded by a sea of asphalt parking lot and families would make a day out of their trip to the mall, treating it almost like an amusement park, Heniff said.
Now, he said, people often “run in, get a few things and get out.”
“People have changed, and we should be cognizant of that,” he said. “There are too many stories of stalled malls or malls that have been struggling. Yorktown is not struggling, but the important thing to keep in mind is the longer term sustainability.”
Heniff said Bayshore Town Center near Milwaukee and another shopping center in Colorado served as examples of what Yorktown hopes to see developed north of the shopping center.
Yorktown representatives haven't stated if they will be working with a developer to transform the land or if they will be doing it themselves, but Heniff said it appears they want to see the first phase of work start sometime next year.
“This is much more than just, ‘Let's do this as a planning exercise.' They want to get out on the marketplace and advance these proposals,” he said. “If the property is sold to a builder or developer, the rules are set. You have to meet a high standard.”
No specific plans have been approved yet, and any proposals will need to go through the village board before construction begins.
Some of the requirements of any future development could include accommodations for pedestrians and bicyclists, open gathering areas and building up to the property lines. Heniff added, however, that the number of units and type of housing allowed in the required residential components of the development were “deliberately left open.”
“(Yorktown) wants to be flexible, and it's important for us to be flexible too,” he said, adding that apartments, condominiums, row houses, townhouses and single-family homes are some options that would be considered.
The village board is scheduled to vote on the regulations Dec. 17.