Gas station, car wash dropped from Hawthorn Woods development plan
Plans for a gasoline station and car wash no longer are part of a development proposal that would include homes at the northeast corner of Route 22 and Quentin Road in Hawthorn Woods.
Foxford Communities is behind the development plan, across the street from a plaza with Mariano's Fresh Market, a McDonald's and a PNC Bank in Lake Zurich. It would be the third phase of the Hawthorn Trails subdivision.
At a village board meeting Monday night, Hawthorn Woods Mayor Joseph Mancino asked the development team to drop the gas station and car wash. Representing the developers, attorney Thomas Burney told the village board they would abide by the request.
Under the revised plan, there would be three commercial lots in place of the gas station and car wash on nearly 4 acres closest to Quentin and Route 22. There would be 39 clustered single-family homes in the $500,000 range with alleys to mimic in an urban setting toward the north end of the property.
Icon Building Group of Algonquin would offer clustered single-family houses of 4,590 and 3,254 square feet.
Despite the withdrawal of the plan for the gas station and car wash that's drawn criticism from residents, most in a crowd of about 60 at Monday night's village board meeting still objected to the proposal. Among their concerns, speakers at the meeting cited increased traffic at Quentin and Route 22 and the potential for declining property values from smaller homes nearby.
Hawthorn Trails resident Rini Datta said at least 200 people have signed an online petition against the proposed project.
“As a community, we are not opposed to developing this area,” Datta added. “But the proposed plan with high-density homes is not what any of envisioned when we moved here.”
Mancino said the village's comprehensive plan calls for a greater housing diversity. He said Hawthorn Woods needs more dense housing to bring more residents and attract commercial developers for sorely needed tax revenue.
Trustee Kelly Corrigan said many older residents are being forced from the village because they no longer can keep up homes on large lots.
“We're losing valuable people and residents,” Corrigan said. “A lot of them were founders of the village.”
On May 24, the planning, building and zoning commission set five conditions for recommending approval of the proposal for what originally was the gas station, car wash and 39 clustered single-family houses.
One condition for the development team headed by Foxford is to abide by a 2010 agreement governing commercial use of the undeveloped 72 acres at the northeast corner of the intersection that prohibits gas stations. The advisory panel also recommended the houses be built on a minium of 12,000-square-foot lots to match Hawthorn Trails' existing houses. The proposal calls for clustered single-family houses of 4,590 and 3,254 square feet.