Northbrook board takes more hacks at golf course development proposal
The Northbrook village board again took issue with a proposed residential development on the former site of the Green Acres Country Club.
Or as Village President Sandy Frum coined it when its turn on the agenda came up at the virtual meeting Tuesday, "The Big One."
Though less dense and presenting more open space than the original plan heard and discounted by the board in a November 2019 preliminary review, trustees held the same dim views of the new Terre Verde proposal for the 127-acre site at 916 Dundee Road, west of Skokie Boulevard.
"I'm very underwhelmed by what this is offering to the community," Trustee Muriel Collison said.
When Taylor Morrison originally presented its plan in 2019 it showed 800 units, 30.3 acres of open space and zero units of affordable housing. Tuesday's plan from M/I Homes, which had acquired much of Taylor Morrison's Chicago-area land assets, had adjusted those numbers but not to the board's satisfaction.
The new plan for the property, which closed in January 2017 after nearly 70 years as a golf course and is owned by GA Northbrook LLC, proposed 581 units of apartments, townhouses, duplexes and single-family homes, with 59.5 acres of open space and 76 units of affordable housing.
It was met with disapproval by Frum, all six trustees and several community members whose emails were read early in the meeting.
Along with continued complaints about density, trustees took exception to the number and placement of affordable housing units.
Though the 76 affordable units were 15% of the 505 market-rate units, a current draft ordinance for inclusionary housing reviewed by the board requires 15 percent of a development's total units, which would be 88 units.
Besides four affordable townhouse units, all 72 affordable rental apartments were contained in two of 10 apartment buildings rather than dispersed throughout the development.
"I found that the most offensive," Trustee Heather Ross said.
A single main access point on Dundee Road including a traffic light was another sticking point.
The M/I Homes plan also includes 150 single-family homes and 50 duplexes for people 55 and older, but Collison - who called the plot "the jewel of Northbrook" - remained concerned about potential overcrowding or even an addition to Meadowbrook School in District 28.
Ross and Trustee Dan Pepoon saw no reason to change the property's zoning to a residential district from open space for this particular plan.
"Why?" Pepoon said. "Well, it'd be because the plan is noble, open and green, and it stirs the imagination and, long after I'm gone, it'll survive for future generations to enjoy this piece of land. And this proposal doesn't do that."
Summarizing, Frum said: "The developer has the right to go to the Plan Commission, but the board is not particularly receptive to this plan."