No lack of opinions on Willow Crossing development
At least a fourth Glenview Plan Commission meeting will be required to judge the merits of zoning approval and final site plan for the proposed Willow Crossing Shopping Center after 30 residents took the development to task in a public hearing on Tuesday.
After nearly two and a half hours worth of unanimously negative opinions concerning the Amazon Fresh-anchored proposal covering 8.30 acres at the southwest corner of Willow and Pfingsten roads, Plan Commission Chair Steven Bucklin and his fellow commissioners closed the session.
With still more than 20 people remaining in the queue to speak - "and hundreds of emails" at hand, Bucklin said - a fourth meeting on the topic, and second public hearing, was set for 7 p.m. April 13.
"We could go on for many more hours," Bucklin said of a now monthlong process that forced the commission to schedule a special meeting March 30 to deal with proposals other than the one at 2660 Pfingsten Road.
The case of the Anderson Subdivision at 1013 Prairie Lawn Road, for example, has been on the Plan Commission agenda since Feb. 23 while first Willow Crossing developer GW Properties then an opposing group of surrounding neighbors posited zoning criteria pro and con in commission meetings on Feb. 23 and March 9, respectively.
The area currently is zoned R-1 for residential use. GW Properties, the owner, seeks the Village of Glenview to rezone 6.07 acres as B-1 limited business for its 35,000-square foot Amazon Fresh store and three smaller buildings plus parking, the remainder shifted to R-4 residential to contain water detention.
Despite being held remotely per continued COVID-19 mitigations, and during schools' spring break - a couple speakers Zoomed in while out of state with family - Glenview Planning Manager Jeff Rogers said the meeting was viewed by approximately 265 people.
They heard arguments against the development largely on a belief it would increase car and truck traffic, presenting safety issues for schoolchildren, or wending its way through neighborhood side streets to avoid the Willow-Pfingsten intersection.
They believed the new shopping center would compound traffic trouble particularly given that the Plaza del Prado mall sits right across Pfingsten Road, due east.
"It becomes a dangerous game of 'Frogger,'" one man said.
A retired physician said, "minutes matter" to those in ambulances navigating busy streets toward nearby Glenbrook Hospital.
Because of Plaza del Prado, one 35-year Brett Lane resident said the area "is far from a commercial desert." On the other hand, several speakers questioned the need for more commercial space when vacancies were apparent.
Air pollution, light pollution, sound pollution, decreased residential property values, pallet storage, waste enclosures, even an apparent inability to easily reach a specific Amazon Fresh store by phone, said one speaker who tried, all were brought up as strikes against the development.
As Northbrook is right on the other side of Willow Road, a couple of its citizens chimed in. One cited the Willow Road Corridor Agreement of March 1990. Another, who said she was a city planner with 36 years' experience, suggested the two villages again engage in joint planning.
The topic of tree removal - which last summer resulted in a still-standing temporary restraining order against construction and seemed to create in the affected residents a distrust of the project - made a return appearance.
Carol Sullivan, an immediate neighbor to the property, was central to that order and also is the lead plaintiff in a suit against the Village of Glenview pertaining to zoning matters. She rued the prospect of more mature trees marked for removal, to be replaced by much shorter ones.
"But this isn't just about trees," Sullivan said.
"Although the trees are important to the quality of life for the families next to this property, this is about the way this developer is sensitive to impacts on his neighbors and on the community from which he is seeking approval for this project."