Late change on development plan for former Green Acres likely means more public hearings
The people gathered in the Sandy Frum Board Room to hear about a planned retirement community at Northbrook's old Green Acres Country Club had another thing coming.
"I learned yesterday that the potential developer has presented some significant changes to that plan - or will," said Northbrook Village President Kathryn Ciesla, thus lopping probably a good hour-and-a-half from this week's board of trustees meeting.
Erickson Senior Living, the contract purchaser of the 127-acre property owned by GA Northbrook LLC, had reason to submit changes to its plan for 916-1002 Dundee Road.
Though Northbrook's Architectural Control Commission had approved the plan by a 5-0 vote on Sept. 8, the Plan Commission on Sept. 20 had voted 7-0 recommending to deny the application, with one commissioner abstaining and another absent.
In a Sept. 6 Plan Commission public hearing, 17 people stated their opposition to the project, while 27 of the 28 written comments received for July 19 and Sept. 6 meetings had opposed it.
The reasons included protecting open space - the plan would require rezoning 79 acres from Open Space to Residential Specialty District - added noise, density and long construction periods. The initial schedule was to start construction in the second quarter of 2023 with completion in phases by the second quarter of 2028.
By Sept. 6, the application had been reduced to 908 living units - 800 independent living units and 108 assisted-living units holding 155 health care beds - and to 9 interconnected buildings from 10 three- to five-story buildings. The most recent plan also shifted that five-story building down to four.
The Plan Commission agreed with some of the residents' concerns and also opposed the request for reasons including a noncompliant affordable housing plan, increased emergency service calls and the lack of a traffic light at the sole access point on Dundee Road.
Since November 2019, the village board twice had been unenthused over plans for the former Green Acres, dubbed the Emerald of Northbrook.
Perceived density was the main complaint about the first plan. In the second, reviewed in August 2020, trustee Heather Ross deemed 72 affordable units placed in two apartment buildings "the most offensive" part of a plan her colleagues likewise dismissed.
However, nearly a year removed from Tuesday's meeting, on Oct. 26, 2021, Ciesla and the trustees appreciated Erickson Senior Living's approach to working with surrounding neighbors - even if trustee Muriel Collison still found an initial proposal of up to 1,000 independent living units plus up to 200 health care units "way too dense."
Whatever the new proposal offers, it's "a unique situation," Ciesla said on Tuesday.
"We haven't had a developer, at least in the time that I can remember, come in with such a large project and then after the Plan Commission (reviews it) make significant changes to it," she said.
Considering options aloud before Village Attorney Steve Elrod and Village Manager Cara Pavlicek determine legalities and procedures, Ciesla suggested scheduling a separate Committee of the Whole meeting that would double as a public hearing, and also scheduling a second public hearing.
Sending the new plan back to the Plan Commission also was left as a possibility.
"I think what the president said contemplates two steps," Elrod said.
"One, where the plan is revealed, and then a second one which will be weeks later, which will give (residents) preparation time for a public hearing, either with a Plan Commission joint hearing or some other body," he said.
"We need to figure out how to address this in a formal way so all voices are heard," Ciesla said, mainly to the crowd in the board room.
"According to (Erickson) it's so significantly changed we're going to have another public hearing. We're not going to sandbag you. We want you guys to be prepared and ready to talk to us."