Wood Dale hears plan for senior housing

Earlier this year, Wood Dale entered the search, with several other towns, for affordable senior housing.

Thursday night, such a plan fell into aldermen's laps, though not for the location they intended.

Following a series of design discussions in April, city officials and architects agreed the Georgetown Area, south of Irving Park Road and Prospect Avenue, was ideal for a development of affordable senior housing and some sort of mixed commercial component.

A local developer, however, had his eye on the vacant, city-owned former 7-11 lot at the southwest corner of Wood Dale Road and Commercial Street.

Thursday night, aldermen agreed with Brinshore Development President Richard Sciortino's contention that the Wood Dale Road location is the ideal spot for such a development due to its proximity to the train depot and the city's desire to one day have a walkable downtown in the area of Wood Dale and Irving Park roads.

Brinshore's preliminary plan, proposed Thursday, calls for a six-story, 85-unit prairie-style residential complex and an adjoining two-story 20,000-square-foot retail complex. The residential component would include underground parking. Sciortino said the $24.5 million project would be funded mostly by private debt and equity but with the grant assistance of the state's housing development authority if the project is approved by April 1, 2008.

Some aldermen were hesitant to tell Sciortino to further develop his plan without seeing competitive proposals for the lot, which has been vacant for more than two years. But Alderman Nunzio Pulice said the plan should move forward.

"I've lived here for 20 years and all the city does is wait and wait," he said. "Now we've got this project in front of us and the developer has already done a lot of work on it. Let's see where it goes."

The council said it's still open to hearing other proposals for the Wood Dale Road lot and any other buildable lots in town. In the meantime, staff was directed to work with Brinshore to bring an updated plan to the council.

"I've got one thing to say," Alderman Joe Kolz proclaimed. "This is a good thing for the city. It's good."