Buffalo Grove board skeptical of apartment plan
A proposed residential development near the Buffalo Grove Metra station found a skeptical audience in the Buffalo Grove village board Monday.
Board members called the proposal too high, too dense and lacking in sufficient parking.
It was the first hearing on the concept for the board, which did not refer the matter to the plan commission for further review.
The plan for the 4.5-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Deerfield and Busch parkways calls for three buildings: two three-story walk-up garden apartments and a mid-rise eight-story apartment building. The buildings would house 376 units in all.
According to the village, the only other comparable residential structure in Buffalo Grove, when it comes to height, is the 301 Riverwalk Place building near Lake-Cook Road and Milwaukee Avenue.
The real estate development company behind the proposal, Marquette Properties Co., has been in business for 28 years, specializing in apartments. Speaking on their behalf, Jordan E. Glazov touted it as a transit-oriented development, saying it would target empty nesters who want to stay in the community and young people who can't afford to buy a home.
The development would generate as few as 12 schoolchildren, he said, while providing more than $700,000 annually to schools and other taxing districts.
“We think that this would be a very good benefit for the community,” Glazov said.
Developers are seeking two variances from village zoning regulations, but trustees didn't seem eager Monday to provide them.
The first would allow the building to exceed the maximum height of 45 feet allowable in that district. The planned eight-story building would rise to 85 to 95 feet.
The second variance would allow for just 1.08 parking spaces per unit, as opposed to the minimum 1.7.
Most of the residents, Glazov said, would be train commuters or workers at a nearby office and industrial park who could walk to work.
Trustees, however. were taken aback by the variance requests.
Village President Jeffrey Braiman said in his 20 years on the board, he has never seen anything close to the 40 percent variation sought for parking.
Trustee Steven Trilling said it would be one thing if there were amenities nearby like a cleaners or grocery store that could be easily reached by foot, but this would not be the case. He also wondered whether the development's height and proximity to the Chicago Executive Airport would interfere with flights.
Trustee Jeffrey Berman questioned whether the project would fit in with surrounding developments.
“I do not believe the concept works here. I don't believe that it will ever work here,” he said. “You're dropping an isolated island of residential units into a sea of industrial uses. As such it smacks of spot zoning.”