Schaumburg's Pleasant Square development nearing construction
Construction is expected to begin this summer on a long-delayed residential project at the northwest corner of Schaumburg and Roselle roads in Schaumburg, after village officials Tuesday gave the project several final approvals.
The Pleasant Square development will include a small public park and a right turn lane at the corner instead of the 10,000-square-foot commercial development originally planned. The residential component approved Tuesday will lie farther north and west of it.
The last approval needed before construction is the final engineering plat, which likely will come in either April or May, Schaumburg's Community Development Director Julie Fitzgerald said.
The project first was approved in 2005 in an earlier configuration. It has since faced long delays and several revisions — largely due to the economic downturn and its impact on the housing market.
But as of Tuesday night, the new version of Pleasant Square had gone as far as any of its predecessors did.
“From this point on, we're hitting new milestones,” Fitzgerald said.
The most recent plan for the 12-acre Pleasant Square consists of 10 single-family homes, eight townhouses in three buildings and 99 rowhomes in 19 buildings, for a total of 117 housing units.
The final version of the project's development agreement was approved by the village board in November, making the project eligible for funding from the Olde Schaumburg Centre tax-increment finance district which otherwise expired on Dec. 31.
The project won't be built by its original developer but by Columbus, Ohio-based M/I Homes, Fitzgerald said.
Though the agreement allows for public-improvement funding through Jan. 1, 2017, the 23-year-old TIF district that helped revitalize the area around Schaumburg and Roselle roads can no longer take on further projects.
A TIF district works by freezing all taxing bodies' property-tax income at the level of the district's first year — in this case, 1990. Taxes collected above those amounts then go to a village fund to pay for public improvements within the district.
A major accomplishment of the TIF district was Town Square on the southwest corner of the intersection, which includes businesses, restaurants and the Schaumburg Township District Library.