Bartlett considers plans for assisted-living facility

Virginia-based developers have pitched plans for an assisted-living facility in Bartlett, but village trustees are pushing for more details on the future of about five acres of the site along Route 59.

Artis Senior Living unveiled an informal proposal Tuesday before the village board. Plans call for a 72-unit facility serving seniors with Alzheimer's and related memory disorders on roughly half the 10-acre lot south of Apple Valley Drive. It would mark the young company's first venture in the Chicago area.

While trustees acknowledged a demand for such services, officials pressed developers for their vision for the other half of the long-vacant property.

The one-story building would front Route 59 on the southwest corner of the lot, blocking the visibility of a development on the rest of the site, officials said.

"But it does seem like the prime end of it is where your facility is going to be," Trustee Eric Shipman said. "I understand that. But if the prime end is going to be there, then my concern is kind of what's left or what do you put back there."

Artis Senior Vice President Jay Hicks said developers will come up with a list of uses acceptable to both neighbors and the board. The company is prepared to purchase the site before narrowing down viable concepts, Hicks said.

"It's an odd, 10-acre acre piece that's been sitting vacant for a long time," Hicks said. "Usually when you come across a piece like that, there's a reason for it, and I've been trying to get myself around it for a number of months now."

Developers must still submit official landscaping and engineering plans for a facility that would border the Living Lord Lutheran Church to the south and a residential neighborhood to the east.

The village approved senior housing on the land about five years ago, but the project died in the economic downturn. Trustee Michael Camerer expects the market would now support housing for seniors with memory issues.

"I don't think people realize the tremendous need for this type of facility in the metro area really," he said.