Home proposal floated for former Bobby's Driving Range in Gurnee

Tentative plans have surfaced for 100 homes that would be built on the former Bobby's Driving Range in Gurnee.

If constructed, Foxford Communities' Wentworth development would have 56 single-family houses and 44 duplexes at the northeast corner of Hunt Club and Gages Lake roads. Conceptual plans also call for a commercial component close to the intersection.

Foxford property consultant Tim Kellogg said the commercial area would cover about 4 acres of the 28-acre property. He said the 100 homes and open space would be on the other 24 acres.

"We're envisioning this to be a very low maintenance or no-maintenance community, with kind of an age-targeted feel for ... empty-nesters or potentially the millennials," Kellogg said in an informal presentation to the Gurnee planning and zoning board this month.

Although the driving range closed about three years ago on the property in southern Gurnee, developers long have been eyeing the site. However, plans pitched since 2002 have gone nowhere.

In 2009, developer Jacob Monahiem proposed a supermarket, senior housing project and a premium day-care center.

DRH Cambridge Inc. wanted to build 60 single-family homes in 2005, while Walgreens was unsuccessful in getting a drugstore built on a section of the property in 2002.

As for the latest proposal from Hinsdale-based Foxford, Kellogg said about 5 acres of open space would include walking trails, benches and a tot lot. He said lawn care and snowplowing for the single-family homes and duplexes would be handled through a homeowners association.

Planning and zoning board members provided feedback to Kellogg that Foxford may use to revise the proposal before entering the village's formal approval process.

Board Chairman James Sula and member David Nordentoft voiced concern that too many homes are proposed for the site. Another planning and zoning board member, Edwin Paff, said the residential plan does not look appealing.

"You have no green spaces in front of the houses," Paff told Kellogg. "You have all pavement."

Kellogg said Foxford has been busy in the suburbs. Lake Zurich, Hawthorn Woods and St. Charles are among the towns where Foxford purchased unfinished condominium units or home sites to finish projects.

"We've really done different types of communities and different developments," he said.