Arlington Heights plan commission advances Arlington 425 project
An Arlington Heights panel Wednesday unanimously recommended approval of the massive redevelopment of most of a block that's long been vacant in the village's downtown.
The nine-member plan commission - an advisory body that reviews zoning matters before the village board takes the final vote - favored the Arlington 425 project, which proposes three buildings with a mix of residential and commercial uses on the northern three-quarters of Block 425 - bounded by Campbell Street, Highland Avenue, Sigwalt Street and Chestnut Avenue.
Following a four-hour marathon meeting March 27, the panel completed its review of the proposal Wednesday night in a 1½-hour session.
"This project isn't perfect for everybody, but nothing will ever be perfect for everybody," plan commission member Susan Dawson said in response to some audience concerns about development's size and the traffic that could be created by it. "This is a good project for the benefit of a majority of this community. This is a good addition to the community."
The plan by developer CCH LLC calls for a four-story, 54-unit residential building facing Chestnut; a nine-story, 182-unit apartment building with commercial space on the bottom two floors on Campbell; and a 13-story, 125-unit apartment building on Highland that would include a six-story parking garage.
Plan commissioners Wednesday night reviewed a parking plan that the developer and the village's community development department have been working on the last two weeks, in light of concerns over a possible lack of spaces during peak times.
Under the new plan, the number of parking spaces in the six-level Highland building garage increased from 460 to 507 split among restaurant, retail, office and residential users. Spaces in the Chestnut residential building garage decreased from 84 to 58.
But overall, the developer increased the total amount of parking on site from 544 to 565 - which is still above the 455 spaces required by code and also properly addresses the estimated peak commercial parking demand on weekdays and weekends, according to Sam Hubbard, the village's development planner.
The village board is tentatively set to consider four zoning approvals and seven variations for Arlington 425 on May 6. That will be the first meeting for two newly elected trustees, Mary Beth Canty and Tom Schwingbeck.
When the current board provided a preliminary review of the project last October, trustees gave mostly positive reactions, though they too had initial concerns about traffic and parking.