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Why new Buffalo Grove plan is winning the support others could not

When it comes to massive redevelopment proposals in Buffalo Grove, what a difference half a decade can make.

In November 2014, developer Chuck Malk declared before a packed village hall, "This is your downtown," as he presented an ultimately doomed plan to turn the village campus and neighboring Buffalo Grove Golf Course into a new town center.

Among the room full of opponents that night was village resident Leon Gopon of the group Save Buffalo Grove. Then-Trustee Beverly Sussman was the lone village board member voting against forwarding the proposal to the planning and zoning commission, saying, “We are not ready for this step.”

As opposition grew, both from the public and village leaders, Malk eventually withdrew his plan, again putting off the village's hopes for a city center.

Fast forward to Monday night, when a sparse audience at village hall heard the latest proposal to create a “downtown” for the village, this one a $100 million plan to redevelop the Buffalo Grove Town Center with a mix of shops, restaurants and multifamily housing. Gopon again was present, but this time as a supporter of the plan. And Sussman, now village president, spoke out in favor of the proposal, as well as a new tax increment financing district to help fund it and other redevelopment along the town's Lake-Cook Road corridor.

“I first was against this (TIF), because it mentioned the Buffalo Grove Golf Course, and as most people know, I am against building on the Buffalo Grove Golf Course,” Sussman said. “I have not changed my mind. I still feel the same way. However, the money from this TIF, part of it, some of it, can be used to help with flood control on the golf course.”

Gopon said emails with information about the TIF and the Town Center were sent to about 900 people on behalf of the group Spirit of Buffalo Grove. Half of the emails were opened, with the majority thanking him for letting them know what was going on but expressing no outcry.

“We are looking at working with a plan, not flying by the seat of our pants,” Gopon said. “This fits into a plan for strategic development of the village. We need to do something, because otherwise the village is going to be one of those nice little communities that nobody knows about, because nothing is happening here.”

Officials say the key difference between the failed plan from six years ago and the latest proposal is the Lake Cook Corridor Market Study and Plan, which lays out the village's vision of redevelopment for the area roughly bounded by Arlington Heights Road to the west, McHenry Road to the east, Old Checker Road to the north and Lake-Cook Road to the south.

Despite its smooth sailing so far, the Town Center plan proposed by Oak Brook-based Kensington Development Partners does have some doubters.

Resident Brian Costin was sharply critical of the TIF at last week's village board meeting and voiced concern for the fate of existing businesses at the Town Center. “Have these businesses been notified that it looks like they are going to be evicted and their buildings are going to be demolished?” he asked. “We are proposing simultaneously to destroy a real economic engine of Buffalo Grove. Temporarily is the intent, but what if that intent goes wrong?”

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