Schaumburg approves 35 townhouses on three current single-family home lots on Roselle Road

Schaumburg trustees have approved the replacement of three large single-family home lots with an eight-building, 35-unit townhouse development between Michaels Funeral Home and Christ Community Mennonite Church on South Roselle Road.

The 5-0 vote came despite concerns about traffic, landscaping and disruption to wildlife habitats expressed by neighbors along Pheasant Walk Drive to the west. Many of their backyards directly border the site at the top of a downward slope toward Roselle Road.

M/I Homes has been in the process of acquiring the single-family home lots that total 4.3 acres while the proposal has been under review by Schaumburg officials.

Community Development Director Julie Fitzgerald said the required rezoning of the property is consistent with the village's comprehensive land-use plan.

"The comprehensive plan calls for redevelopment of the site," she said. "It doesn't call for preservation of the site."

Trustee George Dunham added that some disruption to wildlife occurs any time homes are built.

But neighbor Amy Park identified traffic impacts at Roselle Road's intersections with Kingsport Drive and Hartford Drive as the chief concern about adding so many more residents between them.

"There are a lot of accidents already at Kingsport and Roselle Road," she told trustees. "As a matter of fact, I just saw one today from by back window."

Fitzgerald said a traffic study was done that included a general expectation of future growth in the area.

Mayor Tom Dailly said he thought that assumptions of traffic levels on Roselle Road based on the past may be off due to the current popularity of working from home.

"I can tell you that the Schaumburg office vacancy is at 35%, a historic 35%," Dailly said. "People are not going to work. They're not leaving their homes. They're working from home. So I think the volume of traffic will be minimal."

Though neighbors expressed concerns about the planned removal of many trees on the property, officials said the plan to replace them should provide better screening in the long run as new trees mature.

A plan to add a new 6-foot fence along the west property line also inspired questions about the ease of controlling weed growth between that fence and the neighbors' own.

One neighbor also questioned the reasoning for the new fence as the slope of the land means it will provide little screening from the existing homes that will be high above the townhouses.

Trustee Mark Madej said the new stormwater drainage system planned for the townhouses should also benefit neighbors' properties due to that downward slope.