Glenview Plan Commission hears developer's plan for Willows Crossing Shopping Center
Scott Freres' presentation before the Glenview Plan Commission on Tuesday showed that he is a local boy who made good.
Despite the hometown ties, though, the Glenbrook North alumnus and the rest of the GW Properties team who espoused the benefits of the proposed Willows Crossing Shopping Center will still have to convince Freres' former neighbors it's the right thing to do.
That will take at least another meeting to be determined.
Discussing a project currently under two separate lawsuits by neighbors plus a temporary restraining order issued last June, Plan Commission Chair Steven Bucklin chose to end Tuesday's portion after three hours. He said the next Plan Commission meeting, 7 p.m. March 9, will be entirely dedicated to public comment.
On Monday, in fact, Circuit Judge Michael Mullen had denied a plaintiff's motion to stay the Plan Commission meeting, noting that body can only make recommendations to the village board.
Thus, Tuesday's business remained to review property owner GW Properties' site plan and request to rezone the former Hart Estate at the southwest corner of Willow and Pfingsten roads.
Currently zoned solely for single-family residential use - a whole other issue dating to the property's 1988 annexation - GW Properties seeks limited business zoning on the northern 6.2 acres and a different residential zoning for the remaining 2.35 acres to be used for water detention.
The plan is for a 35,000-square foot grocery store - GW Properties principal Mitch Goltz said it would be an Amazon Fresh store, the first on the North Shore - and three other retail buildings plus a proposed 294 parking spaces. Goltz said there were tenant commitments for 10 of the 11 spaces, most "for over a year."
The thrust of the meeting was to measure what GW Properties attorney Hal Franke termed a "new and improved" Willows Crossing plan against standards of review for zoning. It was here that Goltz, Freres and others bringing expertise in commercial and residential real estate, traffic issues and development provided rationale that the project would benefit the area and its citizens.
Freres, president and co-founder of The Lakota Group, an urban planning, design, landscape architecture and community relations firm in Chicago, noted that he grew up at Pfingsten and Dundee roads. He said his company has been involved in Glenview projects for 25 years.
He said a comparative analysis of intersections along the Willow Road corridor and other similar areas showed Willows Crossing to be compatible with existing land uses.
"All these areas were developed with the idea that these high-intensity traffic intersections were ideal locations for commercial centers, and residential built in around it. And it worked, successfully," Freres said.
He said the plan provides "appropriate" setbacks, or the distance between the development and adjacent neighbors, in addition to a bulked-up landscape buffer to the south. He referred to the initial 2019 plan that offered 134 new trees with 5 in the residential buffer, and said the Jan. 18 version provided for 275 trees with 68 to the south including 60, 10-foot evergreens.
"We've come a long way with plants," Freres said. It was tree removal that instigated the June 2020 work stoppage.
Building scale, open space, stormwater capacity, traffic mitigation - in these and other cases the former Spartan believed the proposal would either be in character or improve upon the status quo. His peers followed suit in their presentations.
"Suffice it to say Glenview is a growing community," Freres said. "It has made great strides to build itself in so many different areas - The Glen, along the Willow Road corridor, its downtown area - this is just another of those areas that development is occurring and we want to do it practically, smart and well-designed as part of our site plan."
Near the start of Tuesday's remote public hearing, Glenview deputy director of community development Jeff Rogers said 280 people were watching. He later noted some 20 citizens had requested to speak and 40 more simply wanted to express their objection to Willows Crossing.
Glenview village attorney Julie Tappendorf, in on the Zoom, said an "objector's group" will be among those stating their opposition on March 9.