WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – Neighbors say they are against a plan for replacing an office building with a townhome complex in Western Springs.
They said the eight proposed buildings, consisting of 29 units, would worsen drainage and traffic.
Last month, the village’s Plan Commission heard opposition to the plan by Burr Ridge-based McNaughton Development.
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The townhomes would be at 5600 Wolf Road, next to the Ridgewood subdivision.
The issue comes back to the Plan Commission at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Village Hall.
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According to last month’s meeting transcript, John Barry of McNaughton touted the proposed development.
“The product is the highest quality, and it’s a market-demand product,” Barry said. “The McNaughton name in the residential development field is very well known and held in high esteem here in the western suburbs.”
The property at 5600 Wolf Road has struggled over the years, losing major tenants such as Duly Health and the Fraternal Order of Police, Barry said.
But residents said the planned development would hurt their neighborhood. One of them, Deborah David, who lives in the 900 block of Park Place, noted the plan to have one of the entrances on her street, the transcript said.
“You can tell I’m upset,” David said. “When we purchased in 2005, I never in a million years thought there wouldn’t be beautiful residential homes in that area, and this is really going to affect us and all of Ridgewood. It really is. The traffic and the entrance on Park Place is not good.”
Renee Lantner, a Western Springs resident and an allergist in the current office complex, said she wished the developer would not knock down the offices.
She also said she sympathized with the neighbors’ concerns about flooding. The retention pond, she said, completely fills up.
“There is a river now that goes through the parking lot so that you can’t really walk onto the other side,” Lantner said. “I feel for you because I see the flooding that goes on.”
With the proposed project, she said, the area would seem to have less opportunity for drainage.
Elizabeth Gaik Schrader, daughter of the property’s current owners, Casey and Fran Gaik, defended them. Her parents bought the site in 1981.
She said her parents donated land to the village to make a park for children.
“They were hoping to create more green space and also alleviate flooding issues,” Gaik Schrader said.
About her father, she said, “He has been out there digging out those sewers himself, making sure that they are clean, making sure that the water will flow, so you guys all don’t get flooded.”
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