Hinsdale Project To Include $1 Million Homes: Developer

HINSDALE, IL — The village president says he is against a proposed residential development on the northwest side of town. But the developer contends the project answers a need to keep empty nesters in Hinsdale and bring back young professionals who are settling in surrounding towns.

At the Village Board meeting last week, Village President Tom Cauley said he would be a "strong no" on the development, which is proposed by Burr Ridge-based McNaughton Development. He declined to give a reason for his opposition at the meeting and did not return a message for comment afterward.

The development is planned for the north side of Ogden Avenue, just east of North Adams Street. It is across the street from a proposed 262-unit apartment complex for senior citizens, with Minneapolis-based Ryan Companies as the developer. Cauley and other village officials have indicated they like Ryan's project, but it is still going through the village's zoning process.

In a statement Thursday, McNaughton Development said it is requesting a 46-lot "conservation design" project with detached, single-family homes. The homes are expected to cost $1 million or more, the company said. It is expected to feature private streets, gated entryways and maintenance-free living.

The development will preserve "significant" open space, enhanced with improvements such as pathways, bridges, benches, covered sitting areas and landscaping, according to the statement. The company said the architecture will include "upscale building materials commonly used in the high-end Hinsdale new construction market to achieve a classic Coastal or Nantucket-style appearance," the firm said.

"There have been several iterations of this development, and that has perhaps led to some of this mischaracterization of and hyperbole surrounding this proposal," John Barry of McNaughton said in the statement.

McNaughton intends to present its proposal to the Plan Commission for the first time June 10, Barry said. That is the required first step under the village's zoning ordinance for a planned development, he said.

At last week's meeting, Cauley said he had received a half dozen emails about the development, saying it "terrified" residents. He did not explain why. Many of the concerned residents, he said, live on Bonnie Brae, which is just north of Ogden.

The village, Cauley said, usually has developers informally meet with him and Trustee Luke Stifflear, who heads the board's zoning committee, so they can give the developer a good idea about what the board as a whole would accept. Typically, he said, the big issues are density and height.

Then developers are encouraged to go the board to get feedback before projects are referred to the separate Plan Commission. But the developer can go to the commission first, which is what McNaughton is doing, Cauley said. The developer did first meet with Cauley and Stifflear.

"We told him emphatically we did not think it would get board approval," Cauley said.