Board Nixes Apartment Development By Settlers' Park, Plainfield Village Hall

PLAINFIELD, IL — The portion of unused land near Settlers' Park and Village Hall in downtown Plainfield will remain just that, for now, the Village Board decided.

Trustees met for a Village Board meeting Monday night and voted in a tie-breaker against adopting an ordinance to approve a special use permit for an 84-unit apartment complex and mixed-use development at the southeast corner of West Village Center Drive and South Van Dyke Road.

The special use permit was subject to six stipulations outlined in village documents. They required the development to be split into two phases; that full-service restaurants take up only 2,040 square feet of the gross floor area approved for the project; that a health club or fitness center, should it open, be only for Marnette Apartment residents; outdoor dining areas to close by 10 p.m.; and compliance with the requirements of the Plainfield Fire Protection District and village engineer.

Trustees Richard Keifer, Cally Larson and Tom Ruane voted in favor of the ordinance, while Brian Wojowski, Margie Bonuchi, Patricia Kalkanis voted against it. Mayor John Argoudelis, the tie-breaking vote, also said no.

"All [the applicant is] asking for is the variance here," Wojowski said before the vote. "If he wants to start construction tomorrow, short of a court stepping in with an injunction, he could build. I don't necessarily agree with the project. I voted no last time; I'll do the same this time."

The property has been zoned as a B-5 Traditional Business District since 1998, which is the reason a mixed-use commercial and residential development could be built on the vacant, unimproved land many view as an extension of the 20-plus acre Settlers' Park, Patch reported. Churches, grocery stores and hotels, among other uses, are permitted to be built in the B-5 zoning.

"I don't think I'm speaking out of turn by saying I think everybody on the Board would be happy if this was park space, if it was zoned park space, if it stayed looking like park space, but unfortunately that's not the situation," Kiefer said before the vote. "And what that puts us in is this position where as a Board we have to look at proposals that are coming forward for legally conforming use."

Once a piece of land is zoned in a specific way, only the landowner can change the zoning. A government cannot force a zoning change, Mayor John Argoudelis said at a prior meeting.

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"The last thing we need is to be a village that just says no to everything and just tries to create different rules for different situations, and we have to be fair across the board," Ruane said. "Once we start making special circumstances for different situations, it just becomes a cluster, and we will not get development done here. ... Our job out here is to create as much diversity in our tax base as possible. This is one of the things that's helping do that. It creates diversity in housing requirements, it requires diversity in our tax base from a multi-family standpoint. Density is key here, being close to the city center."

Plans set forth by the applicant, Dandelion Development, LLC, called for two mixed-use buildings that would have housed 84 apartment units — all above 800 square feet — on the second and third floors of each building. The first floor of each building would have included a total of 9,279 square feet of commercial space, 60 to 70 percent of which would have been for rent, according to documents.

"I have a hard time making really hard decisions that impact people who are very passionate ... but I also have a commitment to uphold what is before us in the zoning code," Trustee Kelly Larson said of her reasoning, "and I also have a commitment to uphold everything that's before us to make sure it's a fair process."

New housing in Plainfield has been the topic of several Village Board meetings recently. Less than a month ago, trustees voted to annex nearly 153 acres of unincorporated farmland at Lockport Street and Wallin Drive into Plainfield to build single-family homes and townhouses — the special use permit for the development was also approved, Patch reported.

Previous coverage:

• 84 Apartments, Mixed-Use Development Proposed Near Settlers' Park
• Permit Approval For Apartments By Settlers' Park On Plainfield Agenda