Permit Approval For Apartments By Settlers' Park On Plainfield Agenda

PLAINFIELD, IL — Village trustees will decide Monday night whether or not to approve a special use permit for an 84-unit apartment complex and mixed-use development by Settlers' Park.

The Marnette Apartments development, discussed during a workshop at a Committee of the Whole meeting at the end of August, is proposed to be built at the southeast corner of West Village Center Drive and South Van Dyke Road. Settlers' Park is to the south, and Village Hall is to the east.

Plans set forth by the applicant, Dandelion Development, LLC, call for two mixed-use buildings that will house 84 apartment units on the second and third floors of each building. The first floor of each building will include a total of 9,279 square feet of commercial space — 60 to 70 percent of which will be for rent, according to documents.

The Plan Commission voted 4-0 to recommend approval of the project at its May 16 meeting.

RELATED: 84 Apartments, Mixed-Use Development Proposed Near Settlers' Park

The special use permit is subject to six stipulations outlined in village documents. They require the development be split into two phases; full-service restaurants to take up only 2,040 square feet of the gross floor area approved for the project; 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.

Besides voting on the permit, the Plainfield Village Board will consider a motion to approve the requested site plan review as well as a separate motion to approve the final plat of roadway dedication and plat of easement.

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.

"Some of the mistakes of the past are coming to haunt us," Mayor John Argoudelis said at the Committee meeting, "because more foresight should have occurred back then when the park was designed. ... For whatever reason, that wasn't done. That is one thing we're all battling here because, believe me, and I think I speak for everyone here, all of us would like to see this stay as green space, but we are bound by zoning laws."

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, Patch reported.

The apartment proposal is just one of several new housing developments in the village or proposed for Plainfield, including a proposal to convert 152 acres of the Keller Farm at Lockport Street and Wallin Drive into a development with single family homes and townhomes.

And in January 2022, a luxury apartment complex opened on Wallin Drive.