Strip Mall a Good Idea for Site Formerly Pitched as Wal-mart SuperCenter?

Photo: The homes Brookside Glen subdivision residents say would be flooded if the lot is raised five feet to street level.

A developer who met heavy opposition for a proposed Wal-mart SuperCenter at a busy Tinley Park intersection are taking another shot at the plot at 191st and Harlem Avenue.

Architect Peter Pociejewski recently pitched plans for a 16,720-square-foot strip mall at the site across from Brookside Marketplace. Aetna Development is asking for the property to be rezoned from residential to business use. A national furniture retailer is rumored to be one of the possible tenants of the seven-unit mall.

Tinley Park Deputy Planning Director Paula Wallrich said the land would have be raised at least five feet to street level—a concept that troubles residents of neighboring Brookside Glen subdivision. Developers would transfer dirt from a nearby sod farm, which could cause residents’ yards and homes to flood.

The lot, on a corner which Wallrich called “visible” but “complicated,” was ”the only thing that kept our homes from flooding in 2008,” residents said in an email urging attendance at an upcoming public hearing about the project.

It is not the first objection from Brookside Glen residents, who rallied against Aetna’s previous Prairie View Crossings proposal from 2008. Those plans called for a 370,000-square-foot retail center set on 83 acres, to be anchored by a 24-hour Wal-Mart. Aetna promised an estimated $40 million in sales tax revenue and $27 million in property tax revenue in the first 20 years of operation, but the plan commission rejected it.

A public hearing on the project will be held Thursday, Aug. 20 at 7:30 p.m., 16250 S. Oak Park Ave.