Hinsdale Home Project To Start Soon After Approval: Developer

HINSDALE, IL – A developer plans to start work on a seven-home subdivision in Hinsdale soon after the village's expected approval next month.

Downers Grove-based Oakley Home Builders wants to construct the houses on the 1.7-acre site of the old Hinsdale Baptist Church, later The Chapel, at Fuller Road and Oak Street in north Hinsdale.

At Tuesday's Village Board meeting, Oakley co-owner Ryan Dunham said his company doesn't plan to build all the homes at once, but will do so in phases.

Trustees expressed support for the project and plan to vote on it next month.

"We know you've been a good neighbor for two decades," Trustee Luke Stifflear said.

Stifflear said the proposal received no negative comments from residents.

"There was discussion at the Plan Commission meeting that the village should have bought the entire space for a park," Stifflear said. "That takes a lot of money, and that's a discussion for another time."

The village requires developers to set aside a certain amount of land for parks.

Under the village's formula, the new development would have been required to designate less than a tenth of the land for a park, but that is too small for village standards, Stifflear said.

Instead, the developer is expected to pay a $109,000 fee, which the village could use for parks.

The village requires sidewalks, but it is exempting the developer from installing one on nearby Franklin Street because it would mean the removal of large trees. So the developer must pay a fee in place of the sidewalk, according to the village.

The developer paid nearly $3.3 million for the 1.7 acres in November. The houses are expected to range in price from $2.5 million to $3.5 million, higher than the $1 million median-valued house in Hinsdale.