New Hinsdale Homes To Cost Up To $3.5M: Developer

HINSDALE, IL – Something unusual has happened in Hinsdale: A residential developer is proposing code-compliant homes.

In Hinsdale and other towns, developers typically come in with plans that are denser than zoning allows. Not this time.

Downers Grove-based Oakley Home Builders proposed seven houses for the property where the old Hinsdale Baptist Church, later The Chapel, was. It's at Fuller Road and Oak Street in northeast Hinsdale.

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.

"I think it's a win for the village," Village President Tom Cauley said at Tuesday's Village Board meeting. "No one is asking to put a three-story skyscraper there."

Usually, he said, developers request smaller lots or put more homes on a particular parcel. Such has been the case with proposals for the Institute in Basic Life Principles property in northwest Hinsdale.

"You guys didn't try that with me," Cauley told representatives of the developer at the meeting. "I really appreciate that."

Under the village code, a developer is supposed to make a small fraction of land available for parkland. But this development is too small, so the village will get $109,000 in cash for parks.

The board voted to change the zoning for the property to residential, from institutional, which is for churches and similar buildings.

The development next goes to the Plan Commission for a review of the subdivision plat.