Board Members Not In Agreement Over New Residential Development

PLAINFIELD, IL — After disagreement from some members, the Plainfield Village Board voted 4-3 to approve the residential development at the northeast corner of Heggs Road and 127th Street, during its Monday meeting.

Trustees Brian Wojowski, Kevin Calkins and Patricia Kalkanis voted against the special use permit for the Ballard Farms planned unit development, while Trustees Margie Bonuchi, Harry Benton and Cally Larson voted in favor of it. It took a tie-breaking vote from Mayor Michael Collins to approve this project on 31 acres of farmland.

During a special committee of the whole workshop on Aug. 24, officials were presented with a plan to develop single-family residential lots. The developers presented a revised concept plan for the Ballard Farms and trustees agreed it was an improvement over the initial design.

The first version of this development incorporated 69 single-family residential lots and 8 townhome buildings with 40 units. Following input from the Plainfield Plan Commission and the public last October about the project being too dense, the townhome buildings were removed, reducing the overall density from 3.54 dwelling units to 2.54 dwelling units and increasing the total number of single-family residential lots from 69 to 79.

Larson said the developers stuck with the project even though it has been revised several times over the last 18 months.

"It has transformed itself, and we have a product in front of us that has good quality," said she said. "I thank them for their patience and it's a good unique project."

The site will also include two stormwater detention areas, a community garden, park, community fire pit, butterfly gardens and a private dog park. The development plan also mentions green building practices including natural ventilation and noise abatement.

Benton said that he was recently approached by people who are intrigued about the green spaces in the development.

"It's something unique we don't have right now," he said," and it might draw people into the community, which is a good thing."

One of the other revisions made to the plan includes increasing the size of the lots. The average lot sizes for homes now are at 10,497 square feet and minimum lot sizes are capped at 8,100 square feet. In comparison, the minimum lot size approved for the nearby Northpoint subdivision was 8,250 square feet with average lot sizes at 9,924 square feet.

However, Kalkanis and Calkins both said that is still not enough, and they prefer the average lot size of houses to be increased to 12,000 square feet so there could be bigger houses.

"I don't know why they are continuing to stay so small," Kalkanis said. "What this does is pack more people in which then adds to an increasing population in the village of Plainfield that just doesn't support it, that just doesn't have the infrastructure for it."

She also said that the traffic in the village is "atrocious" right now and it only keeps "getting worse and worse." If developers keep taking areas and putting in three times more people than what they can handle, then the plan should also incorporate adding more right-turn lanes and traffic signals, she said.

"Traffic in Plainfield is booming and I don't know why we keep allowing it," Kalkanis said. "I think we need to slow down a little bit and we need to reconsider our property sixes as well. I don't know why we are squeezing in so much in such a small area. I think it's a good idea but I don't think we are ready for it."

Collins responded to Kalkanis saying that the village stopped aiming for 12,000-square-foot lot sizes almost 15 years ago.

Calkins said that in spite of his respect for Collins and his opinions, he also thinks that lot sizes need to be bigger.

"We are 40 miles outside of Chicago. Let's try to do some variety in our real estate," he said. "Currently there is no variety. And just because it has been approved in the past, doesn't make it right for the future."

The board voted 5-1 Monday to approve the annexation agreement for the project, with Wojowski casting the sole dissenting vote.

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