It's Official: Portillo's Will Open In Plainfield, Village Board Votes

PLAINFIELD, IL — It's official: Portillo's will open a drive-thru style restaurant in Plainfield, the Village Board voted Monday night.

Instead of a full-size eatery similar to the one in Shorewood, which is currently the closest location to Plainfield, Portillo's will redevelop the former PNC Bank building at the intersection of 135th Street and Route 59, near Jewel-Osco.

The Village Board approved several variances — a drive-thru facing the street, lighting, and foundation landscaping — as well as a special use permit and proposed site plan for the restaurant.

Trustees voted 5-1 to approve the case, with only Cally Larson in opposition. She cited hesitance with creating more congestion at the intersection, saying, "We're going to make an intersection worse before it gets better," she said.

RELATED: Portillo's Is Coming To Plainfield: 'A Historic Wrong, Righted'

To help the area, staff discussed creating right-in, right-out access on either side of 135th Street, but the changes are not included as a condition for Portillo's approval. The improvements are something the village will continue to work toward, Village Administrator Joshua Blakemore said at the meeting.

In a post on Facebook Tuesday morning, Mayor John Argoudelis explained the developer and village agreed to make the necessary road improvements at the intersection of 135th Street and Route 59, and with Illinois Department of Transportation approval, "we will eventually have a full intersection with dedicated turn lanes and crosswalks."

"I think that the concerns for the intersection are obviously well-founded; that intersection is problematic as it stands today, with or without a Portillo's," Argoudelis said before Tuesday night's vote. "However, when we weigh another retail use that the people of Plainfield find popular and the tax revenue to be generated from that retail use, we have to grab these opportunities when they're apparent. We can't tell Portillo's, 'Come back in two or four years, and we'll be finally ready for you.'

"When you weigh pros and cons, you get the Portillo's, [and] you get tax revenue from a piece of property that has never generated sales tax revenue. It's been a bank all this time. ... That traffic pattern will be exacerbated for a bit, no question about it, but staff has already taken the initiative on 135th Street to improve it, and it'll take time to work with six owners on the south side and two owners on the north side to get [the] right-in, right-out, but we're going to get there."

The Plan Commission recommended approval of the site plan at its Nov. 6 hearing.