Officials Undecided on Vision For Route 59 Corridor

A developer wants to rezone a parcel at Route 59 and Route 30 . But whether that happens could depend upon how village trustees feel about the future of the Route 59 corridor — and they’ve yet to come to a consensus.

On Monday, trustees met with members of the village’s planning and historic preservation commissions to tackle an issue that could affect Plainfield for decades to come: Should what was once a residential neighborhood be solely a business transition district (BTD), or should the village welcome higher-intensity — and higher-traffic — commercial uses along the corridor and make zoning decisions on a case-by-case basis?

With opinion split, trustee Garrett Peck asked Planner Michael Garrigan to provide the board with information on how communities with successful BTDs have handled that decision, citing towns including West Dundee and Grand Haven, Michigan.

That means the board likely won’t vote on its vision for the future of the corridor for at least a month, Garrigan said.

Currently, the village’s comprehensive plan shows the area in question as BTD, a zoning that encourages conversion of homes to light retail and office space as opposed to demolition.

“Clearly, the corridor is probably not appropriate for single family anymore,” Garrigan said, but noted some dwellings remain along the route. He estimated 40,000 vehicles travel the section of Route 59 each day.

Suzanne Derrick, vice chairwoman of the Historic Preservation Commission, urged the board to support designating the section of Route 59 from Main Street to Union Street strictly BTD.

“It would make it easier for owners to see the possibilities for marketing other than demolition,” she said, adding the designation would help sellers entice developers to buy their homes. At the same time, she said, it would also allow the buildings to continue to be used as dwellings.

“I like the idea of [business transition] because I don’t like the idea of strip malls in that area at all,” trustee Bill Lamb said. “I think the character is something you want to preserve. I’d rather maintain the character of the town than generate a little bit more sales tax revenue or property tax revenue.”

Meanwhile, village trustee Paul Fay was not in favor of making an across-the-board decision.

“I prefer a case-by-case situation analysis,” he said. “I think everyone in this room would like to keep the sense of place and history, even if it’s not always possible.”

Trustee Dan Rippy was concerned that designating a district would severely limit the businesses the corridor would attract.

“There’s only so many law offices and real estate offices that can open up on that entire corridor,” he said. “We need to have a mix and we need to do it responsibly …

“With all due respect, I don’t think we should handcuff ourselves that way,” Rippy said. “ … At the end of the day, I think we’ll end up hurting ourselves that way. You’re talking about probably hundreds of buildings. There’s no reason to limit ourselves to only BTD.”

Gas station plan to go before board

While it could be a month before the village board votes on the BTD issue, that doesn’t mean developer G.C. Real Estate LLC won’t get an answer on its zoning request.

The station, proposed as a BP with a drive-thru franchise such as a Subway restaurant, is seeking to rezone a less-than-one-acre parcel of property at the corner of routes 30 and 59 to business.

Currently, a house sits on a section of the property zoned residential. Last week, architect Eric Eriksson told plan commissioners will almost certainly be demolished if the gas station gets the go-ahead.

Garrigan said despite the uncertainty over the board’s vision future of the Route 59 corridor, the gas station rezoning request will remain on the June 18 village board agenda.

“They’ll either support it or they won’t,” he said.