Real Estate
Developer’s Plan to Open Plainfield Senior Community to Families Falls Flat
In the last six years, just one home in the Playa Vista subdivision has sold; developer Hartz Homes had hoped to broaden its marketing efforts by dropping the age restriction.
A developer’s efforts to try to jump-start sales hit a roadblock last week.
Since 2007, just one home in the 407-unit Playa Vista subdivision has sold. This week, developer Hartz Homes hoped to help change that by lifting the 55-and-older age restriction in the community, located at 135th Street and Ridge Road.
But none of the six Plainfield trustees was willing to make a motion at a Jan. 14 special meeting, and the proposal fell flat.
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“I would want more information before I would go along with this,” trustee Margie Bonuchi said of Hartz Homes’ plans to market Playa Vista to younger demographics.
“You can’t have it both ways,” Bonuchi said. “I have a lot of concerns here … that’s not what this was approved to be.”
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Playa Vista was approved as a senior community in 2001. According to the Hartz Homes website, the development “is designed to cater to the new fun-filled resort lifestyle for those 55 and better.”
But after the housing market declined, Hartz had trouble selling the units, which include single-family homes priced from $334,900 to $279,900 and townhomes priced from $237,900 to $219,900, according to the website.
Monday night’s proposal to lift the age restriction isn’t the developer’s first attempt at reviving sales.
In June, the board approved a change to the annexation agreement to ease design requirements, allowing Hartz to lower price points for the homes.
“The active adult market was hot as fire in 2005, 2006, 2007,” John Murphey, an attorney for Hartz, told trustees. “When the crash hit, it hit this product particularly hard.”
Read: Designed Changes OK’d for Plainfield Senior Community
According to Village Planner Michael Garrigan, Hartz was in the process of working with the Plainfield School District to determine what impact fees the developer would pay to the school district if the age restriction were lifted.
According to Garrigan, the developer’s plan was to market the two-bedroom homes to small families or single parents, rather than just seniors.
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