Suburban Mixed-Use Project Survives Veto

Meanwhile, redevelopment of the key "Golden Triangle" parcel remains unsettled. Although that project covers a larger area, the Cook Street Plaza project will be the village's "largest, most dense and most expensive" in the Downtown area, at least until "Golden Triangle" redevelopment occurs.

Cook Street Plaza Joint Venture is proposing 24 condominium units on two floors above 18,000 sf of first-floor retail space at the northwest corner of Cook and Station streets. The vacant parcel used to be the site of Lipofsky's department store, which was destroyed in December 1989 by fire. The project, which has been in the making for nearly a decade, will get a controversial $1.8-million tax increment financing boost as well as a sale of a village-owned parcel after village trustees overrode Village President Marshall S. Reagle's veto Monday night by a 5-1 vote.

Reagle opposes the plan, saying the project fails to solve the Downtown parking shortage. He notes the plan commission's recommendation calls for 130 spaces, while the proposal passed by the village board reduced that number to 98. While he adds some trustees campaigned on a platform that called for low-density development, proponents of the Cook Street project made their support for it known before the plan commission got a chance to consider it.

Some residents also agree, objecting to development that would change the village's "quaint Downtown" into something resembling Arlington Heights, three stops down the Metra line.

Meanwhile, Dayton Shoppe Partners has received a green light for a Borders location about two blocks north. The store could open next year.

Construction of Cook Street Plaza could start as early as this fall with completion at the end of 2003, village planner and zoning coordinator Keith R. Sribal tells GlobeSt.com.