Community group opposes Woodridge development

On Saturday Feb. 29 a group of 26 members of Boundary Hill Estates meet to discuss the proposed plans by the Village of Woodridge to annex and rezone a 10-acre site on the south side of 75th Street and just east of Rt. 53 that currently contains single family homes.

IN a release, the group states that, "a developer has submitted plans to build a three story, 130-unit retirement complex on the site.

This four-plus acre building footprint will be the size of three football fields and 51-feet tall within a single family home community."

The release goes on to say, "the developer is planning on using the existing access road on the south side of 75th street as one of the two entrances to the facility."

The neighborhood group fears increased traffic on the village streets of Westview Lane, Forest Glen Parkway and Woodridge Drive. "There are concerns by our group that the increased traffic will impact the safety of the neighborhood as the route passes two school bus stops, playground and tennis courts located at Woodridge Dr. and Forest Glen Parkway. Currently there are no sidewalks along most of the route that will be taken to get access to the facility," the release states. "Due to the size and the length of the construction project to build the facility, there would be thousands of trucks in and out of the site which will increase the congestion on Woodridge streets and at the intersection of 75th St. and Rt.53."

In addition to safety and traffic issues, one of the main concerns of the resident is that the village may forcibly annex the surrounding houses. The group is also concerned with the nine-acre elimination of old growth trees on the site, identified by the Chicago Region Trees Initiative, the amount of storm-water runoff into the tributary of the DuPage River, the noise and pollution during construction, and the request by the developer to exceed the Woodridge building height restriction by 16-feet and reduce the number of required parking spaces and garages.

The residents hope that more transparency, review and quality planning and decisions to benefit the community as a whole will be explored before the vote on Monday, March 2 at 7:30 pm at Village Hall.