Orland Park leaders and developer Bob Gallagher have agreed to a compromise on the size of a subdivision, reducing the project by four condominiums, to 401 total units.
The Village Board approved the deal 4-3. Trustees Kathleen Fenton, Bernard Murphy and Brad O’Halloran voted against the plan. They had asked Gallagher to shave even more homes from the project, but he refused to go any further in reducing the density of the 111-acre parcel.
After taking the village to court over the zoning of about a dozen separate parcels of land in southwest Orland Park, Gallagher won the right in a legal compromise four years ago to build 204 single-family homes, 102 town homes and 100 condominiums on the parcel at the northeast corner of 143rd Street and Will-Cook Road. Several months ago, he changed the original design and proposed 187 single-family homes, 94 town homes and 124 condominiums.
Gallagher said he modified the plan to make the single-family home lots bigger, but when he couldn’t fit the full number of those homes on the land, he added condominiums to achieve the maximum density.
Village Board members said they were glad to see the bigger home lots, but they didn’t want to see the number of condominium units increase. Gallagher would only agree to cut one of the planned four-story condominium buildings to three levels.
Gallagher recently accused the village of reneging on the 1994 legal settlement, known as the Spring Creek agreement, that spells out the type and maximum number of homes that could be built on 1,500 acres spread over a dozen parcels. In the suit, he claimed the village’s zoning rules discriminated against low-income people because they didn’t allow developers to build affordable homes on small lots.
A final compromise between Gallagher’s proposal for 5,755 homes and the village’s zoning guidelines for 4,000 homes was reached when the two sides settled on 4,195 units.
