The Northbrook Village Board is likely to approve a 34-unit development next month that disappoints nearly every resident group involved, to some degree or another.
The Anets Woods development started out as a groundbreaking project saluted by many, as it would save much of the familiar suburban forest on the northeast corner of Waukegan and Voltz roads. But when it might be tentatively approved, as early as February, neighbors on all sides will be unlikely to cheer.
Much of the angst of the neighborhood surrounds the Lee Road secondary entrance to the north. That entrance would be blocked by a gate that would open only for Anets Woods residents and fire trucks, but Lee Road-area residents say even the traffic from the new development would change their relatively quiet way of life. Voltz Road residents, on the other hand, say the gate means all the deliveries will have to come down their street and into the main, ungated entrance on Voltz.
Homeowners in both areas, and on Country Lane, which backs up to the north end of the 18-acre property, want fewer houses, to keep the exclusive feel of one of Northbrook’s most pricey areas.
Several Village Board members find gating a public street system to be distasteful, even if the stub of the street it blocks would be private.
Still, board members generally said the development would be a plus. But board member Kathryn Ciesla, who lives in the neighborhood, doesn’t like it at all.
She was the only one of her panel to vote Jan. 12 against preparing documents for approval. The other six board members agreed they’d vote for the project as long as they do something to keep the line of eight houses along the north end of the property from looming over Country Lane. The village’s planners were ordered to provide some choices on how to do it.
Ciesla had previously pushed for that change, but said this month she’d rather have the project rejected. The second entrance, she said, didn’t need to be built, citing other subdivisions with a single entry. Lee Road’s Walters Avenue jog already makes it hard to drive, she said, and “to add more cars there is unnecessary and frankly irresponsible.”
The other trustees, however, said 34 houses wouldn’t make much difference to traffic anywhere, as long as the gate was in place.
Ciesla also said a change to Northbrook’s unusual grading standards to accommodate the project shouldn’t extend to the north end, along Country Lane. Northbrook rules say a house’s height must be measured from the elevation existing before grading. That’s tough to accomplish on a large piece of hilly land like the old Anetsberger estate, builder Edward R. James argued, and asked to use the level of where the dirt actually will be to measure its houses from.
That might result in 35-foot houses towering over existing one-story houses and ranches, Ciesla said. Like Ciesla, many neighbors don’t want the project at all.
“If the residents of Voltz, Lee, Buttonwood and Country Lane had their druthers, they wouldn’t have this development in their neighborhood,” Voltz Road resident Roger Smith said Jan. 12.
“I’m not going to belabor the point that has pitted neighbors against one another,” in the gate argument, he said, but added that neighborhood traffic calming – an initiative made by James during public hearings – should be a priority now. He said he especially likes the idea of a traffic circle at Voltz and Bridlewood Lane, and added that traffic-slowing efforts should be extended to Lee Road, too.
Trustees didn’t want to connect the traffic calming to the development, but, spurred by village President Sandy Frum, agreed to deal with it soon in a Public Works Committee session. That meeting is yet unscheduled.
Lee Road resident Sherwin Zaban took issue Jan. 12 with Trustee James Karagianis, who had said that 34 houses were reasonable, since there was enough acreage for twice as many.
Zaban said the insistence by the land-selling Anetsberger family that trees be preserved, along with the steep grade of the western third of the land, made it unlikely to ever get that many. He said that with what was buildable, if the current zoning designation was preserved, there would only be room for 22 houses.
Ed Thompson, a neighborhood resident since 1950, said James should build bigger houses – Thompson suggested 24, given the traffic concerns – and charge more for them.
Fred Vignocchi of Walters Avenue and Lee Road said he found it hard to believe the board would allow the development to move forward.
“Every [current homeowner] has real nice room to spread their wings,” he said. “This development is just too much for this area. Just too many homes.”
Twitter:@IrvLeavitt
