The Orland Park Village Board voted 5-2 Monday to approve plans for a nearly 230,000-square-foot Amazon retail center on the southwest corner of the busy 159th Street and LaGrange Road intersection.
Before the vote, residents voiced a mix of concerns and support of the project. Trustees William Healy and Cynthia Katsenes ultimately voted against the development, while Mayor Jim Dodge and Trustees Michael Milani, Dina Lawrence, John Lawler and Joanna Leafblad voted in favor.
Katsenes said the development represents one of Orland Park’s “largest in years” and said since joining the board about six years ago, she has never seen so many residents and businesses reach out with concerns about a project.
“I think some of the concerns are the newness of the concept, not really knowing what it is,” Katsenes said. “This doesn’t have an example, doesn’t have a name.”
Healy said he’s “not necessarily against this” but hoped the board would take more time to consider community concerns before approving the development. Katsenes and Healy moved to refer the project back to the Plan Commission, which approved it Jan. 6, but the rest of the board voted no.
Trustees supporting the projected stressed the retail center’s expected economic contributions and community innovation.
“Sometimes, you have to take a risk to get a reward,” Milani said. “I think this project has great potential to be very successful here. I think as a board, we’re all aware that we can’t make everybody happy with every decision we make. We can only do the greatest good for the greatest number.”
Orland Park Engineering Director Khurshid Hoda presented updated plans to mitigate traffic along the busy intersection, with plans underway to extend Ravinia Avenue to connect to 161st Street. The extension could reroute as much as 25% of the traffic from the 159th Street and LaGrange Road intersection, with construction expected to begin this summer.
Hoda said the village secured $50 million in combined grant funding and commitments from the Illinois Department of Transportation to widen 143rd Street, shifting additional traffic away from 159th Street. He did not say how much more the village will need to raise.
Other planned traffic improvements include replacing the traffic signal at 159th Street and 94th Avenue and adding right-turn and left-turn lanes on at least some approaches. The village also hopes to close the median between Lake View Plaza and the Amazon retail store to provide additional capacity for left-turn traffic and convert Lake View Plaza Drive to be right-in and right-out only.
Hoda said the traffic improvements were considered before Amazon proposed its retail center, but funding available thanks to Amazon will speed up the changes. The village will also conduct a regional traffic study later this year that includes the 159th Street and LaGrange Road intersection.
Dodge expressed excitement for the development Tuesday, saying it contributes to Orland Park’s image as a retail destination. He said he expects construction on the facility to begin in several months, once Amazon receives all necessary permits from the village.
“It makes perfect sense for a use like that, on that corner,” he said.
The Orland Park mayor said he understands some residents’ concerns about the size of the store and traffic, but said they were adequately addressed by village staff ahead of the project’s approval. Amazon also plans to construct five smaller buildings surrounding the retail center, which Dodge hopes will bring more dining options to the village.
“If this had gone to any kind of mixed-use retail development, you would have just as much allowable square footage on that property as the one store from Amazon … and it might not nearly have been as beneficial to Orland Park as what we hope to get from Amazon,” Dodge said.
An area southeast corner of 159th and LaGrange remains undeveloped, though Inter-Continental Real Estate & Development in early 2024 proposed bringing in 132 luxury apartments, a hotel and three restaurants. Dodge said the developer is reconsidering those plans, providing no updates.
At the Jan. 6 Plan Commission meeting, Katie Jahnke Dale, a Chicago attorney representing Amazon, said the retail space at the site of the former Petey’s II restaurant “will likely be one of the first of its kind.”
Jahnke Dale said Amazon aims to create a more comprehensive shopping experience where visitors to the store in person can use their phone or an in-store kiosk to find items not on the sales floor.
Customers can also order items to be brought to their vehicles, either at the front of the store or in a reserved parking spot.
“Nothing that we’re doing here, though, is different from what we are all experiencing in retail stores that exist today,” Jahnke Dale said. “It’s just done in a more purposeful, thoughtful manner.”
Alongside the retail building will be 837 parking spaces and seven loading docks, according to Amazon’s application.
Retail customers will enter off 159th Street, LaGrange Road or 161st Street while delivery drivers enter through the south or west, coming off of 161st Street, and have a designated parking area south of the building.
Six acres will be dedicated to open and landscaped space, and Amazon plans to construct a stormwater detention area on the property, according to the plans.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
