Palatine comprehensive plan heads to village council

Palatine is one step closer to finalizing a new road map to its future growth.

The village’s planning and zoning commission unanimously recommended an update to the village’s comprehensive plan Tuesday. The village council is expected to approve it on April 14. The last comprehensive plan update passed in 2011.

“It's meant to be a very nimble document,” said Andy Cross of the Lakota Group, the consultant steering the process.

Three themes were stressed, he told commissioners — the built environment; economy and growth; and community and neighborhoods.

Cross said a robust public engagement process underscored the village’s small-town feel.

“That’s why people want to move here. The schools are a big part of that, the park district is a big part of that,” he said.

The plan identifies several key opportunity sites, including properties along Northwest Highway that are vacant, underdeveloped or underutilized. But Cross also pointed out they don’t offer huge swathes of land.

Commission member Bob Kolososki asked about possible projects in the downtown.

“I look at what Mount Prospect, Arlington Heights and other towns are doing,” he said “They're taking land and knocking down old buildings, or even relatively new buildings and doing something spectacular.”

Cross said the planning did not overlook the downtown. Although it yielded such suggestions as reworking surface parking lots, specific properties likely to change within the next five to 10 years didn’t emerge.

The plan also examines the need and potential for senior housing, for residents looking to downsize, but stay in Palatine.

“If we want to maintain our population, we've got to have affordable housing for them, and townhouses is one possibility in that way,” Planning and Zoning Commission Chairperson Jan Wood said.

Community Development Director Mike Jacobs talked about new projects, including the Shop & Save Market being built on the site of the demolished Whole Foods at the Park Place Shopping Center, near Rand and Dundee roads.

He said construction must be completed by October in order for the project to qualify for tax increment financing assistance.

Resident Brandon Parrott-Sheffer suggested a focus on pedestrian accessibility and an emphasis on maintaining trees.

“Every time new businesses come in, they take out the trees,” he said.

Village officials believe the new plan will have a shelf life of at least another decade.