A rendering shows an aerial view of a proposed residential development at 14th Street and Meyers Road.
Courtesy of Afsar Developers
A developer wants to turn a partially vacant, mostly unincorporated site into a luxury residential community that would fall entirely within Lombard’s boundaries.
Afsar Developers is asking the village for permission to build two dozen single-family homes between Meyers Road and School Street. If the project moves forward, custom homes in “The Pinnacle on Meyers” development are expected to be priced in the $1.5 million range.
“As far as this particular block is concerned, it takes a special project to fix what’s existed there for years,” said Mark Daniel, an attorney representing the developer.
The nearly 4-acre site holds a hodgepodge of buildings. One of the lots was formerly home to a York Township fire station. A court decree permits the operation of a nonconforming auto service business on the site.
“It’s a really good sign for Lombard when someone is working to invest this type of capital in the village and solve a problem,” Daniel said. “This area of the block has been a problem for Lombard, not just because of the transition from heavy commercial to light commercial to two different zoning districts, but the long-standing uses have been a headache for people at the county and at Lombard.”
One tract sits within the village limits. The developer is asking that the village annex into its boundaries the properties located at 1312-1330 S. Meyers Road. The developer also is seeking an array of zoning variances in addition to a rezoning request.
Lombard plan commission members have endorsed the zoning petition. Village trustees are tentatively scheduled to review the project and an annexation agreement during a board meeting in August.
The area on the west side of School Street was originally established as a cooperative community of homes on large lots. Some nearby residents say the development would clash with the rural feel of the surrounding neighborhood, and they have concerns with overflow parking, noise and the height of the homes — 38 feet at their tallest point.
“I don’t have any problems with change,” Ken Franklin, who lives to the west, said during a plan commission meeting this month. “It’s just that the density of this change is too great for our neighborhood.”
Daniel said that type of living is not possible on Meyers Road, a four-lane corridor. The homes would be designed to “serve a community that does not necessarily wish to have the larger lots and maintenance activities,” he wrote in a letter to village officials in May.
A private, internal drive and other common areas would be managed by a homeowner’s association. With village approval, the developer hopes to break ground in September.