Atlantic Realty Partners (ARP) would purchase only three-quarters of an acre of land in Gordon Park from the Park District of La Grange and significantly scale back the density of its redevelopment of the former Rich Port YMCA site under a proposal the developer has offered in hopes of ending litigation that has held up the project, known as La Grange Place, for the past two years.
ARP President Richard Aronson Monday said he was awaiting a response to the proposal from La Grange Friends of the Park (LGFP), a group of park district residents who are opposing the park district’s latest petition asking a Cook County judge to directly approve the sale of 2.82 acres of parkland to the developer.
If ARP and the residents group come to terms on an agreement, Aronson said he will then meet with park district officials “to convince them that [accepting the compromise] is in their best interest.”
Roughly half of the 20-some LGFP members met Saturday morning to review and discuss ARP’s proposal, and reached a consensus on a response, Tom Beyer, one of three attorneys representing the group, said following the meeting.
Beyer declined to provide details but said he would release a written copy of LGFP’s full response later this week, after all its members have had a chance to review it.
The three-quarter parcel ARP would purchase—.78 acres to be precise—would be used to square off the northeastern corner of the former Y parcel, Aronson said. The land currently is occupied partially by maintenance sheds no longer needed by the park district.
ARP would forego its original plans to purchase an additional 2.04-acre parcel, consisting of a grassy slope and picnic grove, which is located north of the .78-acre parcel and Y parcel and is directly east of the La Grange Tower condominiums.
The developer had intended to construct 23 town homes on the 2.04-acre. No town homes are included in the revised development plan offered by ARP, Aronson said.
Also, ARP would reduce from 283 to 236 the number of units in a mid-rise apartment complex it plans to build, and would reduce the amount of commercial space in the project from 33,000 to approximately 18,000 square feet.
Downsizing the scale of the development is not intended to appease LGFP, Aronson said, although some of its members had reservations about the size of the original development plans approved last year by village trustees. The density of the development and the traffic it would generate were among chief concerns expressed by many village residents who attended plan commission hearings on the project.
Even if ARP were able to proceed with purchase of the entire 2.82 acres it originally sought, the project likely would be modifed to address the realities of a currently weak real estate market, Aronson said.
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