Roscoe trustees signal they will hold approved intersection right-of-way despite developer warning it could derail planned Starbucks

Marvin Keyes, a representative of First Midwest Group, told the Village of Roscoe Board on June 17 that a village condition to secure additional right-of-way at the Willowbrook and Rockton intersection near Interstate 90 would likely destroy a planned Starbucks-anchored development and force the company to withdraw.

The board’s engineering and planning staff and a county engineer said the village’s Intersection Design Study (IDS), approved and used to pursue grant funding, shows the long-term buildout will require additional right-of-way; trustees said they are inclined to hold to that plan despite the developer’s warning. The disagreement centers on whether the developer’s replat request — splitting an existing single lot into two lots for a Starbucks plus a multitenant building — should be conditioned on providing the extra right-of-way now.

Keyes said First Midwest began pursuing development at that intersection after discussions with village officials in June 2023 and that the company recruited an anchor tenant, Starbucks. He said preliminary site plans were submitted in November 2024 and a full submittal followed in March 2025. "We submitted everything to the village in March 2025...and then we get a comment back a month and a half or so after we submitted everything with, 'hey. We are gonna want more right of way at this intersection,'" Keyes said. He told trustees that redesigning and reengineering the site to accommodate a taking would add months and costs and that Starbucks has specific delivery windows; Keyes warned the tenant could drop the site if the developer cannot meet that timeline.

Village staff and the county engineer told trustees the IDS already shows the need for additional right-of-way for the full reconstruction of the intersection and that the village has spent significant engineering funds preparing that plan. The county engineer explained that the intersection operates at or near capacity under the approved traffic analyses and that delaying acquisition could force the village into a more costly, phased reconstruction later. "If the village secures funding for this project in the next five years, doing a phased approach for a full reconstruction of an intersection is not really feasible or economical," the county engineer said.

Staff explained why the right-of-way request was triggered by the developer’s replat: under the current single-lot configuration no additional roadway improvements were required for the Starbucks layout, but splitting the lot created the ordinary opportunity to condition approval on securing right-of-way. Village staff acknowledged communication delays between the developer and county staff early in the review process and said the IDS exhibit should have been shared sooner.

Trustees raised procedural and timing concerns; several said they had not known development talks had reached the stage of a named tenant and expressed frustration that board members learned full details only at recent meetings. Multiple trustees stated they preferred to maintain the previously approved right-of-way requirement to protect long-term reconstruction options. One trustee noted the village had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the IDS and that the approved plan is the basis for grant applications. Other trustees and staff asked the developer to continue to explore alternatives, including whether the site could be presented as a single lot or whether a redesign could be feasible, but staff and the village’s lead traffic consultant said redesigning the intersection to accommodate the building in place would be "virtually impossible" without large engineering changes and extensive right-of-way tie-ins.

Keyes said First Midwest will continue discussions with Starbucks and village staff but that, as of the meeting, the developer expected the decision to require right-of-way as part of the replat condition would likely mean the project cannot meet Starbucks’ delivery timeline. "If you do this, you're going to lose this deal," Keyes said. Trustees did not record a formal, final vote in the transcript on changing the right-of-way requirement; several trustees publicly expressed a desire to hold firm on the approved IDS and right-of-way requirement while encouraging staff and the developer to keep discussing practical alternatives.

The board discussion underscores a common municipal planning tension: protecting long-term transportation and grant-funded infrastructure plans versus enabling near-term private development that proponents argue would spur additional economic activity. Next steps recorded in the meeting included continued talks between staff, the developer and county engineering, and requests from trustees for clearer, earlier communication about projects of this scale.