Village board backs Urban Air amusement park and restaurant at Arlington Plaza with parking variance

The Arlington Heights Village Board on Feb. 3 moved to advance a proposal to convert the former Burlington space at Arlington Plaza into an Urban Air Adventure Park with an ancillary restaurant, directing staff and the village attorney to prepare final approval documents for consideration at a future meeting.

Petitioners said Urban Air would occupy about 67,000 square feet of the former Burlington space at 30 W. Rand Road and would offer trampolines, go-karts, zipline, bumper cars, laser tag and amusement courses; a restaurant would be ancillary and patrons would need to be using amusements to access the restaurant. The applicant asked for two special-use permits (large amusement facility and restaurant), a waiver of the traffic-study requirement and a parking reduction of seven spaces for the shopping center.

Planning staff told the board the applicant submitted a parking study concluding that the existing center supply would meet peak demand for the proposed use and that the Plan Commission voted 9-0 to recommend approval of both special uses and the variations. Staff noted the amusement tenant would take most of the vacant space while a remaining 26,500-square-foot portion would remain available for lease. The board’s motion advanced final document preparation subject to conditions recommended by staff and the Plan Commission, including: obtaining any required liquor license before serving alcohol; providing interior soundproofing if noise complaints arise at the village’s discretion; and compliance with federal, state and village codes.

Petitioners said the go-karts are electric and that speed is adjustable for age groups; they described a magnetic wristband system that deactivates attraction access if a patron is served alcohol. In response to board questions, applicants said typical birthday-party bookings last about two hours (roughly 90 minutes on attractions and 30 minutes for a party room), and estimated typical peak on-site counts in the hundreds; applicants and staff noted the larger shopping center provides 1,139 stalls and that the parking study estimated a peak demand of 332 stalls for the center’s combined uses, yielding the requested seven-space reduction.

A public attendee asked that the village consider preemptive noise mitigation rather than waiting for complaints; the applicant said the park’s design includes a four-hour-rated wall and sound-absorption measures and that prior Urban Air facilities had shown occupant noise (children) as the primary audible source rather than ride equipment. The board approved the motion to prepare final documents by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the meeting transcript. No final permit was granted at the Feb. 3 meeting; final documents and ordinance language will return for a future vote.