Plan commission continues hearing on Lexington Homes plan for 53 townhomes at 1825 Shermer Road after neighbors raise parking, privacy, drainage concerns

Lexington Homes asked the Northbrook Plan Commission on Tuesday to rezone 1825 Shermer Road from I-1 restricted industrial to RLC (residential and limited commercial) and approve a planned development of 53 townhomes on a 4.68-acre parcel. The commission reopened testimony, heard a detailed developer presentation and more than a dozen residents’ public comments about parking, privacy, tree removal and stormwater, and voted to continue the public hearing to Oct. 21 to allow the petitioner to revise plans and respond to specific commission requests.

The proposal would: rezone the property to RLC; approve concept- and final-plan special permits for a planned development and for townhomes; approve a tentative plat of subdivision; permit multiple zoning and subdivision-code variations (including a corner-side yard setback reduction from 100 feet to 10 feet and a rear/east yard reduction from 25 feet to between 6 and 15 feet in places); allow a private-street system and sidewalk on only one side of the private street; allow a parking reduction from the code-required 239 spaces to 217 spaces (a 9.21% reduction or deficit of 22 spaces); waive the code requirement to bury overhead utilities along the Shermer Road frontage; and grant an exception related to the village affordable-housing requirements that would concentrate all required affordable units in one income tier and in a single location on the site.

Why it matters: The site sits adjacent to the existing Shermer Place townhome community and a public right-of-way along Beaumont Place. Neighbors said the development’s guest-parking layout and private-street design would push overflow parking onto Shermer Place streets, increase traffic where children play and strain local schools; the applicant’s engineers said they redesigned stormwater so most runoff will discharge to a planned pond on Shermer Road rather than to a Shermer Place detention basin.

Developer presentation and project details

Lexington Homes’ vice president, Nate Weinsmaa, described the project as a residential redevelopment of a former industrial/warehouse property. He said the design includes two product types—“Row Homes”…