The Tinley Park Plan Commission on a unanimous vote recommended that the Village Board approve a plat consolidation and a zoning map amendment that would add a vacant, village-owned corner lot to Helen Keller Elementary School and rezone that lot from R-3 to R-4.

The recommendation, made during the commission’s public hearing on the project, would allow Kirby School District 140 to consolidate Parcel 2 (the vacant corner lot at Everden Drive and 163rd Street) with the school property and complete site improvements including a new bus dropoff lane, a hardscape play area and a sanitary lateral connection. Staff said the consolidation also includes a 40-foot right-of-way dedication and two easement areas that must be finalized before the plat is recorded.

Village staff identified the two properties as Parcel 1 (the existing Helen Keller Elementary School, approximately 6.5 acres) and Parcel 2 (a 0.8-acre vacant lot). Staff noted the plan includes a 40-foot dedication stretching roughly 400 feet deep (about 16,000 square feet) that will shift the school’s front property line back and create a legal nonconformity for an existing monument sign setback. Staff also said the plat will need final review and approval by the village engineer and village attorney prior to recording.

“The Village does not have discretionary purview of site plan and architecture,” staff said, noting that primary educational facilities fall under state oversight (the transcript referenced the State Capital Development Board/Regional Office of Education). Staff walked the commission through the village’s rezoning standards (referred to in the record as the LaSalle factor standards) and concluded the proposed consolidation and rezoning support public school improvements.

Dan Callaghan, the petitioner recorded in the hearing as representing the district and RA Smith, said he thought “the school is very excited for this” and described the improvements as necessary to serve a growing student population. When a neighbor, Patricia Gregor, asked whether the district planned a bus lane or other landscape changes, Callaghan described “two new curb cuts” that will create “a one-way kind of loop” to keep buses out of an overcrowded south parking lot, plus a blacktop play area, basketball striping and replacement trees.

Commissioners moved two separate recommendations: one for final plat approval (final plat dated 12/19/2025) and one for the zoning map amendment to change Parcel 2 from R-3 to R-4. Both motions passed on roll call votes with all eight commissioners voting "yes." The staff motion for final plat approval included the condition that the plat is subject to final review and approval by the village engineer and village attorney before recording.

The commission’s recommendations are advisory; the Village Board must consider and approve the plat, intergovernmental agreement and deed conveyance to transfer Parcel 2 from the village to the school district. Staff said the Village Board hearing is anticipated for Feb. 3, subject to completion of the related agreements. The petitioner and staff will return to the Village Board with the consolidated packet of documents for final action.

No members of the public otherwise testified in opposition during the hearing. The meeting also included standard staff updates, including the hire of a new planning manager and an update that an 18,000-square-foot SportsDome structure is moving toward construction pending ComEd approvals.

Next step: the Village Board will review the commission’s recommendations and the related intergovernmental agreements before any transfer or construction work may proceed.