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Commission recommends Hawthorne Mall townhomes with changes to parking and median maintenance
Summary
After a continued hearing, the commission recommended approval of a 46-unit townhome plan at Hawthorne Mall, approving revised Building 9A/9B layouts and interim parking-management measures while adding a requirement that the mall irrigate and maintain a planted median between the townhomes and the AMC theater.
The Vernon Hills Planning and Zoning Commission on Tuesday recommended changes to the Hawthorne Mall planned-unit development that would allow construction of 46 townhomes on the mall campus, subject to revised building layouts, parking-management testing, and a maintenance commitment for a planted median.
Tim Anderson, CEO of Focus Development, said the townhome product would broaden housing options at the mall redevelopment and that timing matters: completing the townhomes while phase 2 of the redevelopment is underway would let the developer concentrate construction and reduce disruption. Sheila Eustace and the Focus team presented detailed plan revisions, including separating an originally three-unit building into two single-family-style row homes (Buildings 9A and 9B) and turning garage doors to face an internal drive aisle for improved safety.
Architect Jeff Mulcrone showed elevations consistent with earlier materials and color palette; civil engineer Kayla O'Sullivan described rear-to-rear alley offsets and a mix of longer and shorter aprons that create additional guest parking capacity. Landscape architect Catherine Talty said the median between the townhomes and the AMC theater will be planted with drought-tolerant native grasses and hardy shrubs; Centennial (mall owner) agreed to take responsibility for irrigation and maintenance and winterization.
A major sticking point at prior hearings was parking. Focus presented a campus-wide sign and wayfinding plan, dedicated valet/employee parking options and other interim measures intended to shift visitors into the mall's structured parking. Staff recommended rewording an earlier condition so those interim measures could be tried and later evaluated; if they do not sufficiently relieve demand by a predetermined date, surface parking on the middle Milwaukee lot would be required.
The commission voted to recommend site-plan and landscape revisions and to reword the condition to allow interim improvements (signage, valet/employee parking control and measurement) with a performance review before a hard trigger to build surface parking. The commission also recommended amendments to the special-use ordinance to permit higher density (16.41 units/acre), narrower lot widths and greater building height for this PUD. Members supported the architecture and median planting but several said they remain concerned about overall density.
Votes on the motions were recorded and the recommendations will be forwarded to the village board for final action.
