Planning commission recommends rezoning near Station Lane and Highway 35 to RM‑3

The North Hudson Planning Commission on June 24 recommended that the village board approve rezoning of a vacant parcel at the southwest quadrant of Station Lane and Highway 35 from commercial (C‑3) to RM‑3 (high‑density multifamily).

Sean Bohan, an engineer with Advanced Engineering Concepts, presented a revised plan calling for a three‑story building with about 26 apartment units (23 one‑bedrooms and three two‑bedrooms), roughly 13,000 square feet per floor for a total building footprint of about 39,000 square feet across three levels, and 17 enclosed garage stalls plus additional surface parking. Bohan said the developer reduced an earlier plan of roughly 48–50 units to the current scale and that an initial traffic review identified about 10 trips during the peak hour from the development, which he described as negligible compared with nearby commercial traffic.

The presentation drew sustained public comment. Beth Newton, who lives on Station Lane adjacent to the site, asked to see the traffic review and said left‑turn delays onto Highway 35 can already be lengthy; she warned that visitor parking could push spillover onto neighborhood streets. Timothy Higgins, a longtime neighbor, raised emergency‑access concerns, asking how fire apparatus would reach the site in heavy snow. Barb Coffey, whose property backs the parcel, questioned the adequacy of the tree buffer and the distance from the west lot line to the proposed building, calling a three‑story structure “out of scale.”

Commission discussion centered on balancing neighborhood concerns with fiscal considerations. One commissioner argued that leaving the parcel commercial could yield lower tax revenue, and that residential use at the scale proposed was less likely to generate the traffic and service demands of a strip center, gas station or automotive shop. Other commissioners voiced reservations about sight lines, building height and traffic patterns, and suggested conditions and subsequent reviews during the conditional‑use permitting stage.

The commission moved to recommend approval; on the recorded vote the recommendation passed, with Roderick Anderson, Candace Collins and Bill Warner recorded as voting yes, and Jared Bachman and Randall Reiter recorded as voting no; Tim Basirian was absent. The commission noted this is a recommendation only — the village board must consider the rezoning and may hold further public comment on related conditional‑use permits before any construction begins.

Next steps: the item will be placed on the village board agenda for final action. The developer still must secure conditional‑use and permitting approvals where site setbacks, landscaping, lighting and final parking plans will be reviewed.