ILLINOIS SITE FIGHT: VICTORY IN TINLEY PARK

Topics: | | Illinois | Community Impact | Crime & Safety | Economic/Small Business | Environment | Site Fights & Local Ordinances | Traffic/Sprawl | Organizing | | | | |

Developer pulls plug on Wal-Mart, retail center proposed for Tinley [SouthTown Star (Ill.)]

A Chicago-based developer has withdrawn plans to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter near Tinley Park’s Brookside Glen subdivision.

Maybe it’s the dismal economy.

Maybe it’s the outcry from angry homeowners who have rallied against having the largest retailer in the world within a few hundred feet of their back yards.

Aetna Development Corp. president George Hanus isn’t saying.

He only said Wednesday he has withdrawn his application for Prairie View Crossings, a 370,000-square-foot retail center anchored by a 24-hour Wal-Mart.

The project was to be built on 83 acres of what now is a sod farm at the southwest corner of 191st Street and Harlem Avenue. The project included more than a dozen outlots that would have fronted 191st Street and Harlem Avenue.

“We’re going to re-evaluate,” Hanus said, declining further comment.

The project, specifically the proposed Wal-Mart, drew the ire of many residents who live in Brookside Glen, the largest subdivision in Tinley Park. At least two people hired an attorney to fight the project.

Residents said Wal-Mart would have been too close to their homes, caused increased crime and brought unwelcome smells and noise.

Richard Kavanagh, an attorney representing Aetna, has stressed the retail center would generate about $40 million in sales tax revenue and $27 million in property tax revenue for Tinley Park during its first 20 years.

Kavanagh referred questions to Hanus.

Representatives for Aetna and Wal-Mart have gone back and forth with the Tinley Park plan commission and the village board for more than two years. Wal-Mart’s proximity to homes was the biggest complaint of village leaders.

Most recently in June, the plan commission did not vote on the project but commended Aetna and Wal-Mart for moving the big box store toward the center of the property so it would be at least 350 feet from houses. A detention pond would buffer homes from the back of the store.

Commissioners said they still were concerned about the eight entrances and exits proposed for the shopping center. Brookside Marketplace, the mall across 191st Street where five women were fatally shot during a February robbery, has two entrances and exits.

Several village officials on Wednesday said they couldn’t release any details about Hanus’ plans. Specifics are expected today.

Though Aetna pulled its project, residents should expect some type of commercial business at the southwest corner of 191st Street and Harlem Avenue, Mayor Ed Zabrocki said.

“There may be another box store on there,” Zabrocki said. “We’re going to take the same kinds of things into consideration with residents ... balancing their concerns with the concerns and needs of the village.”

Several Brookside Glen residents have said they bought their homes because they thought Lincoln-Way High School District 210 was going to build a high school on the sod farm.

District 210 instead built Lincoln-Way North about eight blocks south on Harlem Avenue in Frankfort.

Aetna remains under contract to buy from District 210 about 74 acres of unincorporated land that was slated for Wal--Mart and businesses. Supt. Lawrence Wyllie said the district and Aetna have yet to close on the property.

“If this contract doesn’t go through, we still own the land,” Wyllie said. “We’re not in a big rush to sell the land. Somebody will come around.”

Posted by Luke West on Thursday, September 25, 2008