Plainfield to move forward with 450-home residential development

The Plainfield Village Board voted Monday to move forward with a plan for a 450-unit residential development that one official said was the biggest the village had considered in many years.

The developer Pulte Home Company, submitted a proposal to build 332 single-family homes and 118 townhomes on the property south of 127th Street and west of Van Dyke Road.

Jonathan Proulx, the village’s director of planning, called the plan, “probably the most significant residential project we’ve had proposed in at least a decade, both in terms of size, acreage and the number of units,” at Monday’s Village Board meeting.

Proulx said the development would provide multiple benefits to the village.

He said Pulte had committed to work on needed stormwater improvements in the area and the new development would provide another access point to a nearby neighborhood.

The village also said a traffic assessment showed the new development would not worsen peak traffic congestion in the area. The development would be about a mile south of Plainfield North High School.

Construction of the development would also net the village about $1 million in fees, according to a village report.

Russell Whitaker, an attorney representing Pulte, was at Monday’s meeting and said no residents had voiced objections to the proposed project, which he called “unprecedented.” He also reiterated that the developer pledged to make the stormwater improvements using its own resources and property.

“We saw this as an opportunity to put our best foot forward to work with you and solve problems,” Whitaker said.

Trustee Harry Benton said the developer’s proposal would help residents already living nearby and would be a “nice extension to the community.”

Mayor John Argoudelis called the proposal a “quality residential development, very thoughtful.”

Trustee Brian Wojowski complimented the applicant and said its staff had “outdone yourselves compared to a lot of the other developers that come before us.” He asked that the extra revenue the village would make go back into road improvements around the area to directly benefit residents.

Still, others were less enthusiastic.

Trustee Kevin Calkins said he worried that adding more housing in the area would disallow further development of a potential medical district by the Edward Medical facility on 127th Street just north of where the neighborhood would be built. He argued Plainfield needed a hospital, not more developments like the one proposed.

Calkins also disagreed with the assertion that traffic congestion wouldn’t worsen, especially around the nearby high school.

“It’s already a nightmare up there,” he said. “I’m really amazed we don’t have the residents beating down our door opposing this thing.”

Whitaker said Edward-Elmhurst Health, which runs the medical center, told Pulte that more housing and attracting more residents to Plainfield would provide incentive for the company to actually build a hospital in the village.

Trustee Patricia Kalkanis acknowledged Whitaker’s point about the health care industry looking for more customers. But she said she worries about Plainfield having to reach a comparable population to Naperville or Joliet to convince the industry to build a hospital in the village.

“Our area is smaller,” Kalkanis said. “Our acreage is smaller than Naperville and Joliet. We almost have to reach a breaking point of packing all these residents in, in order to achieve the medical district.”

Trustee Tom Ruane, Benton, Wojowski and Argoudelis voted to move forward with drafting ordinances to allow for the development. Calkins and Kalkanis voted against it.