The Village took possession of just over 41 acres of land located west of Shermer Road and just north of West Lake Avenue -- adding it to three acres of adjacent Village-owned land. And, to help decide how best to make use of this 45-acre parcel, it established a multi-jurisdictional Land Use Planning Committee charged with working through a land reuse process.

As described in the November, 2006 issue of the Village Report, the 41 acres was originally part of a 93-acre Navy owned parcel containing 400 aging military housing units. As the Navy launched plans to privatize development of the land, turning over maintenance, repair and -- when necessary -- reconstruction of the units, it determined that this 'surplus' was not needed, as it will be reducing the number of housing units to 230.

 

Including the Key Players

The reason behind the multi-jurisdictional Land Use Planning Committee was simple: any land use plan will have a combination of uses that is sure to have an impact on many local institutions. To ensure that the key players are involved, the committee included representatives of:

Land Use Planning Goals

• Selecting uses that will generate sufficient land sale revenues to recover all or a significant portion of the $23.9 million land purchase price.



• Protecting local school districts from unrestrained residential development, which could result in an influx of school children in already crowded local schools.



• Determining the potential for public uses if surplus land is available after meeting the sale revenue goal.



• Conforming with the land use restrictions noted in the Sale Agreement between the Village and Midwest Family Housing, LLC (the Navy's private developer.) This agreement generally allows residential and open space on the entire parcel, as well as some commercial and industrial uses in specific portions of the land.