Des Plaines IL: No to high-density housing project at 300 East River Road

On Monday December 4th 7:00pm, the Des plaines City Council will be voting on whether to allow a developer, Dubin Holdings, to build a high-density housing project at 300 East River Road. The East River Road Neighborhood is concerned about the development because a) it is not congruent with the Des Plaines Comprehensive Plan for the neighborhood, and b) the high-density housing will bring many additional cars to the already congested East River Road Traffic.

A: Deviation from Des Plaines Comprehensive Plan: the neighborhood is currently designated for single-family homes on large 0.5 acre lots. The developer was aware of this when designing his development which is planned to be single family homes at a density of 9-10 homes per acre. This is a much higher density than any other housing currently in Des Plaines. Because the developer is preparing the project as PUD, he does not need to follow Des Plaines ordinances such as minimum lot sizes, lot coverages etc.

B: Traffic on East River Road: Studies by KLOA found traffic congestion on East River Rd prior to the development being built as already failing (Given an "F" level of service-the worst possible grade). Once the development is complete, the studies estimate that traffic will only worsen adding 450 more cars daily to the East River Rd congestion. Des Plaines has no plans to correct the "F" rated roadway. Some City Council members have stated that they believe the traffic can be improved by better coordinating traffic signals. The traffic studies however report that the coordination has already been completed, and congestion is still problematic. The East River Rd Neighborhood believes it is irresponsible for the city to add more cars to the studied traffic congestion problem. Waiting to try to correct the roadway until after the problem becomes catastrophic will inevitably be much more costly to Des Plaines taxpayers.