The forlorn look of the La Grange Theatre is misleading. Ticket sales are solid and its owners have ideas for expanding the facility's role in the community. But the structural renovations those plans require could cost more than $3.5 million. The Village Board of Trustees is considering ways it might provide financial assistance to the theater.

New projects ignite boom and battles

Updated July 8, 2008

As anyone walking or driving around La Grange these days can see, there is much building go on—and even more projects are on the drawing boards.

On the southern edge of downtown, at La Grange Rd and Cossitt Ave, construction on the exterior of La Grange Pointe is nearly complete. The project will feature condominiums marketed as a concept called "urban senior living." It also will put several new storefronts into a downtown whose retail vacancy rate already is high in a soft economy.

Kitty-corner from there, the new Public Library has been open since last November. Although patrons must enter from the alley in the rear, passersby peeking through the windows out front can affirm the facility's popularity.

On the northwest corner, the venerable La Grange Theatre, while doing a brisk business showing second-run movies despite recently raising ticket prices to $3.50, looks otherwise forlorn, its storefronts empty and soaped over. But it is a misleading sight. The theater's owners have plans to expand the facility's role in the community, converting one of its auditoria into an events room for meetings and parties, possibly serving alcoholic beverages. There's also been talk of a new restaurant opening behind the empty storefronts.

However, any plans to expand the theater's operations will require a significant upgrading of the building's infrastructure. The theater's owner estimate the cost of renovation could exceed $3.5 million. While they say they can pony up $1 million, the owners are asking the Village of La Grange to provide the rest, perhaps in the form of a TIF grant.

The Village Board has held several meetings regarding financial aid for the theater, including one April 21 that was closed to the public, prompting the publisher of this website to file a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General's office alleging the meeting violated the Open Meetings Act. On July 2, the Attorney General agreed that a violation likely occurred. Village officials now are asking the Attorney General to reconsider its request that minutes and an audio recording of the closed meeting be made public.

Meanwhile, another legal battle continues over La Grange Place, a major mixed-use redevelopment proposed for the former Rich Port YMCA on the far north end of downtown. With 283 apartments, 26 townhomes and 33,000 square feet of commercial space, La Grange Place would be the largest single private investment in the history of La Grange, according to Pat Benjamin, the Village's community development director.

While the Village Board approved the project April 14, plans require that the developer, Atlantic Realty Partners, purchase a portion of publicly owned Gordon Park adjoining the former Y site. The Park District of La Grange last October asked a Cook County Circuit Court judge to approve the sale of what district officials said was 2.82 acres. The sale was opposed in court by two La Grange residents, one of whom July 27 convinced the judge that the acreage involved amounted to 3.5 acres. Under state law, the sale of more than three acres of public parkland requires the approval of the majority of voters in a public referendum. The Park District said they will appeal the ruling.

New construction is not limited to the central business district. In neighborhoods all over La Grange, homeowners are rehabbing older houses and building additions. In recent years, many smaller houses have been bought by developers who then tore them down and built new homes whose size and proportions were so much larger that neighbors demanded the Village take action to set limits.

In response, the Plan Commission proposed several amendments to the Village's zoning laws regulating single-family residences. Intended to restrict the "supersizing" of new homes being built, the amendments pitched those residents seeking to preserve a community character they felt was being lost against those homeowners who believed that larger homes with modern configurations and amenities were necessary for La Grange to compete for young families with newer communities on the region's periphery.

Most of the amendments subsequently were approved by Village trustees last summer, quieting the storm. But the new regulations arguably did less to curb the building boom than did the the subprime mortgage fiasco which emerged about the same time to inflict a deflating prick to the already softening "housing bubble." As a result, construction and sale of new homes went into steep decline nationally, including here in La Grange.

Keeping abreast of all of these new developments, and the battles they sometimes ignite, can be a heady task. But it is one we at Everything La Grange feel is important enough to merit our time, attention and, when we think it appropriate, our active involvement.

We will provide ongoing coverage of development and planning issues both here in this section and on our newsblog, the daily. As always, your comments are invited.