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Highland Park officials are considering zoning changes for a shopping center that includes the shuttered Toys R Us (left) to let developers know they're open to different redevelopment ideas.
Karen Berkowitz / Pioneer Press
Highland Park officials are considering zoning changes for a shopping center that includes the shuttered Toys R Us (left) to let developers know they’re open to different redevelopment ideas.
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Highland Park officials want to head off some uses that could be undesirable for a shopping center along Deerfield Road facing uncertainty as a real estate firm, which purchased a shuttered Toys R Us at the location last year, considers its next move.

Earlier this week, Highland Park officials started taking steps to create an overlay zone for 17 acres that would encompass the former Toys R Us and a Jewel-Osco store on Deerfield Road, as well as the Silverado Highland Park Memory Care community to the south.

Officials said the proposed zoning changes are meant to let prospective developers know the city is open to a mixed-use development in the area that would include multifamily housing.

“That sends a signal to the market that the zoning is about to be changed and the city will consider a (transformational) development,” said Joel Fontane, director of community development. “We thought it would be a good conversation to have, so we didn’t just get what we’ve got.”

Under the proposed change in zoning classification, multifamily residential buildings up to 51 feet in height and four stories would be allowed. Businesses, such as dog kennels and storage facilities, and certain light industrial activities no longer would be permitted.

Nursing home care facilities also would be allowed with conditional approval. The overlay zone would be bounded by a Route 41 interchange, Deerfield Road, Richfield Avenue and Old Deerfield Road.

Fontane said the location of the proposed zone, which is near a signalized intersection on Deerfield Road right off an exit ramp from Route 41, and the surrounding infrastructure make the area prime and ready for redevelopment.

Drew Awsumb, deputy director of community development, said the current zoning applies throughout the Skokie Valley Highway corridor and permits uses out of character with a neighborhood retail center.

“If the shopping center is going to struggle to keep retailers, what will it become?,” Awsumb said of the concerns that led to the zoning proposal. “Will it become another Briergate (district) and you will have more of these contractor and light industrial uses? Are we OK with that? Not really.”

Last year, the firm Balboa Retail Partners acquired the southern portion of the shopping center that houses the former Toys R Us during a bankruptcy auction. Bernard Citron, an attorney for Balboa Retail Partners, said recently the firm has no immediate plans to redevelop the property.

“I will tell you that Balboa is not seeking to redevelop the center initially,” Citron said, adding how the firm intends to improve the site and has reached out to a real estate agent regarding leasing. “We believe that any redevelopment should include commercial development.”

While the city’s draft proposal would have required commercial use on the ground floor of a multifamily residential building, Citron said the requirement is seen in more pedestrian-oriented urban areas and, even then, the spaces typically don’t attract the type of tenants that are desired.

He said that from a developer’s standpoint, residential and commercial components that exist side by side are preferable.

In a split vote June 18, members of the plan and design commission heeded the advice, supporting the creation of the proposed overlay zone that would allow for the addition of multifamily housing in conjunction with commercial redevelopment.

On a 4-3 vote, the commission directed city staff to prepare findings supporting the mixed-use overlay zone with a recommendation that residential buildings with no commercial space be allowed with special approval.

The dissenting commissioners — Adam Glazer, Ben Kutscheid and Annette Lidawer — expressed concern about the residential density the city would be allowing on the shopping center property under the proposed change.