Tuesday, September 06, 2011

In Orland Park there is slowing and greater care paid to Flaherty-Collins adventuring.

Latest link, here.

The project, called Ninety 7 Fifty on the Park, is a 295- unit complex planned as part of the village’s downtown redevelopment project.Tuesday’s meeting starts at 7 p.m. and after the board finishes with its agenda items, there will be a public forum.

“Everyone wishing to speak will sign in, as they do at all meetings,” village spokeswoman Margie Owens-Klotz said. “Each person speaking will be asked to keep their comments to two to three minutes so everyone has a chance to speak.”

Originally, the board was going to vote on the issue Tuesday. But the vote was pushed when it became clear during an open house held at the Civic Center last week that many residents had concerns and questions about the project.

More than 200 people attended the open house, at times shouting at Mayor Dan McLaughlin, who admitted the set-up did not work. He announced that residents would get a chance to be heard.

Village Manager Paul Grimes, who is heading up the project, said he didn’t receive much hostility at the open house, but he heard concerns from taxpayers who worry that the village loaning builders Flaherty & Collins $62 million is a mistake.

Wow. A town official who "heard concerns from taxpayers who worry that the village loaning builders Flaherty & Collins [... millions in high-risk money] is a mistake."

It makes one wish such things as good hearing were more universal.