Palatine Rejects Camelot Property Project

Palatine this week rejected plans for a residential development on the old Camelot School property located east of the Palatine Park District stables near Northwest Highway and Dundee Road.

Palatine officials expressed concern about several aspects of the project. The street width was below the village's minimum standard of 60 feet and the property lots ranged between 50.5 feet and 60.5 feet, below the village's standard of 75 feet.

Village Manager Reid Ottesen said that the smaller width size would make maintaining streets within the development difficult. "Any thing less than that (60 foot right-of-way) we would like the streets to remain private. It could function for traffic, but its not something we'd like to deal with ongoing maintenance," Ottesen said.

Ottesen said village staff supported the residential land use for the property, but the small lot sizes and street issues were significant issues. Specifically, Ottesen said that village officials wanted to see the property lots to the east, closest to existing residential homes near Doe Road, be at least 75 feet wide.

In December several residents from the Doe Road . The commission recommended against approved the project.

The Brian Murphy, vice president of operations for the developer of K. Hovnanian Homes, said there were challenges with the configuration of the property.

"The size of the community...it isn't economically feasible for two products," Murphy said. "Having a 40 foot home on a 75 foot wide home site just doesn't work within the street scape."

"We tried to fit something where one product would work in the entire community," he added.

Murphy also said that the developer would not be willing to have the roads be private.

Andrew Mouw, director of land acquisition, said that the developer would attempt to make some substantial changes to the project and, if they can make it work, submit new plans.