Northbrook Residents Rally to Save Meadow Plaza From 150-Unit Condo Plan

Northbrook residents and the owners of 14 businesses inside Meadow Plaza are organizing against a proposal that would tear down the decades-old shopping center and put up 150 condominium units in its place.

The preliminary concept, tied to Pulte Homes, calls for three six-story residential buildings on the site of the plaza, which was built in 1959 along Shermer Road in downtown Northbrook. No formal application had been filed with the village as of July 27, according to Village President Kathryn Ciesla, but word of the plan has already spread through town and drawn thousands of signatures on a Change.org petition opposing it.

A group calling itself Save Downtown Northbrook has formed to fight the redevelopment. Organizer Susan Nelson said she rejects any suggestion that the property is run-down enough to justify tearing it out.

"They're calling this blighted," Nelson said. "This isn't blighted. They're going to make it blighted."

Longtime resident Lee Goodman said he sees no reason to knock down a shopping center that still functions and still draws people downtown. "There's no necessity to tear down this shopping center," he said.

Meadow Plaza is home to businesses that have anchored downtown Northbrook for generations. The Book Bin, an independent bookstore, opened there in 1971. Alli Gilley started working at the store at 16 and later bought it from its founders. She said the uncertainty around the plaza's future is unsettling for her and the other shop owners around her.

"I feel scared for my business, for fellow businesses, but also for the town, because this is a very special place to a lot of people," Gilley said.

Jill Carlisle has run the gift shop La De Da at the plaza for almost 21 years. She said losing that commercial space would strip downtown Northbrook of businesses built by the people who live there.

"These businesses are homegrown Northbrook businesses, and many of them are owned by residents of Northbrook," Carlisle said. "I think for all of us, we feel it's just a huge loss."

Serah Cicek opened Bean Bar, a coffee shop and community workspace, at the plaza about a year and a half ago. She said she has been offered relocation options miles away that don't match how she built her business.

"They're making suggestions to take us three miles away," Cicek said. "I don't want my business there. That's not my business model. This is where I've invested seven years of my life, my lifetime savings, and now they want to take it all away."

Residents living near the plaza have also raised concerns about traffic congestion and flooding, along with the added strain a new development could put on local schools. Several pointed to past flooding around the Cherry Lane underpass and the North Branch of the Chicago River, which runs behind the shopping center, and said they want independent traffic and environmental studies completed before any plan advances.

Even children who grew up going to the plaza after school have joined the pushback. Twelve-year-old Grace Watters said the shopping center is part of her daily routine. "This mall should stay here because we are almost here every day after school," she said.

Ciesla said the property is privately owned and that the decision by its owner to sell is separate from any action by the village. "The Village's role is to review any redevelopment proposal through its public planning and zoning process to determine whether it meets local regulations and serves the community's long-term interests," she said in a statement.

Ciesla said village officials have already met with the Northbrook Chamber of Commerce, local real estate brokers, commercial property owners and some of the affected business tenants to look at whether those businesses could relocate elsewhere in Northbrook if the redevelopment moves forward. Pulte has said it plans to present its full proposal, along with supporting traffic and environmental studies, to the village before any zoning process begins.

Because no application has been submitted, the plaza's fate is still undecided. Any redevelopment of this scale would need to clear Northbrook's planning and zoning review, a process that typically includes public hearings where residents and business owners, including members of the Save Downtown Northbrook coalition, can formally register their objections. For now, the businesses inside Meadow Plaza are waiting to see whether Pulte files paperwork with the village, and when public hearings on the project might be scheduled.