While initial plan caused uproar, new proposal for 538 Green Bay Road passes quietly through two stages of Glencoe review process

What a difference eight months can make.

In September 2021, dozens of Glencoe residents turned out to a plan commission meeting in protest of a six-unit residential development. 

Just this month, zero residents addressed the Village Board in regard to a reimagined plan for the same site at 538 Green Bay Road. 

The new plan from property owner Steve McGuire and his team is to replace the current home with two single-family residences and it received the go-ahead from Glencoe trustees on Thursday, May 18.

“The Village has been looking at this for a long time,” Village President Howard Roin said. “It seems to me in light of this presentation (from Village staff)  … that we should move this along to the next steps. If it ended up like this, it would be OK. It’s clear that the purpose of the zoning code is served.”

McGuire’s original proposal — which consisted of a 20,000-square-foot complex with units costing around $1 million — was intensely criticized by neighbors of the property, who were unhappy with the applicant’s lack of communication as well as uncomfortable with the development’s fit in the neighborhood.

Glencoe plan commissioners were moved by the volume of resident feedback and also criticized what they said was a failure to interact with community members. 

A month later, McGuire and company dropped the plans and went back to the drawing board, re-emerging in March with a new idea for the site led by Peter Cummins. 

Cummins, a former village manager in Glencoe, told The Record via email that the development team “worked extensively with the neighbors” and believed they achieved a “project acceptable to all.”

The subject presents multiple obstacles, including a park district easement that provides access to Green Bay Road and multiple zoning districts. 

The applicant is continuing to work with the park district to solve the easement concern, but Cummins believes a compromise is in the works. 

The two homes would share a driveway into the property from Green Bay Road under the plans submitted. 

The project received a favorable 6-2 vote from the plan commission on April 27. With the Village Board’s approval of the preliminary plans, the proposal will return to the plan commission for a final look and then back to the trustees with the commissioners’ final opinion attached. 

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