Design Review Process for New Home Construction in Hinsdale?

Does Hinsdale have enough poorly designed homes that it needs a design review process for new construction?

That’s a question the Hinsdale Village Board and the Plan Commission now must answer as they consider the recommendations presented by the Design Review Commission (DRC) at the Feb. 15 Village Board meeting.

After more than three years of on-again, off-again meetings, DRC Chairman Charles Landefeld told trustees the commission was recommending that guidelines for multi-family housing remain under jurisdiction of the Plan Commission. The DRC has come up with guidelines for the design of single-family homes, but is not recommending mandatory compliance.

“We feel the process in the village of Hinsdale should be voluntary,” Landefeld said.

As an incentive to increase participation, the DRC recommended that FAR (floor area ratio) restrictions be waived for people who take part in the voluntary process.

FAR is used to determine if the square-footage of living space in a home is appropriate for the size of the lot upon which the house is located.

“Most homes these days in Hinsdale max out FAR,” Landefeld noted in a telephone interview Friday.

Need questioned

“Obviously, it’s a question of how much of a design problem do we have here in Hinsdale,” Landefeld told the village board.

He said the DRC looked at homes built in the village in the last three years and came up with three well-designed and three poorly-designed to use as examples in developing the guidelines. He said the number of poorly-designed homes out of the roughly 100 built annually in Hinsdale is not large.

“It was actually a pretty small percentage,” Landefeld observed, “maybe 10 percent or less.”

That led Trustee Bob Schultz to question the need for the guidelines.

“Right now, we have a very ugly home being built close to mine,” he noted. “It seems like people are going to build what they want to build regardless. … It‘s just not going to accomplish what we want to.”

Schultz asked how much time the design review process would add to construction.

“At least, on paper, this would add two months to the front end,” responded Village Building Commissioner Robert McGinnis.

“That, I think, would be a pretty large hardship,” Schultz said. “[Plus], this is still going to take staff time.”

You never know unless you try

Trustee Doug Geoga said the village wouldn’t know if the voluntary guideline process worked until it was tried.

“These are good guidelines and good design thoughts,” Trustee Laura LaPlaca said. “I think it’s a good first step.”

DRC member Jan Grisemer reminded the board that the commission was established in 2007 after a survey of Hinsdale residents found 75 percent “wanted some kind of design review process in place.”

“We don’t know how many people will take advantage of this,” she added. “We are delighted we have something to offer with floor area ration.”

Landefeld said the process of developing the guidelines was delayed while the village explored rewriting its zoning code. As a result, the DRC did not meet at all in 2010.

In developing its design guidelines, Landefeld said the commission looked at those of other municipalities, including Glen Ellyn, Skokie, West Chicago, and Winnetka.

Landefeld noted that the commission currently has three vacancies in its membership. It is supposed to be composed of four at-large residents, two architects, a landscape architect, an engineer, and a historic preservationist. In addition to Landefeld and Grisemer, members of the commission are Frank Gonzalez, Kim Kozak, Linda McElherne, and Richard Olsen.