Feb. 18--Tinley Park has suspended Planning Director Amy Connolly while the village commissions an outside review of the approval process behind a controversial proposed housing project, officials said.
The village placed Connolly on paid leave Monday pending an investigation into the review process for The Reserve, a proposed 47-unit, low- and moderate-income apartment complex to be built on the northeast corner of 183rd Street and Oak Park Avenue.
Tinley officials plan to hire an outside law firm to conduct the investigation, which Village Manager Dave Niemeyer said he expected will happen "very soon." Mayor Dave Seaman said the Village Board's consensus is to hire Chicago firm Winston Strawn, but the deal hasn't been completed.
"We made promises and we're keeping promises," Seaman said. "We said we would give this a thorough review, and this is the first step in reviewing not only what happened in this particular instance ... but, at a broader level, the zoning process."
Village officials have faced mounting criticism in recent weeks from residents about the project. Many residents feel the village hasn't been transparent about the project, and said The Reserve would attract crime, lowering property values.
Connolly's attorney, Patrick Walsh, said Connolly looks forward to participating in the investigation, "and hopefully providing the investigators with the evidence that they need to come to the correct conclusions."
"Amy has no doubt her name will be cleared of any wrongdoing, and that it will be shown what she's really done is help the village, rather than cause it any harm," Walsh said.
"There is documentary evidence that everyone knew exactly what this project was, long before any votes," he said.
Walsh called the suspension, "The worst case of scapegoating I've ever seen in my life."
The village's Planning Department had previously deemed the project to be in compliance with zoning and development codes governing building in the village's Legacy District -- the area that takes in most of the Oak Park Avenue business district.
Those codes were put in place to streamline the project review process for companies in an effort to lure development to the downtown area. An unintended consequence, at least in this case, is that the Village Board is playing no role in evaluating the apartment building proposal.
Tinley's Plan Commission tabled a vote earlier this month that could have given final approval to the project, instead sending it back to the Planning Department for further review.
On Wednesday, the village announced that the board had approved the creation of a new Citizens Advisory Committee that will include Tinley Park residents Matt Coughlin, Trent Ridgway, Charlie Smith and Roxanne DeVos. This new committee will assist the independent planning consultant in its review, the village said in a release.
Local attorney Steve Eberhardt and Coughlin, the main face of the Citizens of Tinley Park group that has voiced opposition to the project, questioned a timetable Seaman previously laid out for the review.
The mayor previously told the Daily Southtown he believed it could be completed in about 40 days, but Eberhardt said that was "unrealistic," and Coughlin said that no timetable needs to be set as the ultimate goal is "to get to the truth."
gpratt@tribpub.com
