The estate at 6191 S. County Line Road has a 9,300-square-foot house that is about 80 years old. It has six bedrooms and 6½ baths, a coach house, a tennis court, walking paths and a fenced, lighted riding area. Patch reported in April that it had gone on the market the previous August at $10 million. Patch reported that it sold for $6.1 million this summer. The buyer, Downers Grove-based Oakley Home Builders, wants to build 16 homes on the site for buyers 55 and older and expects prices to start at $2.7 million.
The town's zoning code favors large lots, so any plan built around smaller lots has to ask the Village for an exception. Four of those requests have come up in 2026. Together they show what a Burr Ridge homeowner who wants to stay in town and simplify can expect to find, and what it will cost.
The rulebook every smaller-lot plan has to rewrite
The Village's zoning ordinance sets a minimum lot size for each residential district. These are the districts that matter in this year's cases:
| District | Minimum lot area | Where it shows up this year |
|---|---|---|
| R-1 | 5 acres | 8101 County Line Road; part of the Cobblestone Ridge site |
| R-2 | 2 acres | Not in play |
| R-2A | 40,000 sq ft | Saddle Hill Court; part of Cobblestone Ridge |
| R-2B | 30,000 sq ft | The revised request for 8101 County Line Road |
| R-3 | 20,000 sq ft | The target district for Saddle Hill and Cobblestone Ridge |
| R-5 | 12,000 sq ft detached; 5,000 per clustered unit; 3,000 per attached unit | The target district for 901 McClintock Drive |
Two more rules sit on top of those minimums. The Village's Comprehensive Plan calls for keeping low-density residential patterns and encourages future residential lots of 30,000 square feet or larger. The usual tool for clustered or age-targeted housing is a planned unit development, or PUD, and the code sets a 40-acre minimum site for one, according to the Village's own hearing agendas.
Every site in this year's PUD requests falls well short of 40 acres, so each plan for smaller, lower-maintenance homes needs a rezoning and at least one variance. Each request goes through a public hearing, and neighbors can testify.
Four requests, one direction
All of this year's proposals ask the Village to allow more homes on less land than the code allows today:
- 8101 County Line Road. Developer Bharat Mittal asked to rezone land zoned for five-acre lots so he could build on lots as small as half an acre.
- Saddle Hill Court, 6181–6191 County Line Road. Oakley wants to rezone 7.6 acres from R-2A to R-3 for a 16-unit PUD, with exceptions to the PUD lot-area and lot-width standards.
- Cobblestone Ridge, 11305 79th Street and Fox Lane. McNaughton Development wants to rezone a 16-acre site from R-1 and R-2A to R-3 for 21 homes. The plan needs a variance that cuts the PUD minimum from 40 acres to 16, and another that cuts the minimum lot width from 800 feet to 148 feet.
- 901 McClintock Drive. Lakemont Ridge Development wants to rezone a 4.87-acre office and hotel site from O-2 to R-5 for 12 townhomes. That would take the PUD minimum from 40 acres down to 4.87 and the lot width from 800 feet down to 37.67 feet.
The developers pitch these projects to buyers who want to stay in Burr Ridge with less to maintain. McNaughton says the 12 clustered homes at Cobblestone Ridge are meant for residents who want little to no maintenance responsibility, while the other nine are traditional estate homes. It calls the plan "a market-based plan, a result of regional growth, an aging population, an aging housing stock and a shifting market preference in housing," according to Patch, and points to its existing Lakeside Pointe subdivision in Burr Ridge as the model. Oakley used the same kind of language in its application:
"Thoughtful, low-density response to a documented and growing need for for-sale, age-targeted housing within Burr Ridge."
Patch quoted that line in its Oct. 2 preview. It also reported Oakley's claim that the plan's density ranks among the lowest of any recent residential approval in town.
What a "no" looked like in June
The Mittal request shows how the Village has handled these cases so far. At its June 1 meeting, the Plan Commission heard objections from two nearby homeowner associations, Bridle Path and Burr Oaks Glen South. Patch reported that Guy Franzese, president of the Burr Oaks Glen South association and an elected Village Board member, said smaller lots would not fit the surrounding neighborhoods. Commissioner Barry Irwin said that new residential neighborhoods in Burr Ridge had recently trended toward larger lots, not smaller ones. The commission voted unanimously to reject the half-acre request.
The case didn't end there. Commissioners suggested the developer come back with lots of about two-thirds of an acre, and the developer's attorney did. On July 13, the Village Board sent the revised request back to the Plan Commission. The new version asks for R-2B zoning, and that district's 30,000-square-foot minimum works out to roughly two-thirds of an acre. It also matches the floor in the Comprehensive Plan. The petition was set for the Aug. 3 Plan Commission agenda.
In practice, the Village has shown it will negotiate, but toward the 30,000-square-foot line its plan already sets. Saddle Hill and Cobblestone Ridge both ask for R-3, which allows 20,000 square feet, so both are asking for smaller lots than the compromise the Commission offered Mittal in June.
Why the first homes start near $2.7 million
Rezoning fights also set the price. Oakley's land cost on County Line Road was $6.1 million. Spread across 16 homes, that comes to about $381,000 per lot before any construction, roads, stormwater work or shared amenities. The Saddle Hill plan includes an outdoor fireplace, a gathering area, a scenic pond and a pedestrian loop. If the Village held the site to its current zoning, the same land cost would be split among fewer lots and each home would cost more. If the variance is approved, the homes get smaller lots, but the price still reflects estate-priced land.
The tax picture points the same way. Oakley estimates the subdivision would send $864,000 a year to local taxing bodies. Spread evenly across 16 homes, that is about $54,000 per home per year. That figure is the developer's estimate, not a bill, but it gives a sense of the carrying cost for a buyer who moves from an older large-lot house into one of these homes expecting lower costs.
So in Burr Ridge, downsizing usually means less land and less maintenance, but not a lower price. Patch noted that the average Illinois lot is about a fifth of an acre. Even the smallest lots proposed here are more than twice that size.
The objections are site-specific
Neighbors' concerns differ from site to site, and those details decide how each hearing goes. At Saddle Hill, residents raised traffic, drainage and density. The president of the Burr Ridge Club, the subdivision across County Line Road, warned of a possible "demolition derby" at facing entrances where cars turn left from both directions, Patch reported. Oakley's traffic consultant called the impact minimal. On drainage, a village engineer's memo said the evidence submitted "satisfactorily" shows stormwater runoff from the site would not exceed the capacity of the village's storm sewers.
If you are waiting for one of these homes, the engineering findings and the neighbors' objections are what to watch. Together they decide whether a plan moves forward as proposed, with conditions, or with fewer homes.
How the calendar works from here
The Plan Commission only makes recommendations. The Village Board decides. The Commission's own agenda says its actions "are advisory and are submitted to the Board of Trustees for final action." So each project faces two votes, and a positive recommendation from the Commission does not guarantee approval.
The meetings themselves have moved. The Village Hall is being replaced, and Patch reported that the new building's opening has slipped from July 2027 to as late as March 2028. Until then, board meetings are held at Gower Middle School. Plan Commission hearings are there too, at 7941 Madison Street.
Here is where things stand:
- Saddle Hill Court: on the Plan Commission agenda for Oct. 5; any final decision rests with the Board.
- Cobblestone Ridge: on the Plan Commission agenda for Oct. 19; any final decision rests with the Board.
- 901 McClintock Drive townhomes: on the Plan Commission agenda for Nov. 16.
- Village Board meetings ahead: Nov. 9 and Nov. 23.
Agendas and packets are posted on the Plan Commission's agenda page.
A few questions we keep hearing
Can I reserve a home in one of these subdivisions now? Each of the four still has to go through the Plan Commission and Village Board process described above. Until a plan has final approval, the number of homes, the lot sizes and the timing can all change.
Would townhomes at 901 McClintock change what's around them? The site is zoned for office and hotel use today. The proposal would rezone it to R-5, a planned residence district. Whether that fits the surrounding area is the question the Plan Commission takes up on Nov. 16.
Does a rezoning on one parcel change the zoning on my lot? Each petition on the Village agendas names specific addresses. Questions about your own property are best taken to the Village's community development staff, and anything that turns on legal rights belongs with an attorney. This post is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.
If you own a large-lot home in Burr Ridge and want to know how these pending subdivisions might affect your timing, your price or your next move, Jessica Halkias can walk through the options with you. Schedule a complimentary home consultation.
