A barricade wall stands in front of the closed Jackson Square Antique Mall at 112 E. Burlington Ave. The building is about a century old, and it sits a short walk from the Metra tracks and the restaurants of downtown La Grange. In January 2026 the Village Board unanimously approved a five-story, 39-unit condominium building to replace it. According to the student reporters at LION Newspaper, the antique mall was still standing at the end of September.
If you are comparing La Grange with Western Springs and La Grange Park for a newer townhome or condo near a walkable downtown, that barricade matters more than any portal median. La Grange adds new attached homes only through a handful of redevelopment sites. Right now every one of those sites sits behind a court order, a rezoning, or a procedural step the village added this summer.
Thirty-Nine Condos and a Temporary Restraining Order
La Grange Daily reported that a neighboring resident sued the village and the developer, Five South Six LLC, on April 8. The suit challenges nine zoning modifications the board approved in January. One of them cuts the required setback between the new building and neighboring homes from 29 feet, 7 inches to 11 feet for balconies. Demolition had been set for May 18. Judge D. Renee Jackson then issued a temporary restraining order that stopped all demolition and development activity on the site.
By August 4 the case was still pending and no next court date had been confirmed. The antique mall's owners have since bought the La Grange Park Antique Mall and are moving there under a new name, Jackson Square Collective.
For a buyer, this means 39 downtown condos that seemed certain in January are tied up in court, and the building they would replace was still standing at the end of September. Coverage also differs on the building's height. Patch described the renderings as four stories, while La Grange Daily and LION describe five.
Eighty-Four Townhomes Where the Plan Pictured Taller Buildings
The second project is bigger and earlier in the process. M/I Homes, based in Columbus, Ohio, is planning a townhome community called Granby Yard. It would sit southeast of Bluff and Cossitt avenues along the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad. Patch reported that it would require demolishing houses on Bluff Avenue, and that industrial buildings along the railroad have been cleared in recent years.
Village records released through a public records request give the concept another name, Harrington Mews. They describe 84 townhomes plus one detached single-family home, with 360 parking spaces. The July 21 pre-application summary lists three approvals the project would need: a Large Planned Development special-use permit, site-plan approval, and a map amendment.
The map amendment comes from the site's mixed zoning. The village staff memo says the parcels are currently zoned R-6 Two Family Residential, R-8 Multiple Family Residential and I-1 Light Industrial, and the plan would rezone portions to R-8. The same memo says the 2024 La Grange Forward Comprehensive Plan identifies the site's future land use as Single-Family Mixed Density Residential and High Density Residential. M/I Homes' concept letter reads the plan as preferring buildings of three to five stories on vacant parcels along the railroad, and presents its townhomes as a substantially lower-intensity proposal than that. This site was planned for housing, possibly at more density than the developer proposes, and it still has to clear a rezoning and a hearing.
Residents have already raised objections. During public comment at the August 24 Village Board meeting, speakers asked for parcel-by-parcel Phase I and Phase II environmental testing. They cited documented petroleum contamination and possible stormwater impacts, according to a Citizen Portal summary of the meeting. In August, Village Manager Jack Knight told Patch that no formal proposal had been submitted yet. The latest public records still show the project at the concept stage, with no hearing date posted.
The Steps Every Future Project Now Takes
The same August 24 meeting changed the process for whatever comes after Granby Yard. The board amended the zoning code so that planned-development applicants must hold a neighborhood meeting before the first public hearing, Citizen Portal reported. The order of steps now looks like this:
- A pre-application meeting with village staff, like the one M/I Homes held on July 21.
- Invitations mailed to taxpayers of record within 250 feet of the site, at least 15 days before a neighborhood meeting.
- The neighborhood meeting, with proof submitted alongside the application about 26 days before a hearing.
- A public hearing before the Plan Commission, followed by a Village Board vote.
The rulebook those steps sit on is also being rewritten. La Grange's zoning code dates to 1991. A request for proposals issued March 4, 2026 budgeted $190,000 for a full rewrite, aligned with the 2024 comprehensive plan, that covers residential bulk rules, design standards and how zoning approvals work. It set a June 8 date for the board to award the contract. Housing policy has moved in a quieter direction. The board voted in April to create an affordable housing task force. The village later recast it as an informal, resident-driven group with no obligation to produce recommendations, Patch reported in September.
Taken together, these changes put more steps and more notice in front of any future attached project, under a code that is still being rewritten. For a buyer, new supply arrives later.
Why La Grange's Housing Mix Hides the Shortage
On paper, La Grange looks like it has plenty of attached and multi-unit housing compared with its neighbors. CMAP's Community Data Snapshots (June 2026 release, based on 2020–2024 American Community Survey estimates) show the difference.
| Share of housing units, 2020–2024 | La Grange | Western Springs | La Grange Park |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-family detached | 67.7% | 89.1% | 65.6% |
| Single-family attached | 2.8% | 4.6% | 1.3% |
| Buildings with 5+ units | 20.1% | 2.8% | 23.0% |
| Built 2010 or later | 6.4% | 9.8% | 3.1% |
| Median year built | 1953 | 1961 | 1956 |
Most of La Grange's multi-unit share sits in that 20.1% of larger buildings. Single-family attached homes, the category that includes townhomes, make up 2.8% of the village's housing. Only 6.4% of all units were built in 2010 or later, which is a smaller share than in Western Springs. The typical home dates to 1953. In La Grange, "attached" mostly means older condo buildings. A newer townhome is much harder to find.
The best-known exception shows how rare these projects are. M/I Homes built Mason Pointe from 2019 to 2022 on the former Illinois Masonic Children's Home site at 441 9th Ave. Plan Commission minutes record the approval as 58 townhomes and 12 detached single-family homes. It took a large institutional site coming open to produce 70 new homes. Jackson Square and Granby Yard are the next two sites of that kind. One is halted by a restraining order, and the other is still a concept plan awaiting a formal application.
What This Means When You Compare the Three Villages
If your shortlist is a newer, lower-maintenance home within walking distance of downtown La Grange, here is what the current situation means:
- Resale is the real market for now. Until Jackson Square's lawsuit is resolved and Granby Yard gets through rezoning, newer attached product in La Grange means resales in places like Mason Pointe. Those homes compete with each other, not with a builder's model.
- Western Springs is mostly single-family. About nine in ten of its homes are detached, so it is a different housing choice, not a cheaper version of the same one. Our look at how the Western Springs new-construction premium gets written covers that market.
- Living near a redevelopment site carries its own process. Under the August rule, owners within 250 feet of a planned-development site get notice of the neighborhood meeting at least 15 days ahead. A buyer looking at a home on or near Bluff, Cossitt or Burlington is buying next to a project that may still be in front of the village.
The downtown these projects would serve keeps changing too. We covered the operators filling La Grange's empty storefronts this summer, and the La Grange neighborhood page has current context.
A Few Direct Questions
Is the Jackson Square condo building still going ahead? The January approval still stands. A temporary restraining order has halted demolition and development while the lawsuit is pending, and as of late September the building had not been torn down.
Has Granby Yard been formally proposed? Not according to public records so far. M/I Homes has held a pre-application meeting with staff and a neighbor meeting at the La Grange Public Library on August 24. A rezoning and a planned-development hearing would still have to happen before construction.
Does the new neighbor-meeting rule apply to homeowners? It applies to applicants for planned developments. Nearby taxpayers of record are the people who receive the notice. This post is general information, not legal advice. If you are buying near a proposed project, confirm what it means for you with a real estate attorney.
At Jennifer Williams, Inc., we track how the Jackson Square case and the Granby Yard rezoning move through the village, and we can walk you through what each step means for the homes already on the market. Let's Connect.
