The Lombard Village Board on Thursday, Oct. 15, approved on second reading a number of major changes to the Burj Plaza Planned Development.
According to the village, the developer acquired the properties in 2024 to redevelop them into an “integrated shopping center” that would be completed in phases, and the village board approved the plan in 2025 after a Plan Commission public hearing in June 2025.
The development is slated to include tenant spaces, a drive-through restaurant, a smoking establishment, a banquet facility, “site circulation improvements” and construction of two new buildings.
According to Planning and Zoning Manager Anna Papke, who was also the lead staff person on Burj Plaza at the Plan Commission level, the developer, Burj Plaza LLC, requested a number of major changes to the project, located at 501-593 W. Roosevelt Road and 1210 S. Finley Road (the former Dania site).
She said they include:
“The overall site plan remains substantially the same as the Burj Plaza plan that was approved by the village board in 2025,” Papke said. “However, the above modifications qualify as major changes under the Village Code, so needed to be approved through the public hearing process with the Plan Commission and village board.”
The Plan Commission recommended board approval of the changes on Sept. 1, and the village board gave its first-reading approval on Oct. 1.
“There are no new traffic signals associated with the Burj Plaza development. There have been discussions about the possibility of installing a traffic signal on Finley Road where the Burj Plaza, Mariano’s and Pointe West Condo driveways intersect with Finley, but this is outside the scope of the Burj Plaza plans,” Papke outlined. “Installing a traffic signal in that location would require coordination between the three developments, the village and IDOT due to [the] proximity to Roosevelt Road, which is a state right-of-way.”
Burj Plaza is in District 2 and in the B4A Roosevelt Road Corridor District.
In other business
Dr. Brian Graber, superintendent of School District 45, made a presentation to the village board and staff, saying four of the six elementary schools are in Lombard or unincorporated Lombard and “a high number of students and families call Lombard home.”
He addressed the referendum on the Nov. 3 ballot that is requesting roughly $4.4 million the district says will “support strong property values; avoid deeper cuts next year; strengthen our schools’ financial future; maintain reasonable, responsible class sizes; restore student reading support; restore student advanced academics; restore school clubs and activities; [and] restore fine arts and musicals.”
According to District 45 figures, the owner of a $350,000 home would pay roughly $299 more per year in property taxes, or about $25 a month.
Graber said a referendum request in March “to address our ongoing funding gap” fell short by “fewer than 200 votes” out of 7,400 votes cast, adding that community members petitioned the board to “pursue the referendum again this fall.”
After the failed referendum, Graber said the district “took action on the reductions previously identified,” including about $1.7 million in classroom teacher, reading specialist and advanced academics positions, as well as extra-curricular reductions, including intramural sports, choir, musicals and other clubs.
“These reductions are just the beginning of what will be needed to address our ongoing funding gap,” Graber said, adding that if the referendum does not pass, the district will need to reduce spending by an additional $2.5 million over the next four years “to reach a responsible fund balance by the year 2031.”
Reductions would include “additional teaching positions, extra-curricular opportunities, one or more school closures and the re-drawing of individual building boundaries,” he outlined, adding that a successful referendum would restore the extra-curricular program that was cut for this year and restore a number of teaching and support positions for next year.
“Ongoing revenue has not kept pace with rapidly increasing expenses,” Graber said of the district’s financial challenge, as well as an increase in health insurance premiums and transportation costs.
“Our annual revenue is about 80 percent of what the State of Illinois calculates is needed for District 45 to provide a quality, research-backed education,” he said, or about $11 million per year less than what the “adequacy target is.”
“We’re already lean in our spending,” Graber noted, pointing out that there is “a limited local commercial and industrial tax base.”
For more information, visit d45.org/strengthen45.
District Two Trustee Jessie Hammersmith, chair of the Community Relations Committee, who was absent when the Senior Man and Woman of the Year were announced on Oct. 1—as was the Senior Man of the Year Lynn Moist—introduced him at the meeting.
“I’m very pleased to get to do this tonight,” she commented. Hammersmith said Moist has “demonstrated a longstanding commitment to helping others, particularly through his dedicated volunteer service at The Outreach House. He regularly helps organize and unload food and clothing donations, assists donors, maintains receiving and storage areas and readily steps in wherever help is needed.”
She added that Moist has been a blood donor for over 50 years with more than 250 lifetime donations of blood and platelets.
“Lynn, thank you for your dedication and for the many ways that you have given back to others,” Hammersmith said. “We are grateful for your service and proud to recognize you as Lombard’s 2026 Senior Man of the Year.”
Jackie Stawiarski was announced as Senior Woman of the Year at the Oct. 1 meeting.
