NORMAL - Plans for a minor league baseball stadium in northwest Normal and a retirement village on the northeast will be among the items the City Council will consider Monday night.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. in the council chambers of City Hall, 100 E. Phoenix Ave.

The town staff is recommending approval of the baseball complex on the eastern edge of the Heartland Community College campus. The complex would include a stadium with 4,000 hard seats, lawn seating for 3,000 and practice fields for Heartland's athletic programs.

While the original plan shows parking for 1,200 vehicles, the developer only wants to provide 600 paved spaces initially and use grass parking for the rest. A shuttle service form Heartland lots would be provided when the grass is wet.

Town code does not allow grass parking but the town staff is recommending it be allowed at the stadium as long as the grass is maintained and no unsightly ruts or dusty patches develop. The situation would be re-evaluated after the first year, and other ideas would need to be explored if there are problems.

Grass parking was one of several things discussed at a planning commission public hearing on the site plan earlier this month. Several residents of nearby Northmeadow Village expressed concerns that the stadium would bring unwanted trash, traffic and noise.

The town staff also is recommending approval of a plan by Meadows Mennonite Retirement Village and the Apostolic Christian Church to bring assisted living and senior housing to 101 acres off Raab Road in northeast Normal.

Meadows Mennonite Retirement Village would use 15 acres in a phased-in development including a three-story, 100-unit independent living building; a two-story, 60-bed assisted-living facility; and a core services building.

The development also includes a 600-plot cemetery, about 50 single-family homes near the Normal Community High School baseball diamond; 56 quad-style and 30 duplex-style, age-restricted attached single-family homes; and 11 acres zoned for general business.