DuPage absorbs street lighting district near Naperville

A small taxing district that maintains lights along the streets of a subdivision near Naperville will be absorbed by DuPage County.

County board members on Tuesday agreed to consolidate the Century Hill Street Lighting District into the county's division of transportation. All assets and service responsibilities will be transferred from the district to the county.

"Through collaboration, the district and the county have identified an opportunity for the division of transportation to provide street lighting services to this district," county board Chairman Dan Cronin said before the vote.

Cronin said the arrangement will help control annual service costs and provide opportunities for infrastructure investments.

County board member Jim Healy said the 312-parcel Century Hill subdivision was built roughly 40 years ago and was supposed to be annexed into Naperville. When the annexation didn't happen, power to the streetlights eventually was turned off.

So a group of homeowners pushed for the creation of the district to maintain and power 76 lights. But in April, the Century Hill board adopted a resolution to formally dissolve itself.

The move was done after district representatives sent several mailings and held town hall meetings with residents to talk about consolidation.

More than 98 percent of the Century Hill homeowners who completed a survey favored consolidation with the county, officials said. Sixty-one percent of all the homeowners in the district completed the survey.

The consolidation was possible because of a state law change in 2013 that gave DuPage the power to eliminate up to 13 local governmental entities, including fire protection, sanitary and mosquito abatement districts.