Geneva might sell Fox River site for housing

Geneva aldermen were divided Monday on whether the city should sell land it owns on Crissey Avenue to a developer who wants to build housing.

Oak Creek Capital Partners is willing to pay $775,000 for a four-acre parcel, which is between Crissey and the Fox River, south of Chalmers Street.

The firm built the Park Place townhouses on Route 31 near Wheeler Park last year.

It has not submitted plans for the Crissey site to the city, but expects to do so within a month, according to managing partner John Luczynski.

"I'm not opposed to selling the property. I'm just not sure this is the best use or the right time," Alderman Richard Marks said.

For instance, the land could become more valuable based on what may be built on the former Mill Race Inn site to the north, he said. And the site is in a new tax increment financing district the city created last year.

Much of the eastern bank of the Fox, including the Mill Race site at Route 25 and State Street, was identified as a prime site for development in the 2012 Downtown/Station Area Master Plan.

Aldermen approved putting the site up for sale in December.

Alderman Jim Radecki, who voted in favor of the deal, asked if the city shouldn't ask the developer, or others interested in the site, to submit plans for what they want to do, before agreeing to sell.

Marks and aldermen Tara Burghart, Jeanne McGowan and Robert Swanson voted against recommending the sale. Mike Bruno, Becky Hruby and Craig Maladra voted in favor, as did Mayor Kevin Burns. Aldermen Dean Kilburg and Don Cummings were absent.

For the sale to go through, at least seven aldermen would have to vote for it June 5 when the binding vote will take place.

In other action, the council recommended transferring another river-area site to the park district.

The city received the 6.19-acre parcel on North Bennett Street in 1948 to be used as part of Oak Hill Cemetery. But no one has been buried there, and won't be, because it is in a flood plain.

In 2011 the city estimated it had enough spaces in the cemetery to last 50 years without using the land in question.

The land transfer will also be voted on June 5.