Naperville vacant lots will look less scraggly

The Naperville City Council made a move Tuesday toward ensuring vacant lots in residential areas don't become eyesores.

The city added property maintenance requirements for such lots to the books in an effort to ease the concerns of residents without being overly burdensome on developers.

The council discussed the issue last August and directed staff to prepare additional guidelines for vacant lots. The topic returned to the agenda in March, and drew comments from some homeowners who said some lots in their neighborhoods were aesthetically lacking due to being overgrown with weeds or unsafe due to flooding.

Dick Dublinski, development team leader said Tuesday, under the new guidelines all vacant lots will have to be free of debris, standing water and tall weeds.

Under the new requirements, existing vacant lots must be graded for drainage and have turf within a year if all adjoining lots are occupied and it has been at least five years since the subdivision was granted final approval.

The same one-year timeframe for compliance applies for vacant lots in subdivisions that are at least 90 percent built out and older than five years. This would apply to subdivisions such as Breckenridge, Stillwater and Tall Grass.

By applying the provisions to subdivisions only after five years of existence, newer subdivisions still under construction aren't forced to grade and seed the lots while they are still building.

When a vacant lot results from a teardown, it must be graded for drainage and have turf on the site within 30 days of being razed unless construction has already begun.

Hal Stembridge of Stembridge Builders, has previously said he doesn't want to be penalized just because other builders are racking up complaints and he had concerns about what kind of timeframe the city would set for improving the vacant lots.

But Tuesday, he reluctantly agreed to the five-year stipulation.

"Although I'd like to see nothing passed on this, I think five years is a reasonable compromise for builders in today's market," Stembridge said.

Resident Kathy Benson, who addressed the council last month about vacant lots near her home, said Tuesday while she is concerned about the one year phase-in of the ordinance for all existing lots, she applauds the 30-day period for fixing up vacant lots due to teardowns.

The council approved the new requirements 8-0. Councilman John Rosanova was absent.

Councilman Richard Furstenau commended city staff for what was once a "ball of worms" in addressing concerns from residents and builders.

"What you really tried to do is ferret out individual differences on different types of lots," he said.