Roosevelt Road idea not fiscally smart
A March 3 letter to the editor stated that Roosevelt Road was Winfield's best available corridor for sustainable commercial tax generation. Favoring commercial of development of Roosevelt Road is hardly a fiscally responsible position.
In 2003, the village of Winfield commissioned a Facilities Planning Area (FPA) Sanitary Sewer Feasibility Study to investigate options and identify a plan for providing sanitary sewer and water services to key development areas. This infrastructure is necessary to support commercial development. The village spent about $76,000 for this study.
The official findings of the engineering firm were reported in October 2004 and released to the public in 2005. In the consultant's opinion the most cost-efficient area for extending infrastructure for development is an area identified as N1, bordered by Geneva Road to the south, St. Charles Road to the north, County Farm Road to the west, and the border of Carol Stream to the east. The cost of water and sewer extensions in this area was estimated at $5,274,000 in 2004 dollars.
The most costly area to which to extend water and sewer infrastructure, as reported in the FPA Study, is Roosevelt Road. The cost to bring water and sewer to the Roosevelt Road area was estimated at $8,573,000 in 2004 dollars. The cost to bring infrastructure to Roosevelt Road cost $3.3 million more than extending existing infrastructure to the planning area to the north.
Supporting development in an area where the infrastructure costs are so high compared to other key development areas isn't visionary, it's fiscally irresponsible. It appears that taxpayers would be asked to bankroll speculative real estate development, rather than speculators putting up their own money.
Renee Caputo
West Chicago