Wheaton senior housing plans take step forward

A developer’s request to bring a senior housing facility to downtown Wheaton has passed its latest hurdle.

During a public hearing Monday, the Wheaton City Council reviewed an amendment to the original Courthouse Square plan and voted 5-2 to discuss it further at a later date.

The 2005 plan called for a mix of townhouses and condos at the site that included the former DuPage County Courthouse. Both Northfield-based Focus Development Inc. and Airhart Construction partnered to renovate the property.

In 2005, the city approved a plan to establish a tax increment financing district and borrow $7.7 million to give to the developers upfront to support the project. The city provided the money by issuing bonds in 2006, City Manager Don Rose said.

Tax increment financing districts collect increased property tax revenues from redevelopment. The funds are earmarked for improvements within the district instead of going to taxing bodies such as schools and parks.

For the past three years, the city has required the developers to make payments “if the increment (in the TIF district) wasn’t sufficient enough to pay off the annual debt, “ Rose said. Over the past three years, the developers have paid about $1.5 million, Rose said.

“The shortfall that would continue to occur if nothing happens (to the property) would fall on the city to either utilize its own funds, general funds, surplus funds or to restructure that debt to correspond with the increment that will be coming in,” Rose said.

Now, the developer wants to amend the wording in the plan to allow for the senior housing facility, citing the housing market crash. A metal shell along Willow Avenue currently sits where Focus planned to build a second condo building.

In April, the city’s joint review board, a group of representatives from area taxing bodies, backed the proposed wording.

An attorney for Courthouse Land Development LLC said Monday the amendment meets the goals and objectives listed in the 2005 plan, citing one that reads, “Explore housing options for senior citizens, ‘empty nesters’ and young families for all income levels.”

“So really in our opinion, this amendment does not require the process that we’re going through now,” attorney Mike Laube said.

Councilman Tom Mouhelis and Councilwoman Evelyn Pacino Sanguinetti voted against directing city staff members to prepare the changes to the plan.

Pacino Sanguinetti pointed out that the goals in the 2005 plan were not prioritized. She said the developer now wants to inject a 23-line paragraph into the plan as part of the amendment.

“I find that a little bit offensive,” Pacino Sanguinetti said. “Each paragraph is only a sentence, so I strongly doubt that this was the true intent of the authors back in 2005.”

Meanwhile, the city’s planning and zoning board will continue to review an amendment to the planned unit development to allow the construction and use of the senior living facility. The proposed facility would contain 55 independent living units, 84 assisted-living units and 28 memory care units.

Mayor Michael Gresk defended the city’s process in reviewing the developer’s request.

“It’s been painstaking,” Gresk said. “I realize at some levels, too, it’s been unpleasant. But the point is that this is an open process.”