With ‘strong demand for townhomes’ in Naperville, 68 units proposed near middle school
Townhouse development has become somewhat of a growing trend in Naperville.
Last month, the city council approved plans by builder M/I Homes to create an enclave of 64 townhouses tucked away from the I-88 corridor.
Bridge Street Properties is now working closely with M/I Homes to bring another residential community to Naperville. Known as Everly Trace, the proposed development would contain 68 units near the campus of Crone Middle School.
“We've seen strong demand for townhomes in south Naperville, District 204, in particular,” said Russ Whitaker, an attorney for the petitioner. “And so I think this will provide additional needed housing product in the market.”
Another developer, Lincoln Property Co., wants to build 34 two-story townhouses and 56 three-story row houses within walking distance of the Growing Place garden center.
Bridge Street, meanwhile, is seeking to have a property off 111th Street — the site of a landscaping supply business and the last remaining unincorporated parcel in its vicinity — annexed into Naperville. Bridge Street has a contract to purchase the property and is preparing it for development. M/I Homes would ultimately build the townhouses.
Through the 1990s and early 2000s, there was so much single-family construction in Naperville that “I think there's probably a little bit of a need to diversify housing product,” Whitaker said.
“I would say it's not just townhomes, but I think you've also seen more senior housing, more apartments,” he said.
Whitaker also pointed to changing demographics in Naperville. It’s always been a great place to raise a family, but today, the population is aging, he said.
“We've got a great supply of single-family homes in neighborhoods like Ashbury and Tall Grass in south Naperville, and frankly, it would be hard to … build new single-family homes at a price that is cost competitive to what exists in those communities,” Whitaker said. “And so I think the goal has been to diversify a little bit and find some different niches in the market, and that's where we've seen a lot of townhomes.”
The development would offer two types of townhouse styles and would provide a “natural transition” from the single-family homes to the west and the institutional middle school to the east, according to a petition filed with the city for zoning entitlements.
The proposal calls for 42 three-story units along the east property line abutting the Crone Middle School athletic fields. Those homes would range in size from 1,550 to 1,700 square feet. The 26 two-story townhouses in the development would be situated along the west and south property lines and range from 1,700 to 1,950 square feet.
The roadway layout also was “very strategic,” Whitaker said. Cedar Drive exists to the north and south of the property.
“We worked with Naperville closely on the roadway alignment because we were concerned with running the road straight down the property line, and it being a long straight stretch that people would speed down,” he said. “We purposely bent the road a couple of times, which is going to have the effect of calming traffic. It also allows us to transition between the front-loaded townhomes and the three-story townhomes.”
The Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposed project on June 18. The proposal seeks an OCI — or office, commercial and institutional — zoning designation for the property.
“The development will meet a significant community need by creating a housing opportunity that is suitable for many types of homebuyers,” the petition states, “including some of the fastest growing housing segments of our population, young professionals and empty nesters.”