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East Dundee continuing interest in multifamily housing for former factory site

East Dundee trustees gave an informal go-ahead Monday to proceed with negotiations for building townhouses and apartments on the site of the former Haeger Potteries property.

In a straw poll, they voted 4-2 to have village staff continue working on terms of a redevelopment agreement with Brinshore Development LLC. Trustees Ryan Gumma and Scott Kunze voted “no.”

Michael Roane, senior vice president of Brinshore, presented a revised concept, calling for 96 units. The original proposal called for 136 units.

The revisions also eliminated the idea of turning River Street into a cul-de-sac. Neighbors had protested that.

“We’ve heard your comments, and we’ve tried to revise the plan as best as possible to hear what you want the most,” he said.

Some of the units would be restricted to households making no more than 60% of the Chicago area’s median income. Others would be set aside for households making no more than 30% of the area’s median income. Some would rent at market rate.

The state standard of “affordability” calls, in general, for spending no more than 30% of household gross income on housing. In the case of rentals, that includes utility payments.

Brinshore intends to apply for low-income housing tax credits from the state, a loan from Kane County and a commercial loan for the project. The village would sell the land to Brinshore for $10, per the proposal.

Kunze questioned Brinshore’s proposition that it would be “workforce housing,” where residents could afford to live in the towns in which they work. He also questioned whether rental housing would help those residents ultimately become homeowners, and said homeownership is “the No. 1 way for people to move up and become middle class … This takes that away.”

“When I think of workforce housing, I think (of it) in an upper-class area that needs workers,” Kunze said. “We (East Dundee) don’t need to import workers to this area to work here. We have lower rents around here already.”

Some residents have said they want single-family detached houses, rather than multifamily units, on the site. They said the original housing density was too high.

Village Administrator Erika Storlie said nobody has submitted proposals for that. “I wish I had more options for you, but I don’t,” she said.

The factory closed in 2016, after 145 years in business. Nearby houses were built after the factory. The village bought the site for $600,000. It believes there will have to be environmental remediation of potentially hazardous materials in its buildings and ground before anything else is built on it. Officials are also worried about vagrancy and vandalism in the remaining buildings, including fires.

It requested proposals and received three. One was eliminated because it didn’t offer what village officials wanted; the other proposed even more housing than Brinshore’s.

The board voted in February to pursue a redevelopment agreement with Brinshore. Then residents protested.