More row homes coming to downtown Naperville

Naperville City Council members have unanimously approved plans for high-end row homes at the northern edge of the downtown.

M/I Homes intends to build 11 owner-occupied units at the northwest corner of Main Street and Benton Avenue. To the south is the Main Street Promenade, a mini downtown with a Sur La Table, boutiques and Hugo's Frog Bar & Fish House.

“This is very walkable to the No. 2 most-used Metra station in Chicagoland,” City Councilman Ian Holzhauer said. “Adding homes in a transit-friendly, walkable area near downtown tends to bring residents who are walking more places, using their cars less, more connected to the neighborhood on foot, patronizing local shops and restaurants and making our downtown more vibrant.”

Some residents objected to the height and scale of the development, contending it’s out of character with their neighborhood. Chris Carlsen, who lives on Franklin Avenue, put it this way: “too many units and too small a site.”

The site is made up of four parcels in a transitional zoning district. Residents also took issue with the builder’s request for multiple deviations to the Naperville Municipal Code.

“The proposal forces too many oversized buildings too close to public sidewalks, adjacent homes, property lines and rear yards. The result is a project that overwhelms its site and defeats the very purpose of transitional zoning,” Meggie Chambers said.

The site was also home to a clapboard church originally built almost 120 years ago. The Bethel Church of the Brethren members then occupied it for decades, said Tom Ryan, chief preservation officer of Naperville Preservation, Inc.

The church was torn down, and the property is now vacant.

“I'd like to propose that the city set up a simple notice of demolition framework that would provide a heads-up to an individual or group that might be interested in moving a historic building,” Ryan said.

An architect, he commented that “this building type, as seen all over town, is unfortunately not connected to the sidewalk in any meaningful way.”

The current owner, Calvary Temple Church of Naperville, has entered into a contract to sell the Benton and Main properties to M/I Homes. The parcels total roughly eight-tenths of an acre.

“It is a constrained site. It's not a square site. And by virtue of it not being a square site, that's driving a number of the deviations,” Russ Whitaker, an attorney for the project, explained.

Neighbors suggested removing at least one midblock unit and replacing it with “meaningful green space.”

“I just struggle with telling the developer they've got to cut a unit when there's a building right across the street that's larger than what they're even suggesting,” Councilman Patrick Kelly said, referring to the Benton Terrace condominium complex.

M/I Homes plans seven townhouse units and four duplex units.

“While we certainly have some smaller-scale single-family homes along Franklin, immediately north of the subject property,” Whitaker said, “you also have the very large AT&T building and multifamily structures on the north side of Franklin.”

He wrote in a letter to the city that the development is targeted toward “higher-income earners” seeking a low-maintenance, high-end home only one block from retail and dining attractions in the downtown. Plans also call for rooftop terraces.