Townhouses floated for old Scripture Press property owned by Wheaton College

The boundary between Glen Ellyn and Wheaton curiously runs right through a property formerly owned by Scripture Press Publications.

Wheaton College acquired the site, home to a brick building complex and an expanse of lawn, in the 1990s and would call it the “East Campus.”

“The front part of the building is actually in the village of Glen Ellyn, while the rest of the property or building is in Wheaton. I'm not sure how the building permit was issued for that,” Wheaton City Manager Michael Dzugan said.

The two towns have hashed out a proposed new boundary agreement that could pave the way for a possible development of the overall site, about a mile east of Wheaton College’s main campus. Over the past year, the college has been under contract with REVA Development Partners, according to a village memo.

REVA developed Avere on Duane, the luxury apartment building across the street from the Glen Ellyn Public Library. REVA has made no formal applications, but a conceptual site plan shows what development could look like: a neighborhood of more than 100 townhouses on roughly 15 acres.

The draft intergovernmental agreement calls for disconnecting parcels from the village of Glen Ellyn and then annexing them into the city of Wheaton. Two lots along the south side of Anthony Street would remain in Glen Ellyn.

The agreement also requires that any development reviewed and approved by Wheaton be “residential in nature” or a use permitted by the city’s current institutional zoning district.

The Wheaton College property is currently tax-exempt. Glen Ellyn would receive one-third of any future Wheaton municipal property tax dollars generated by any development based on the city’s annual tax rate.

The revenue sharing would begin when the development of the parcels is completed and would last for 20 years, Dzugan said.

College representatives wanted to consolidate the parcels under one municipal jurisdiction. “The benefits would include clarity for utilities, flood plain and storm water regulations, public safety response, zoning and permitting,” Dzugan wrote the city council last year.

“The College decided to sell the East Campus property because it does not fit into our future campus plans,” Wheaton College spokesman Joe Moore said in a written statement.

The draft agreement was informed by village board workshops, meetings with residents on Anthony Street, a stormwater engineering assessment completed by a village-hired firm and engineering assessments done by a prospective developer, the Glen Ellyn memo noted.

If the property is developed, certain stormwater outcomes must be met regardless of the specific developer. A development must not cause “any negative impacts to any downstream and upstream properties” and include construction of an overland drainage path, among other terms.

“There was a lot of study and a lot of back and forth on that particular issue,” Dzugan said.

If the agreement is approved, there would be public hearings on the deannexation and annexation of the parcels.

“And then finally, once the annexation is completed — in other words, the properties are within Wheaton — Wheaton College could then apply to the city for some type of development if they so chose to,” Dzugan said.