I-88 or 5th Avenue? Naperville to decide which area will be focus of new study

Naperville will set aside $150,000 in next year’s budget for initiating one in-depth study focused on a large-scale redevelopment area in the city.

But the city council has yet to decide which area to prioritize: the I-88 corridor or the properties around Naperville’s 5th Avenue Metra station.

“Although the development of these and other areas in the city is important, there are only staff and financial resources available to focus on one in 2026,” Deputy City Manager Pam Gallahue said.

The city has faced one of its more challenging budget cycles in recent memory. The 2026 spending plan includes “only limited” new budget requests. In a straw poll during their final budget workshop, council members agreed to allocate $150,000 for only one special planning project.

Depending on development caseload along with board and commission support, the city’s planning team generally has the capacity to manage one such project at a time, according to Jennifer Louden, director of the city’s transportation, engineering and development department.

The funds are considered a placeholder. Here’s a look at possible next steps:

5th Avenue

As a starting point, a panel of real estate and development professionals has been charting a new vision for properties around the 5th Avenue station. The study area comprises land owned or leased by the city. To the casual observer, there’s an abundance of blacktop parking.

“I do think 5th Avenue would require more staff time than the I-88 corridor, in part, because I think there's still, from my perspective, a lot of unknowns” about the future of commuter parking and commuter activity, Louden told the council.

The Urban Land Institute panel provided highly conceptual ideas for redevelopment at a September forum. For instance, the group proposed a mix of commercial and residential space on the east side of Washington Street and south of the train tracks.

The area around the station could be made more plazalike. North of the tracks could host a multipurpose farmers market and event shelter, community open space, as well as mixed-use development.

“With the development of these almost 15 acres, there's great opportunity for infrastructure improvements,” said Jon Talty, CEO of Chicago-based OKW Architects and chair of the panel, has said.

If the council prioritizes the 5th Avenue area, a development master plan with financial analysis would come next. The Urban Land Institute panel also has recommended the city hire a consultant to craft a master plan that would spell out development guidelines and design standards.

I-88 corridor

This past May, the Naperville Development Partnership released a 75-page report with strategies for the future of the corridor. Their consultant, AECOM, prepared the report, which suggested focusing development efforts on certain industries.

“Sectors like: ag and food tech, biotech, pharma, life science, energy, fintech, quantum and advanced computing, tourism, sports and hospitality,” Mayor Scott Wehrli said in his State of the City address this year.

If the council decided to focus on the corridor, city staff would work with a consultant to conduct a land use study, Gallahue said. It would ultimately assign a “general place or character description” to corridor areas. Staff would then create a map that would serve as a guide to target specific development.

Following the map’s creation, Gallahue said, a city-led zoning evaluation would have to be completed to determine if any municipal code changes are needed.

Currently, “there is a disconnect between what zoning permits in that area and what the development requests are that we're seeing come in,” Louden said.

She added, “One of the things that we hear a lot about is residential.”

The AECOM report said the corridor needs a cohesive strategy that includes targeted incentives for high-quality, mixed-use development, including flexible zoning, updated infrastructure and streamlined permitting. Without that, “the market will continue to deliver mostly moderate-density residential and single-use commercial in a ‘sea’ of parking.”