Trustees make counter-offer on Elburn Station
To try to get the Elburn Station development back on track, the village board has proposed some changes to make it more palatable to trustees.
Village President Dave Anderson suggested doing so, and will present the ideas to Shodeen Inc., the owner and developer of the site.
He pushed the board this week to give specific numbers for the amount of multifamily housing it could support, after a trustee asked for more time to mull options others had suggested.
“I think it is time to get back to the developer. and maybe he is going to say ‘I am not interested in all of this,'” Anderson said.
The board is looking for Shodeen to pay half the cost of a pedestrian bridge over the Union Pacific railroad tracks, near the Metra station. Since the bridge hasn't been designed, no cost has been determined. Based on other pedestrian bridges built in Kane County, however, the board estimates it could cost as much as $1 million.
The board also wants guarantees that 85 percent of the work in Phase I will be done before work starts on Phase II, and 85 percent of Phase II done before work on Phase III. Trustees want to avoid what happened in the Blackberry Creek subdivision, parts of which were platted before initial phases were finished with construction. The Blackberry Creek developer and homebuilders ran into financial difficulties during the recession, and work came to a standstill. The occupied parts of the subdivision are dotted with empty, weedy lots. The village just signed off on an agreement with the company that issued performance bonds on the project to finish roads, sidewalks and retention ponds.
The phasing restrictions would also ensure that single-family housing is built before the multifamily.
The board is willing to allow 600 multifamily apartment-style units, if at least 200 are age-restricted housing for seniors.
The developer's proposal called for about 800 units, with no age restrictions, plus about 1,200 single-family homes.
Shodeen President Dave Patzelt said in January the company is willing to listen to the board's ideas. But it is not moving off its position that the development must be approved before it sells rights of way to Kane County for an extension of Anderson Road, which would bisect the site.
The development would sit in 682 acres between Hughes Road and Route 38. It would include stores and light industrial uses. If built out as planned, the development would likely double Elburn's population.
A vote on the annexation agreement was tabled in October. The board will discuss the plan again at 7 p.m. Monday.