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Reviews beginning on sale of Little Friends land to North Central College

Public reviews of the planned sale of the Little Friends property in Naperville to North Central College are about to get started.

The Naperville historic preservation commission is scheduled to review the college's request to change the zoning of the nonprofit organization's 4-acre site at 140 N. Wright St. to "college and university district" during a meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in room B on the lower level of the municipal center at 400 S. Eagle St.

Because the Little Friends property is within the city's historic district, the commission is asked to make a recommendation that will be passed along to the planning and zoning commission and eventually to the city council. The council could approve the new zoning designation within the next several months to allow the sale of the land, which the college and the nonprofit agency plan to complete in January 2020.

The proposed rezoning has the support of city staff members, planner Gabrielle Mattingly wrote in a memo, saying the change is consistent with objectives spelled out in North Central College's master land use plan for 2010 to 2020.

In the plan, the college said it would keep an eye on the Little Friends site two blocks east of its campus, and if the agency ever wanted to move, North Central could help by buying the land.

College President Troy Hammond said during a neighborhood meeting in January that the college anticipates demolishing the four buildings on the site, which were built around 1915 and 1945. He said the early idea is to build a new health sciences facility to add academic programs in the booming field.

Any demolition or construction the college proposes would need approval from the historic preservation commission in the form of a certificate of appropriateness. But with no specific plan formulated, the college is seeking only the zoning change.

Meanwhile, Little Friends, which serves people with autism and developmental disabilities with a school, adult day services and residential services, is beginning its own approval process through the city of Warrenville to facilitate its planned move to 27555 Diehl Road.

Mike Briggs, Little Friends CEO, said the 71,000-square-foot building, now occupied by the Edward-Elmhurst Sleep Center, will allow expansion from 51,000 square feet on the current campus.

Warrenville meetings to consider Little Friends' request to change the use of the Diehl Road site from industrial to educational are expected to begin in April, Briggs said. Aside from submitting three applications, he said Little Friends also has to complete a topographical study.

"We have to show how the playground will fit in the courtyard," Briggs said.

If Naperville and Warrenville grant necessary approvals and the land sale is finalized, 2020 will become the second time North Central has owned the Little Friends site. The college bought it in 1945 and began using it for dorms, but started leasing it to Little Friends in 1975 and sold it to the nonprofit in 1989.

The two organizations have agreed on a purchase price but have not made it public.

College plans to buy nonprofit's property

Naperville college envisions health sciences facility on Little Friends site

  The Little Friends campus, a 4-acre site at 140 N. Wright St. in Naperville's historic district, is set to be sold to nearby North Central College as the school and service agency for people with autism and developmental disabilities plans to move to a new site in Warrenville. Marie Wilson/mwilson@dailyherald.com
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