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Naperville seeking compromise, certainty about Little Friends land sale

Naperville officials are confronting a "chicken-or-egg" dilemma over a request to rezone a property within a historic district for use by North Central College.

So the decision of whether to grant college and university district zoning to the nonprofit Little Friends site along Wright Street and Franklin Avenue - that would allow the college to expand its campus and help Little Friends move to a larger facility in Warrenville - is going to take more time.

City council members on Tuesday delayed a vote on potential rezoning until their June 18 meeting, with some saying they'd like more time to forge a compromise.

The debate involves neighbors, who want more details on what the college intends to build; preservationists, who want to keep the historic Peter Kroehler house on the property; and college leaders, who say they will need new zoning and permission to demolish the Kroehler house in order to buy and make use of the land.

Neighbors say traffic and parking could change if North Central were to own the 4-acre site at 140 N. Wright St. instead of Little Friends, which operates a school for students with autism and other disabilities.

College President Troy Hammond has said the early idea is to use the land for a new graduate-level health sciences building. But neighbors say they want more specifics.

"I would like to see a college plan for what they intend to build there before they're given any different zoning," nearby resident Patricia Adamski said.

That's not feasible for the college, said Jim Godo, assistant vice president for external affairs.

"Without the zoning, we can't invest in the time or the resources to do anything with the property," Godo said, "and we would think differently about our graduate health sciences."

The situation is stuck "in a lock," council member Theresa Sullivan said, because a site plan is not required in order to seek rezoning.

Even if North Central were to submit a site plan now, it wouldn't be binding, said Allison Laff, deputy director of transportation, engineering and development.

That's why Sullivan called the decision of whether to rezone the land from its residential designation a "chicken-or-egg" problem. She, along with council members Kevin Coyne and Paul Hinterlong, suggested the council take time to strike a compromise about land use and the Kroehler house to provide more "certainty about what's going to be built."

Four buildings occupy the site now, but at a community meeting in January, Hammond said the college sees "nothing really that's salvageable and useful." To remove old buildings, the college would need a certificate of appropriateness from the historic preservation commission because the structures are within a historic district.

The idea of razing the home of Kroehler, president of a bygone furniture company bearing his name, was troubling to Hinterlong. He predicted preservationists will rally to keep it as they did with the old Nichols Library.

"I'd like to save the house," Hinterlong said. "We're in the middle of a historic district and we're going to get rid of one of the most historic structures we have in that district? What good is a historic district?"

Officials say the proposed ownership change of the land would be a classic win-win, benefiting Little Friends and North Central College.

"What about a win for the neighborhood as well?" Hinterlong said. "That's where we need to get to."

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Naperville college envisions health sciences facility on Little Friends site

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

Naperville panel supports rezoning Little Friends property

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