Aurora's new 'smart neighborhood': Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity, Nicor Gas break ground
Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity and Nicor Gas broke ground Tuesday on a 17-home "smart neighborhood" subdivision aiming to provide affordability through energy efficiency.
Heated with natural gas, the homes, in a neighborhood on Aurora's far west side, will include LED lighting, double pane windows, insulated concrete form walls, tankless water heaters and gas heat pumps. The buildings will also have solar panels and battery storage systems to store the renewable energy.
Though the homes are designed to offset emissions through the combination of energy efficient construction and solar energy, the buildings will not be emission-free due to their use of natural gas, which is considered a fossil fuel.
"We all know that affordable housing is sorely needed in our community and our nation. A large part of tackling this issue is finding sustainable solutions to many of the costs that keep families from owning and staying in homes, and so I really commend Nicor Gas and Habitat for Humanity for looking to do just that," said U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, a Naperville Democrat who represents Illinois' 11th district.
Foster, a Ph.D. physicist who serves on the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, added that he was particularly impressed with the subdivision's energy recovery ventilation design.
A decades-long struggle in construction has been that if a house is extremely well-insulated, the air inside gets stale and an issue with air quality arises. But if the air is exchanged using traditional methods, the building loses the benefit of all that insulation. The solution is an energy recovery system, which allows inside air to heat the cooler incoming air in the winter and to cool the warmer incoming air in the summer.
"This allows you to keep the house warm with a lot less energy, and it's one of the ways that you can make the indoor air environment better without damaging the world's environment by increasing the carbon footprint," Foster said. "These homes are also better served as a symbol of our commitment to building a more sustainable and affordable clean energy future, and I really couldn't be more proud of the fact that this is happening right here in Aurora."
The subdivision will be at 1921 Jericho Road on the northwest corner of Jericho Road and South Edgelawn Drive. Expected to be complete in three years, the neighborhood will comprise 1,500- to 1,700-square-foot homes of six different designs.
The development, which will cost approximately $5.5 million, was approved by the Aurora City Council in January. The acquisition of the 8.5-acre site in September 2021 was funded by grants from Nicor Gas and Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity.
An additional $1.25 million federal Housing and Urban Development grant will fund the infrastructure for the neighborhood, such as water and sewer lines, utilities, streets, sidewalks and stormwater mitigation.
Since Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1988, it has built or upgraded 70 homes in Aurora, North Aurora, Batavia and Montgomery. To apply for a Habitat home, potential homeowners must have a need for affordable housing due to unsafe living conditions, overcrowding, accessibility issues or rent higher than 30% of their income.
"We're going to see in this smart neighborhood everything coming together with all the latest technology. Normally when that happens, who gets that? Who gets the benefit of all of that? It's the wealthiest in the community, the ones who can afford it," said State Sen. Linda Holmes. "In this neighborhood, it's those that just want the ability to have a home and raise their family that are going to have that opportunity in their first home to raise their family and become additional members of this community."
Nicor Gas is working with another Habitat affiliate, Northern Fox Valley Habitat, to create a similar, 13-home subdivision in Carpentersville. The project, still in its early stages, is slated for development in 2024.
• Jenny Whidden is a climate change and environment writer working with the Daily Herald through a partnership with Report For America supported by The Nature Conservancy. To help support her work with a tax-deductible donation, see dailyherald.com/rfa.