by Susan O’Neill
ELBURN—Proposed Shodeen development Elburn Station will be a topic for discussion at the Elburn Village Board’s first meeting in 2013.
Village trustee Ethan Hastert on Monday asked for the discussion to take place at the next regularly scheduled meeting, set for Monday, Jan. 7, 2013.
“We all heard from residents about their issues with the development,” Hastert said. “If we can address those with Shodeen, we’ll end up with a better development.”
Hastert said these issues include the number of non-owner-occupied housing units, or rentals, as well as the density within the development.
The current plan for the development calls for 800 rental units, with the ratio of rental units to the overall number of housing units at 36 percent. According to trustee Bill Grabarek, who made the motion in October to table the discussions regarding the development, the village is currently 84.5 percent owner-occupied and 15.4 percent rental units.
Hastert said he doesn’t see who wins if the board lets the development die.
The board on Oct. 16 tabled the vote on the Elburn Station development until the Anderson Road Bridge was built. Hastert was one of three trustees who voted against tabling it. He said at the time that, although he shared some of the other trustees’ concerns about the density of the development, he would rather deal with it than “kick it down the road.”
Hastert on Monday said the village can get on with addressing the infrastructure issue, referring to the Anderson Road extension and bridge. This project has been on hold since the board tabled discussions regarding the residential development.
The road extension was to be used as a bypass for Route 47, diverting truck traffic around Main Street in Elburn.
Shodeen owns the property for the right-of-way for the bridge. The plan to extend Anderson Road from Route 38 to Keslinger Road and build a bridge over the railroad tracks has been connected to the approval of the Elburn Station development.
Kane County had agreed to pay $3 million of the $22 million road and bridge project, with the majority of the remaining amount coming from federal and state funding.
DeKalb resident shares concerns about proposed Shodeen development
A DeKalb resident attended Monday night’s Elburn Village Board meeting to share some information regarding a potential Shodeen development in her city.
According to Bessie Chronopoulos, approximately 40 acres of land within the Kiwanis Park was being considered for development. She said that more than 600 residents have signed a petition voicing their opposition to the development of park land.
Chronopoulos said that, in their research, DeKalb residents came upon information regarding Shodeen’s potential development in Elburn. She said they also found the Elburn village website, with its motto of “Better, not just bigger.”
“I like that,” she said.
“Why, we ask, with several empty houses, approved developments, which have stopped short of completion, and an overabundance of multiple housing, why are we looking at approving more housing?” Chronopoulos read from a prepared statement. “Sounds like we should all be reflecting and communicating more regularly about housing … at the local, county and, perhaps, regional level.”
