Open-space advocates vowed Monday night they would continue to seek additional funds to buy a 33-acre site at 31st Street and Highland Avenue to keep a developer from building 166 townhouses there.
With approval last month of a referendum initiative allowing the Downers Grove Park District to kick in $3 million toward purchase of the property, open-space advocates and conservationists said they were working with several groups and seeking state and private funds to buy the parcel, which is adjacent to the Lyman Woods nature area. The $3 million would be available only if advocates find additional funding sources, officials noted.
Village plan commissioners and members of the Zoning Board of Appeals last month unanimously approved Town and Country Homes’ final site plan for the property.
Commissioners on Monday began reviewing plans for the development, airing concerns about storm water management, vegetation removal and the long-term effects of a zoning change to the property.
Members of the Pierce Downers’ Heritage Alliance, an open-space advocacy group, want to buy the parcel and maintain it in its natural state. But that purchase may remain only a dream.
The developers have said that the property is worth at least $14 million and that the 12-vote margin by which the March referendum issue was approved indicates that residents are unlikely to approve the release of any more money for the purchase of the land.
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But alliance members say they will study zoning laws carefully in an attempt to prevent construction at the site.
Even if the money were available, Town and Country has never offered to sell the property, officials noted.