The Oswego Planning and Zoning Commission recently recommended the Oswego Village Board review the density of a proposed 345-unit residential development.
The Drake Group is proposing to build 219 townhome units and 126 detached single-family homes on about 80 acres of vacant land south of Wolf’s Crossing Road and east of Douglas Road in unincorporated Kendall County.
If the petitioner moves forward with the project, they would submit an application for annexation, rezoning and subdivision which would require a public hearing at the Planning and Zoning Commission and review by the Village Board, officials said.
The proposed use is consistent with the Oswego Comprehensive Plan, Village Planner Rachel Riemenschneider said in her report to Planning and Zoning Commission members.
“The overall density is 4.23 units per acre which is consistent with density in the area,” Riemenschneider said.
While commissioners were in favor of the concept plan, they did have concerns about the number of units given the size of the property.
“I do not like the density,” Commissioner Rick Kuhn said.
Commissioners after some discussion did forward a positive recommendation of the concept plan to village trustees. However, the motion included a request to reduce the density of the overall project.
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This is the developer’s first planned project in Oswego.
“For the past 25 years, my company’s mission has been to create high-quality, inspirational homes,” Tom Drake of the Glenview-based Drake Group told commissioners.
He said the company has built a range of residential developments from $200,000 condominiums to multi-million homes in the Chicago area, Indiana and southwest Michigan.
Drake said his company was selected to redevelop Glenview’s former Village Hall and the village selected the group to develop another parcel in downtown Glenview.
“We have been recognized in our home community,” he told commissioners. “We are privately held and introduce projects that have elevated design and quality construction. Our concept for this community in Oswego is an attractive well-designed community that meets the needs of today’s residents and provides a high level of amenities.”
Pricing for the units has not been set, Drake said.
“We do not have our pricing finalized as yet. We do need to be competitively priced in order to sell but we will be at the upper end of the market,” Drake said.
Village planners said The Drake Group is proposing a stubbed street to the south, which village staff said should align with the stubbed street in the proposed Saddlebrook Farm development.
The plan also provides for a right-of-way dedication for the future widening of Wolf’s Crossing Road, village officials said.
“On the single-family side on the north end we will be dedicating 90 feet of land for the expansion of Wolf’s Crossing Road,” said the developer’s land planner, Mike Schoppe of Schoppe Design Associates of Oswego.
“The townhomes are three-, four-, five- and six-unit buildings. There will be a variety of them,” Schoppe said.
The densities proposed are 2.3 units per acre for the single-family portion and 8.5 units per acre for the townhome portion, according to Riemenschneider.
Kuhn said is is concerned that Oswego is seeing “a cookie-cutter design” with developments coming into the village.
“We have got to have some mixture. That’s an intense use for this property,” Kuhn said of the proposed development. “I feel that way about the other properties being developed.”
He said he is “not opposed to development” but is “not in favor of letting development pack as much on every parcel that we approve and I don’t see a whole lot of discussion about it.”
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.