The Oswego Planning and Zoning Commission recently recommended denial of concept plans to redevelop the old Traughber Junior High School site in the village into a 239-unit residential project.
The commission’s primary concern at its meeting earlier this month was the density of the proposed redevelopment project.
Oswego officials said the developer is working on site plan modifications based on public feedback before bringing the proposal to the Village Board, which has the final say on the project.
The development is proposed for a 12.34-acre property – owned by Oswego-based School District 308 – at the northeast corner of Route 71 and Washington Street within relatively close proximity to the downtown.
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The site includes the former Traughber Junior High School building, which would be razed as part of the proposed development.
JM Development – a joint venture – was seeking the pulse of the Oswego Planning and Zoning Commission about the project.
“We are a design-oriented developer,” representative Michael Poulakidas said at the commission meeting earlier this month, adding projects locally have included renovating the old Lincoln and Todd schools in Aurora into affordable housing.
The development team for the project includes JTE Real Estate Services and Cordogan Clark & Associates architectural and planning firm, he said.
“We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with the school district and village to create a fantastic development there,” Poulakidas said. “We are very adept at presenting good multi-family projects.”
“We know this is very preliminary,” Poulakidas said of the plans.
The concept plans are for three types of housing at the site, Oswego Development Services Director Rod Zenner told commissioners.
Along the south side of the site adjacent to Route 71 would be two five-story buildings containing a total of 128 residential units, according to the plan. The first level would have indoor parking and amenities with the top four floors containing residential units.
To the east and west of the five-story buildings would be four three-story residential buildings containing 88 units. On the north end of the property would be 23 two-story townhome units in six buildings, Zenner said of the plan.
The property is surrounded by single-family homes to the north, south and east with some commercial businesses, homes and a church to the west, officials said.
At the meeting, Oswego Planning and Zoning Commissioner Justin Sather inquired about the height of some of the proposed buildings. The concept plan is for the two five-story buildings to be about 60 feet tall. The old school building on the site is approximately 45 feet tall, the developer said.
“I don’t think any of these buildings should be any taller than the existing Traughber building so it fits in with the community,” Sather said.
“The development would be fine in some farm field somewhere,” he said. “If you’re familiar with the area, none of this looks like it should fit,” he said to applause from residents in the audience at the meeting.
“This is the transition to our downtown,” Sather said about the site to the developer. “This is another cookie-cutter development that is shoehorned into what is supposed to be our historic, nice downtown.”
Oswego Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Charlie Pajor asked the audience to refrain from “long bouts of applause” but he, too, was concerned about the density of the proposed project.
“I get the sense, from what I’m hearing from my fellow commissioners, that this is tremendously out of scale to the neighborhood,” Pajor said.
School District 308 relocated Traughber students to a new building several years ago. Since that time the site has been used for some school activities, and the former school building once was the location for the YMCA and Oswego Senior Center as well.
The school district has marketed the property over the years. Several potential buyers were interested in reuse of the site, including Resurrection Church of the Fox Valley in 2019, which has a storefront church near Fox Valley Mall in Aurora.
However, it was determined that proposal would have been cost prohibitive based on the condition of the existing structure on the site and the need for upgrades including a fire protection sprinkler system and fire hydrants.
A previous proposal to convert the vacant school building into senior housing and to maintain the Oswego Senior Center at the site fell through in 2018.
The school district issued a request for proposals earlier this year to encourage creative ideas, district officials said.
“It’s really a way to create an arms-length between the district and the project and to make it a fair process,” School District 308 Superintendent Andalib Kheighati told commissioners.
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Some commissioners described the school district’s involvement as a “unique process” since it involved the district issuing requests for proposals.
“We have a situation where we need to make a decision about a property that has become an albatross,” the superintendent said of the investment required by the district each year to maintain the site.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.