The Naperville City Council paved the way this week for Pulte Homes to begin construction on the proposed 401-unit Polo Club residential subdivision on what is now the city’s new southern border.
After authorizing a new boundary agreement with Plainfield, the council Tuesday annexed 110 acres of former polo grounds into the city and gave Pulte the go-ahead to build 252 single-family homes, 149 town houses, a park and two multiuse playing fields on 119th Street between Route 59 and Book Road.
The biggest point of contention from people who live near the development has been Hawkweed Drive, the road that connects the Polo Club to the South Pointe subdivision.
South Pointe residents over the past year have told the city repeatedly that traffic backs up along the two-lane, rural 119th Street during rush hour, and their fear is westbound motorists will cut through the Polo Club and South Pointe subdivisions to avoid waiting for the light at Route 59.
In November, the council determined a gate should be placed on Hawkweed Drive for the next five years or until the development is built out to prevent construction traffic from using roads in South Pointe.
On Tuesday dozens of residents appealed to the council to keep the gate closed until 119th Street is widened, which could take a decade.
Councilman Paul Hinterlong said the streets are public and “everyone has the right to use them.”
The concern voiced by Hinterlong and Councilwoman Jennifer Bruzan Taylor is that when time is of the essence, emergency vehicles would have to stop and cut the lock to get through the gate.
Bill Novack, director of the Transportation, Engineering and Development department, in November said the city will take traffic counts before and after the gate opens to assess the situation.
If the area is flooded with traffic, he said, the city can apply various traffic calming measures to address the problem.
If those methods don’t work, the city’s Transportation Advisory Board and the council can revisit reclosing the gate, he added.
Mayor Steve Chirico said he wanted to open Hawkweed Drive immediately, but was sympathetic to concerns about construction traffic.
If residents want to avoid cars cutting through their neighborhood streets, the city should return to its plans to extend Book Road from 119th to 111th streets, he said.
“Members of your community lobbied hard against that solution and were successful,” Chirico said.
From a planning standpoint, that was a mistake, he said, “but that’s part of the compromise for this subdivision.”
To help spur long-term improvements to 119th Street, Pulte will pay the $500,000 needed for the first phase of the engineering study.