Batavia officials and residents are feeling iffy about a new residential development on the site of the former Siemens-Furnas factory, west of Chicago.
Pulte Home Company has proposed building 70 single-family homes at McKee Street and Van Nortwick Avenue, which would require a zoning change from its current mixed-use designation that could include residential, retail or office buildings to high-density residential use, the Daily Herald reported.
Pulte presented its plans before Batavia officials Tuesday to gauge their interest in accommodating the necessary zoning change. Matt Brolley, Pulte’s director of land planning and entitlements, said the development would target move-up buyers, or people who are ready to upgrade from smaller, lower-priced houses.
The homes, ranging between 2,400 and 3,200 square feet and rising two stories, would be priced at around $600,000, an number that gave some officials sticker shock and thus pause over whether to support the proposal.
“How are we drawing younger people into Batavia?” Ald. Mark Uher said during the meeting. “I would rather see something that is going to allow for the Gen Z to Millennials to be able to get into our community.”
On the other hand, Ald. Nick Cerone said the market for Pulte’s proposed homes must be strong enough that the firm believes they would draw offers that profit the builder.
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Ald. Christopher Solfa was also opposed to the development, questioning the idea of “giant “houses on little tiny postage-stamp lots.”
One nearby resident criticized the “cookie-cutter” designs of the houses, adding that the community would stick out like a sore thumb in an area filled with charming, older homes. Other residents expressed concerns over the traffic it would cause around H.C. Storm Elementary School, the outlet reported.
Siemens-Furnas plant was on the southern half of the property from the 1940s until it shut down in 2006. The structures were torn down in 2009. Officials blocked a townhouse plan for the northern portion of the site in 2002, the outlet reported.
— Quinn Donoghue