The Aurora City Council is considering rezoning and preliminary plans for a townhome subdivision near Eola Road that neighbors are concerned will add to already heavy traffic in the area.
Aldermen will vote at next week’s regular City Council meeting on a plan for 54 townhouse units on a 22-acre site off Old Eola Road where the building for the former WBIG and WMRO radio stations sits. Old Eola Road runs just to the west of Eola Road.
The 54 units of between 1,883 square feet and 2,508 square feet with three and four bedrooms would be built by Pulte Homes, a large nationwide home builder with developments in both Aurora and Naperville.
Caitlin Csuk, a Naperville-based attorney for Pulte, said the proposed subdivision plan has been configured to fit into a small, specific space, and includes a lot of landscaping, screening from neighboring residences and plans to try to improve traffic conditions.
“This plan has been in the works for quite some time,” she said.
But residents nearby, including in the Aventine at Oakhurst North Apartments, said they are afraid the proposed subdivision would add to already heavy traffic problems at the entrance to the subdivision off Eola Road.
The proposed new subdivision would have one entrance and exit, at Waterstone Drive and Eola Road, which has no traffic control at it. Residents said making a left turn onto Eola, which must be done through a median, is impossible at times, dangerous almost all the time.
Michael and Jeanine Keating, who live in the Riverstone subdivision, said the intersection is impossible during peak hours.
“It’s one of the most accident-prone intersections,” Jeanine Keating said.
Another nearby resident said his 17-year-old son, who has just started driving, has to make the turn driving to school every morning.
“That is my worry the most,” the resident said. “I have him text me every day to tell me he got there.”
The residents were backed up by the traffic engineer who studied the intersection for Pulte.
“It’s very difficult to make a left turn there, there’s no sugarcoating it,” he said.
Some residents also said they are concerned about the developer removing mature trees on the site, setbacks and screening from neighboring residences.
Csuk said the developer will try to keep mature trees, removing only invasive species. She also said the developer has agreed to both side yard and back yard setbacks that are greater than would be required by city ordinance. The developer also is putting up a six-foot-high fence, she said.
Csuk said the developer has agreed to widen Waterstone Drive and create more definitive right- and left-turn lanes, hoping to make the turn safer.
She said Pulte has talked to DuPage County, which has jurisdiction over Eola Road, about the possibility of a traffic light at the intersection. It is just on the other side of the Eola bridge over the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks from a light that is at the entrance to a shopping mall.
She county officials did not seem supportive of a light at Waterstone, saying it is not warranted, but she said the developers “are supportive.”
That prompted Ald. Edward Bugg, 9th Ward, to wonder if the city is moving ahead with the development plans too quickly.
“We may be moving too fast,” he said. “We don’t know what DuPage County’s going to do.”
Ald. Shweta Baid, 10th Ward, suggested the developer do more traffic studies at peak hours, such as morning hours when school buses are out, and early evening between 4 and 5 p.m.
One thing residents, the developer and the city agreed on is the rezoning change for the property, which currently is zoned for M-1 manufacturing. As part of the plans, the developer wants the land rezoned to R-4 residential.
“If this doesn’t go here, we don’t know what could go here,” said Ald. Patty Smith, 8th Ward.
slord@tribpub.com
