The Oswego Planning and Zoning Commission recently recommended approval of a townhome development that was delayed after the 2008 housing crash.
Commissioners forwarded the recommendation for approval to the Oswego Village Board, which has the final say on the project.
Representatives of Pine Ridge Club B are proposing to build 113 townhome units on about 22.53 acres at the northeast and northwest corners of Mill Road and Heatherwood Drive in Oswego.
The builder is proposing to “retrofit” a site designed for a different product with new, marketable townhome units, Oswego Assistant Development Services Director Rachel Riemenschneider said in a report to commissioners.
The proposed project includes 31 single-story attached ranch villas targeting customers who want to live on one floor, a housing need identified in the village’s latest housing study. The proposal also includes 82 conventional two-story townhomes, she said.
Although the site is vacant, it does have underground utilities as part of the previously approved plans for Pine Ridge Club A, Riemenschneider said in the report.
The final planned unit development and plat for Pine Ridge Club were approved in 2005, which permitted 16 condo buildings, with 16 units each, for a total of 256 units. There were two sites identified for future multi-family apartment buildings as well, Riemenschneider said.
Construction began and the first four 16-unit condo buildings and the clubhouse were built before the 2008 recession halted the project, the village planner said.
“The site has remained undeveloped since that time,” Riemenschneider told the group.
The current petitioner is proposing a site plan for Pine Ridge Club B that reduces the overall number of units, while maintaining the general layout of existing utilities and approved streets, Riemenschneider said.
The proposal is to build the remainder of the neighborhood with 113 townhome units, she said.
Representing Naperville-based Silverthorne Homes at the planning commission meeting was Carrie Hansen, director of Planning and Government Services for Oswego-based Schoppe Design Associates, Inc.
Various uses, including attached single-unit dwellings for the future Tuscany Station and business districts, surround the site, Hansen said.
“The first four buildings for 64 units and the clubhouse were constructed on the west portion of the property and then in 2008 everything grinded to a halt,” Hansen said. “The village’s 2015 comprehensive plan identifies multi-family residential use for this property. Our request complies with this designation.”
Hansen said the “proposed plan has two townhome product lines.”
“We have 31 one-story village townhomes in the southeast portion of the property and 82 two-story conventional townhomes on the remainder,” she said.
The proposal is for 113 townhome units versus the 192 remaining approved condos given the green light in the original 2005 plan, she said.
“That’s a reduction of a minimum of 79 units and that does not count the undefined number of apartment units. It’s a reduction in density of approximately 8.5 dwelling units per acre for the approved plan versus the 5.0 dwelling units per acre on the 22.53 acres for the proposed plan,” Hansen said.
Commissioners forwarded a recommendation for approval to the Village Board.
“Hopefully, everything works out and we’ll end up with a nice development where there’s an eyesore of an open field right now,” Oswego Planning and Zoning Commission Chair Charlie Pajor said.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
