I have also witnessed the voting on this issue by the individual CC
members after they have listened to various proposals by both sides.
What I have not heard is the CC member's individual reasoning as to what
determined their vote particularly the 5 who voted to support the developer. It
is not clear to me what persuaded them to vote in favor of the developer who
knew the situation when he purchased the property. Do we know what their
respective rationale has been in determining how each of them voted?

If we had insight into their individual thought process, it might give
us some insight into how some of us will vote during the next election?

RZ



.... so I stopped by city hall around 9:25PM and I saw a woman leaving and she said we were soundly defeated. .... They will probably start cutting down trees this week and begin excavating next week. A win for the BIG GUYS who wear black hats. I wish I could have heard what went on behind closed doors

BR



Just back from tonight's unfortunate proceedings...I feel as if I
should have worked harder to persuade xxxx I think he was the swing vote
here, not yyyyy and certainly not zzzzz whose initial motion to me was
clearly window dressing.

GB

I watched the city council meeting from home last night and was disgusted with the outcome. I was born and raised in Naperville and have resided here for 27 years. It is sad to see every last bit of land getting built up with over priced condos. To me only a few people actually gain from these transactions and that happens to be the builders. What appalled me from last night's meeting was that Mr. Werhli is related to the owner of Crestview builders and Mr. Werhli was the swing vote.

I understand that the city doesn't want to pick up the burden of buying park space but by changing the zoning to multi-family homes hasn't the land just tripled in value? I understand they voted for an amendment to appraise the land as single family homes but Crestview builders doesn't have to follow that appraisal, correct? They would sell the land at their own appraised value. Is it still feasible for us to come up with the money in the next six months? If I can help in the pursuit to save this space please let me know.

LW




Oh, that's JUST what we need in Naperville! MORE density!!

SW




I can not believe that these people screwed you guys the way they did. They iced you for a couple of months ( to let the people forget about what way going on) and then stuck it to you ….

TH

.... if anyone is expecting a sudden change in the wind - they can watch as ground breaks in June. This has been planned for sometime and we never stood a chance of winning.

JU




... I did watch on TV....what a joke...vote, no vote, what are we doing....it definitely seemed something was decided before they even walked into the chamber...

LJ




We totally agree with your puzzlement about the final vote when members seemed to want green space.

MZS

Two quotes come to mind – “You can’t fight City Hall” and “You can’t beat the system”. I see no motivation for any council member to approve the zoning change for one individual over the documented wishes of 1000 concerned neighbors who more than justified their position and expressed much more than a passing interest in this property. I just have to shake my head.

GS

.... however, I am shocked the City council decided to approve the rezoning
request against the recommendation of the planning commission. It is a nice
piece of property and you can be sure the council was thinking tax revenue.
It would be interesting to know what additional options may be available so
please keep us up to date.

S

How could one have faith in the "so called" democratic process? There was no discussion of the evidence presented by us; furthermore, it was ignored not only by most of the council, but by the committee ( for one example, there still was no reply from Judy Biggert). The city planners also ignored the evidence and presented a subjective, flawed report. The council listened to their distortion of the evidence.

I consider the vote a disaster and a desecration of the land. It is unfortunate that in this case that science and politics did not blend.

MB.

What a meeting! I had to watch from home and was astonished also. I was counting each vote, and I think they were both 4-5. Minutes will tell for sure.

I also can't see why Mr. Wehrli didn't abstain based on principle! If this had not been rezoned, Mr. Wehrli's relative could lose his shirt on the property he purchased without a contingency.

Anyway, if they truly wanted to keep it as open space and not have it developed, why did they go ahead and change the zoning? Now this made it worth what Crestview paid for it! Now it will be harder to buy the property back, since the value just went up with the rezoning!

Are 4 of them blind--I'm excluding Mr. Wehrli because he is just understandably biased. Does having a relative on the City Council make one immune to taking a bath when making a bad investment decision? Any prudent realtor or lawyer would have advised Crestview to only buy the property with the contingency that they were able to get the property rezoned.

CS

I was able to absorb the theatrical nonsense via our Naperville cable channel. Without sounding like a total cynic, I was blown away by our city officials totally discounting a petition of over 1000 of their constituents. It’s beyond belief that little to no discussion was afforded the many concerned citizens by our council members. For each council member to not fully explain the justification of their given voting (logic) was shameful!

Here’s the cynic in me … they were (are) gutless politicians! Where was the justification for overriding the current zoning? Did the petitioner prove their case in a dominant manner? NO, THEY DID NOT! Does the Mayor ever share his reasons for the way he votes? Not once did he share his “reasons” for voting the way he did. Why he is not held accountable for his voting decisions baffles me. The good citizen (I don’t recall his name) who stood up to the council and asked that Mr. Wehrli be removed from voting on this matter … should be applauded! The last time I checked, the old saying about blood being thicker than water still holds great credibility. To state that he, Mr. Wehrli has no financial gain in this matter (and all other insane reasons that were offered up) was an insult to everyone who stood against the rezoning of this parcel of land. Simply stated, Mr. Wehrli is related to one of the investors who are requesting the change in zoning. That should have been enough reason for Mr. Wehrli to remove himself! He repeatedly chose not to remove himself (which would have been the honorable thing to do) throughout the course of these debates. The facts speak for themselves; look at the way he voted!

To witness the infighting that took place between the councilmen was both sad and hilarious. To have our city “officials” hand THEIR citizens an unjustifiable loss is simply disgraceful. To lose to an investment team looking to fatten their wallets saddens me to the core.

I don’t mind losing … I just want to understand how I lost and to know that it was a fair fight! This “fight” was void of logic and, as a sad result; there will be no understanding the loss!

BL

The other night while working into the wee hours in the upstairs office of our home, my husband heard something - turned out to be a Great Horned Owl perched on the peak of the neighbor`s house. He could see it in the bright moonlight. The next day he told me about it and then remarked that perhaps that owl lives across the road and if they chop down the trees he will have to search for a new neighborhood and we shall not see him or others again. Sad. It did seem so hopeful and then it crashed.
CE

What a shame. I have felt all along that they were just humoring us and Mr. Brestal and his gang would manage to push yet another deal through for some developer who wants to cram as many houses and people as he can on every lot left available in Naperville. Oh well. Wish I could have done more ...I plan to e-mail the council people, at least.

SW

I am disappointed in the city council's response to our efforts to prevent our neighborhood from becoming more densely populated. It seems to me that we need more votes on the city council that are friendly to citizens and not developers and I would support anyone who I could count on to keep Naperville "people friendly", not "developer friendly."

DG

I am incredibly disappointed by the outcome of the last city council meeting. ... my husband and I were among those MAJORITY who signed the petition AGAINST the zoning change. The fact that the elected officials did not really uphold the wishes of the majority of the constituency was disappointing at best and despicable at worst. It does make one wonder about our so called "democracy". I believe it is instead, perhaps, a democracy of the dollars...who can put more money ahead of the popular vote. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that illegal? Even if it is done often over lunches, dinners, drinks, etc., often at the very same tax payer expense, it surely does not make it right. How sad. And angering.

Why isn't the newspaper doing some follow-up on this, expressing outrage that our neighborhoods are being bullied by the developers who have city representatives in their pockets? Just wondering if we were all trying to tow the party line and play nice? I have not been able to attend the city council meetings, but that does not mean I am not interested in this issue. I can't believe that the city council can throw money away that the taxpayers obviously did not want to spend on the carillon, and then turn around and allow zoning changes to occur when the majority was against it. Two supreme issues that were both diminished by the city council who did just what they wanted, not what their constituents wanted. What a sham. What a shame.

CC




..... I'm furious. What I'd like to know is why they are not
listening to their constituents that are going to have to deal with the
traffic congestion and more buildings to look at. We overwhelming told them
NO via the petitions and our appearances at the meetings. We will remember
this come election time and will be sure to vote for people that will listen
to us. The traffic is getting worse and worse and we are all fed up with it.
Yet, they keep building and building and the streets can't handle the
traffic. ... It's a disaster. Naperville is very popular but not for
long, if this keeps up.

And what about the wildlife? People have fits now if there is a duck or
goose on their property. Where do they expect the wildlife to go?

I am livid. I've been here 16 years and it just keeps getting worse and
worse. And they obviously don't care what we think. All they care about is
$$$. And you know it changed hands or the vote wouldn't have gone the way it
did.

VT