Hi All!
Jim
Berg, a Hobson West resident, has contacted an acquaintance at the Conservation
Foundation concerning this case and received an encouraging response.
Doug
Dallmer
-----
Original Message -----
From:
Jim Berg
To:
Furstenaur@naperville.il.us ; mayor@naperville.il.us ;
Boyajianj@naperville.il.us ; ellingsonm@naperville.il.us ;
kraused@naperville.il.us ; jrosanova@msn.com ; millerk@naperville.il.us ;
sengerd@naperville.il.us ; wehrlig@naperville.il.us ;
bheller@napervilleparks.org ; eshutes@napervilleparks.org
Cc:
bmcdonald@theconservationfoundation.org ; 'Dan Lobbes' ; 'doug_dallmer (NZ)'
Sent:
Friday, September 08, 2006 5:34 PM
Subject:
Conservation Foundation's response to Hobson West Pond Purchase (PC Case #1564)
Hello
Mayor Pradel, City Council Members, Barbara Heller and Eric Shutes,
After
attending this past City Council meeting (September 5) I took it upon myself to
contact Brook McDonald, President/CEO of the Conservation Foundation, asking
for his help in purchasing the property owned by Crestview Builders at 1000
Plainfield/Naperville Road, so it can be converted to park space – thus
connecting the two existing surrounding Park Districts ponds.
Attached
is my message to Brook and his response. I hope the City and Park District can
find a way to preserve this beautiful piece of land as a park for all of
Naperville’s residents. Perhaps with the Conservation Foundation’s help, you
will find a way to make this happen.
If the
conversion to park space does not work out please keep the zoning as is. The
petitioner did not provide any viable reasons why it should be changed. As an
18-year resident of Hobson West, I and 95% of my neighbors are strongly opposed
to the introduction of multi-family housing into our neighborhood of 100%
single family homes as it will forever change the character of our
neighborhood. Mr Brestal said… “On one side of the street we have multi-family
and the other single family…” And Kenn Miller asked…”Where do you draw the
line?” As the attached map clearly shows, Plainfield/Naperville Road is the
western border of Hobson West AND the dividing line between single family homes
and town homes. We hope you will keep it that way.
We now
have a unique opportunity to possibly preserve this property as open space
forever. Please do all you can to save this unique piece of land.
Thank
you,
Jim
Berg
986
Merrimac Circle
Naperville,
Il 60540
-----Original
Message-----
From:
Brook McDonald [mailto:bmcdonald@theconservationfoundation.org]
Sent:
Thursday, September 07, 2006 4:37 PM
To: Jim
Berg
Cc: Jim
Berg; Dan Lobbes
Subject:
Re: Help needed in saving 5 acres of open space
Hi Jim-
I received your email and phone call.
We get these requests a lot. If
the park district and/or city would like to purchase the property, we can help
by doing what's called a "buy and hold." We do this quite a bit with government agencies.
This is
how it works. We go in and buy the
property. We hold it for up to 24
months until the park district and/or city can find the money to buy it from us
(refinance bonds, seek grants, etc.).
Then it becomes part if the existing park/open space.
Dan
Lobbes on my staff will send a letter to both the city and park district
encouraging them to pursue this property and offering our services to help, if
they need it. I hope this helps.
Please
know that we are working on many, very high quality natural areas throughout
DuPage, Kane, Kendall and Will Counties that are much larger than this
site. This is where we are spending
most of our time right now.
Good
luck.
Brook
-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Berg
Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 3:22
PM
To: bmcdonald@theconservationfoundation.org
Cc: Jim Berg
Subject: Help needed in saving 5 acres of
open space
Hello Brook,
I'm writing to ask you for your help in
saving 5 acres of open space in Central Naperville from development. This
unique piece of land is bordered to the north and south by two Naperville Park
District owned ponds and contains numerous large trees as well as the original
farm house and barn. The land is located at 1000 Plainfield/Naperville Road and
is currently owned by Crestview Builders. I've attached a PDF of a map of the
area. FYI, this map is a portion of the Naperville East Sector Master Plan. The
property is the little yellow box between West Street and Plainfield/Naperville
Road, and surrounded to the north and south with park space (green squares).
Crestview Builders is seeking approval,
from the Naperville City Council, to change the property's zoning from R1a to
R3a so they can build 22 town homes on the land. The Naperville Plan Commission has twice rejected this request
however the Naperville Staff if in favor of the zoning change. Crestview
Builders and their attorneys presented their case to the Naperville City
Council last night at the September 5th meeting, asking for the zoning change.
I've attached the L1 a-b agenda item from the 9-05-06 City Council meeting. The
Council was overwhelmingly in favor of preserving the land as open space and
openly debated how/if they could work with the Park District to make this
happen. Crestview's attorney (Mr. Brestal) said they had offered to sell the
land to the Park District but they were not interested. This statement was
questioned by the council, asking if the Park Board or a Park staff member made
the response. Mr. Brestal then offered a 6-month period of time - for the Park
District and/or City to purchase the land if the Council would approve the
zoning change. Instead, the Council voted to table the zoning decision until
the October 17th City Council meeting to give the City Council time to discuss
the matter with the Park District.
The nearby residents of Hobson West, The
Fields and Green Acres are 95% against this zoning change as it will forever
change the character of our neighborhood. We now have a unique opportunity to
possibly preserve this property as open space forever. How could the
Conservation Foundation help? Perhaps beginning a dialog with the City Council
and the Park District would be good start. Your thoughts?
Sincerely,
Jim Berg
986 Merrimac Circle (Hobson West
Subdivision)
Naperville, IL 60540