Batavia hears pitch for 'age-restricted' housing

BATAVIA -- Aldermen are going to look at annexing 24.5 acres for an age-restricted townhouse development on land currently on Batavia's southeastern border.

Property owner George Kackert is seeking annexation into Batavia to build 61 units along Raddant Road.

The City Council last year voted to deny the use of a city utility easement that would have allowed the developer to connect part of the project to the Fox Metro sanitary sewer system in Aurora.

"When Batavia wasn't interested in the intergovernmental agreement, we looked at putting in a temporary lift station on our line ... as a way to solve the problem," the developer's attorney, John Philipchuck, said.

"We were very close and had hoped by this time we would have had the project annexed in the city of Aurora but we are happy to be back talking with Batavia. We would hope to receive the same encouragement that we got in Aurora."

The attorney said under an age-restricted development, children 18 years and younger could not reside in the townhouses.

"... Del Web has got the best track records; some of their communities are age-restricted and holding up," Philipchuck told aldermen.

"We were hoping to have been in the market before it went away and yet we feel ... this is a market that will be coming on before the general (real estate) market comes on," he said.

The committee directed staff to begin the negotiation process for annexation of the property.

Community Development Director Jerry Swanson said staff was supportive of the proposal.

"We do not believe the project as designed will have any detrimental impacts on the surrounding neighborhood. This is a housing type that is in demand and not well-represented in the Batavia housing stock," Swanson said.

Several neighbors whose homes back up to the property said they want the city to put in protections to avoid it turning into a "townhouse ghost town" when developers walk away in a tough real estate market.

"If there is no protection for the neighborhood and no buffer zone, we are the ones who would be living in a ghost town. It's not the developer's fault -- it's the real estate market now," resident Pat Costello said.