Yorkville approves changes for two subdivisions

June 24, 2010
By STEVE LORD slord@stmedianetwork.com

YORKVILLE -- During the past several weeks, some Yorkville residents referred to proposed changes to the annexation agreements for the Autumn Creek and Bristol Bay subdivisions as "bailouts" for the developers. But Mayor Valerie Burd says the opposite is true.

"This is not a bailout for Pulte (Homes, the developer)," Burd said at a City Council meeting this week. "If anything, it's more of a bailout for the city of Yorkville ." Burd told aldermen that the city approached Pulte Homes, asking to reopen the agreements because if they did not, the city would owe the developer more than $1 million by 2014.

The city would have owed an additional $325,000 for some engineering costs and another $137,000 almost immediately. All of the payments were part of the original annexation agreement between the city and Pulte. "The $137,000, I don't know where we'd get the money," Burd said. "This will save us money so we won't have to pay Pulte."

Aldermen voted 5-2 to approve the amendments to the agreements, with Aldermen Rose Spears, 4th Ward, and Wally Werderich, 1st Ward, voting against. Both Spears and Werderich said they thought approval was hasty, and that residents in both subdivisions should get more information before the city made a move. City officials plan a meeting in about two weeks with Bristol Bay residents.

With the new agreement, Pulte lets the city off the hook for the deadline-based payments. In return, the city will assume the responsibility of road improvements to Route 47 the developer previously had.

Pulte also gets the right to bring in plans to request a change in density when it starts building again in Bristol Bay . The amendments approved this week do not commit the City Council to accepting higher density. Any changes the developer wants still must be brought before the council for approval.

City officials said the changes will not affect the special service area residents pay into, and it will not wipe out a proposed 150-acre park site proposed for south of Galena Road . They will give the developer a chance to make needed road improvements within the subdivision, city officials said.

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