Du Page County applied for a special use zoning permit from the City of Wheaton Thursday in a move that could allow excavation to begin at the new county courthouse site as early as next week.
Meanwhile, the Wheaton City Council has scheduled a special meeting Monday to decide if it will let its Building Department issue permits to grade the site and construct footings and foundations while the zoning request is being processed, said Kevin Bowens, Wheaton`s assistant city manager.
The developments signal an apparent breakthrough in a city-county feud that has threatened to hold the courthouse construction hostage in recent weeks.
Wheaton`s zoning ordinance requires governmental entities to go through a ”special use” zoning process before building on land zoned for institutional use.
But Du Page County didn`t apply for the zoning variance, and the issue wasn`t raised until unpleasantries erupted between Wheaton and the county over the latter`s move to award a contract to widen Naperville Road over the city`s objection.
J.A. Jones Construction Co. Inc., the Chicago firm whose low bid won the contract to build the $51.6 million courthouse on the West Side of Wheaton, is ready to start digging, said Ron Peterson, assistant vice president.
”We`re waiting for a contract. We have a letter of intent, but we have not been offered a contract yet,” Peterson said Thursday. Du Page County will issue the contract after the permit dispute is settled. Peterson expects that will happen next week.
According to Bowens, it will take 60 to 90 days for the county`s application for special use zoning to be acted upon. Wheaton`s Zoning Board of Appeals must first schedule a public hearing, then make a recommendation to the City Council. And Monday, the council will consider issuing only the initial building permits to get construction underway.
”The county staff asked if the city would let them and the contractor grade the site and construct footings and foundations only,” Bowens said. The request came in a meeting Wednesday between the county and city staffs and their legal counsel.
The strategy would quiet fears of costs escalating if the zoning hearing process delays the laying of a foundation and winter weather sets in. ”If we were to get the approval (on the zoning permit) on Jan. 1, you might as well say it will be April 1 before construction starts,” said William Maio Jr., chairman of the County Board`s Judicial Committee.
Bowens said building plans submitted by Du Page County ”months ago”
have passed staff scrutiny and building permit fees will cost the county about $200,000. Maio said $582,000 has been budgeted. ”Building permits could be issued,” Bowens said, if the county had its special zoning use permit in hand.
