Members of the city’s Stormwater Oversight Committee said Monday night they will recommend that the city grant a stormwater variance to the developers of a controversial townhouse/condominium project in downtown Elmhurst.
Members of the Gammonley Renzi Group had asked the committee to grant them a variance of the county’s stormwater mitigation ordinance, which requires that detention areas that are developed be replaced with an equal amount of alternate detention area.
The developers want the variance so they can begin building a 74-unit building on the former 1.6-acre Market Plaza site at Addison and 3rd Streets.
Developers said they need the variance because erecting a surface stormwater detention basin would compromise the project’s plans. In addition, they said that building an underground water detention facility–an alternative to surface storage–would be too costly.
Committee members voted to provide two recommendations to the full council next week. The majority report approved by Aldermen Gerald Wolin and Carol Lenardi said they agree with the county’s recommendation that the variance be granted as long as the developer pays a $43,000 fee and the city sets aside the first $500,000 available in the tax increment financing district fund to aid flood control in the area.
The meeting was jammed with opponents to the variance.
