Concerns over contaminated soil have stalled a plan to allow construction of a “neo-traditional” neighborhood on 12 acres near Bensenville’s downtown.
Ground was to have been broken this summer on The Village Green, a development featuring 52 single-family homes with front porches, detached garages and alleys. But the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is calling for the village to remove soil on about 15 percent of the site, which it says contains levels of poly-nuclear aromatics that are too high to allow for residential construction.
Michael Allison, Bensenville village manager, said the contaminant level on the site near Church Road and Main Street is small relative to the size of the property. He said the village will be required to haul away less than 2,000 cubic yards of earth.
Allison said the contaminants on the site are gasoline or petroleum byproducts. The property formerly was used by a company that manufactured printing compounds.
“These are things you would find anywhere you have had a garage or a site that had an industrial use,” said Allison, who added the regulations allowing residential construction on such properties are especially stringent. “If we were looking to allow another industrial use on the site we wouldn’t be going through any of this.”
