Homer Township officials have asked Will County to consider limiting the number of residential building permits issued in the township.
Ron Svara, township supervisor, suggested that an equation for limiting building permits could be based on school enrollment.
“The goal would be to have the number of new students moving into the district be equal to the number of students graduating,” Svara said.
Svara said the township’s schools are feeling a space squeeze because of increasing enrollment.
“The main impetus (of limiting building permits) is to control crowding in the schools,” he said.
John McIntyre, community development director, said other ways have been suggested for limiting building permits. These include enacting a cap based on the number of existing homes in the township. If the cap were 5 percent and there were only 100 homes in the township then only 5 residential building permits could be issued in a year, for example.
Or, the number of permits could be tied to a community’s s ability to pay for expansion of water and sewer and schools.
The township would expand some services, then developers would decide whether they want to pay for additional services, such as sewer, water and schools, McIntyre said.
Only Will County can enact a law to limit building permits because the township does not have zoning authority.
