Hoping that eleventh-hour talks between attorneys for Naperville and the builders group suing the city over road-impact fees will produce a settlement, the Naperville City Council on Tuesday delayed a final decision on whether to halt nearly all new development in town.
The council decided to give the continuing negotiations until Feb. 2 to defuse the fee dispute. The council did so unanimously Tuesday night but without comment. This week, a majority of council members indicated support for a building moratorium.
The Warrenville-based Northern Illinois Home Builders Association has backed two lawsuits, both pending, filed against the city in the past two years over the fees. It believes the fees Naperville charges to developers for future roadwork are exorbitant and essentially unfair.
Tom Bart, a local developer and president of the builders association, has filed a request to make the second suit a class action, with the aim of recouping millions in fees paid to Naperville since 1996.
In order to limit the city’s exposure and possibly revisit the fees, Naperville officials have considered halting the issuance of any permit for development, whether residential or commercial, that would carry a fee.
Addressing the council Tuesday evening, Bart called the moratorium threat “a cannon aimed at my head, designed to make me drop the litigation.”
But Bart extended an olive branch. “We’re hopeful we can work together toward a negotiated settlement,” he said.
If Naperville enacts the moratorium next month, it would be the second permit ban in the city in two years, though the new measure would be much tougher. The first ordinance, now expired, could have been circumvented if builders signed a waiver promising to pay the fees. The proposed moratorium would have no such safety net.
If the negotiations for an out-of-court settlement do not result in a deal, council members said builders and the city should be prepared for at least a temporary end to the fast-paced growth for which Naperville has become known.
The sprawling city issues 200 permits for new homes and other structures in some months. Its population, a little more than 22,000 as late as 1970, is estimated at more than 120,000 today.
The dispute centers on who will pay for what percentage of the estimated $75 million needed to renovate and maintain Naperville’s streets over the next 20 years.
City leaders believe that new growth should pay for itself. The City Council last year approved a fee structure that will see builders pay more than $50 million for the road plan.
The developers counter that impact fees should not subsidize projects in older areas of town, miles from new subdivisions.
Council members contend that developers pass on the cost of the fees to home buyers, and such costs do not appear to be hurting the local housing market.
Naperville officials have noted that 1,046 single-family homes were built in the city from 1992 to 1995. From 1996, when impact fees for single-family homes rose to $1,655 from $792 a unit, to mid-1998 1,099 units were built.
