Lisle officials want to see if it is worthwhile to provide water and sanitary service to a stretch of undeveloped land owned by multiple parties on Illinois Highway 53.
Village officials said that providing the services along the highway from Maple Avenue to north of the Park District’s River Bend Golf Course could help lure commercial development. The land is being marketed for such development.
But trustees said the project’s price tag of more than $1 million to buy easements and build the lines could break the deal.
Board members asked the village staff to survey land owners to see if they would waive easement fees for the project in exchange for a preannexation agreement.
Mayor Ronald Ghilardi suggested the move as a way of slashing the estimated $427,000 it would cost the village to buy easements. If the property becomes contiguous through development, the agreement would call for it to be annexed into Lisle, and a developer then would pay to extend sewer lines.
More than 50 easements are needed. Public works officials said it will take two or three years to acquire the easements and design and construct the project.
“Ultimately, if everything happened, (the easement costs) could be free,” Ghilardi said. “The actual cost would be paid for by future developers.”
The board indicated that it wants to see commercial, not residential, development on the property.
Other project costs include $370,000 for water main lines and $257,000 for sewer lines, money earmarked in next year’s proposed budget.
If the area ends up with residential development, “it probably wouldn’t be feasible for us to do an extension,” Ghilardi said.
Trustee Judith Yuill said she is confident the land will be developed commercially. Sewer lines would help market the land to developers, she said.
“It has to develop commercial,” Yuill said. “Who would want to live on Route 53?”
Ghilardi said the village does not know what will be developed, but rumors of commercial development are swirling.
“Somebody is already looking to do what we’re expecting to happen,” he told trustees. “The potential of the sewer and water could make it happen sooner.”
Village Manager Carl Doerr said he will update trustees on survey results in about a month. The survey, he said, will have a June 1 deadline.
