The Wheaton City Council has voted to move forward with approving a three-lot subdivision on the north side despite neighbors’ objections to the density.
Patrick J. Murphy Builders won approval to subdivide the 1.64-acre property at 303 and 313 E. Prairie Avenue, which is owned by Performance Trust Capital Partners co-founder and CEO Rich Berg. The site, which is at the northeast corner of Prairie Avenue and Scott Street, had two houses, although a farmhouse that once stood on the property has been razed.
Although the property always has been zoned in the relatively dense R-3 zoning class, adjoining properties to the east and west mostly contain houses on very large lots, prompting many neighbors to complain that the developer’s proposal would be out of character for the neighborhood. City council members indicated they agreed, but said their hands were tied because the project’s proposed density fully conforms to the zoning.
With the council – even the project’s biggest critic, Councilman Phil Suess – unwilling to vote against the density, members last week were left with cleaning up details involving the homes’ setbacks. With setbacks determined by averaging those of the front yards of adjoining homes, some council members believed the city would be better protected by approving the plan as submitted and locking in uniform front-yard setbacks instead of opening the door for variations that could allow placement of the homes in different positions on the property.
Suess tried, but failed, to convince fellow council members to make the easternmost and westernmost homes have front-yard setbacks that are identical to those that adjoin them. That would have been 144 on the east and 57 feet on the west.
“If we do something like that … then we’re being more than fair,” Suess said.
But the developer’s representative, engineer John Green, said his client favored a 120-foot front-yard setback for the easternmost house.
“If we pushed Lot 3 back to (a) 144-foot (setback), it’d be a situation where Lot 3 is set back perhaps 84 feet behind the setback of Lot 1, and it could be a case where the back of one house is in line with the front of another,” Green said.
The rest of the council favored the developer’s plan.
“The main objection I got from neighbors was the subdivision. (Whether to do) three lots is off the table – we’re going to approve that and it’s (now) a matter of the configuration,” said Councilman Todd Scalzo. “I’d be willing to go with what the developer is willing to do.”
The plan will return to the council in late September for final approval.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
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