The sale of 8.2 acres of vacant, city-owned property near Eola Road and North Aurora Road could fetch Naperville as much as $1.9 million, officials said.
Naperville City Council members Tuesday approved putting the land, deemed surplus by city staff, up for sale. Surplus property means it is no longer necessary, required or in the best interest of the city to keep the land. A November 2016 appraisal put the property value at $1,897,714.
The land, zoned industrial, is on the south side of North Aurora Road, adjacent to the NAR Business Park. It’s about a half-mile east of Eola Road.
The land is part of 25 acres of land the city purchased around 2004 for $4.37 million, said Bill Novack, director of Naperville’s Transportation, Engineering and Development department.
At the time the city purchased the land, discussions to create a Metra STAR Line — which would have been the area’s first suburb-to-suburb Metra route — were still hot. The city bought the 25 acres of land for the “purpose of having a place to put a train station,” Novack said.
Now that the likelihood of the STAR Line being built is slim, Novack said, the city can do without the northern 8.2 acres of the parcel.
After purchasing the land initially, the city did a land swap with an adjacent property owner who took over the stormwater portion of the city’s land. “We lost a little bit of the land to stormwater. The city owns a little over 21 acres now,” Novack said.
The property will be served by city of Naperville utilities and does not include any wetlands or site impediments, according to city documents.
Bids for the property will be accepted until May 22. The city council could approve a sale by June 6 at the earliest.
Information on the property — including a description, its appraised value and zoning — was scheduled to be posted on the Naperville’s “City Land for Sale” webpage Wednesday.
Under Illinois municipal code, the council cannot sell city-owned property for less than 80 percent of the property’s appraised value, and two-thirds of the council must approve it.
The city is also accepting bids for two other properties — one at 3470 Celeste Lane and the other at 635 Fourth Ave. — until June 20.
ehegarty@tribpub.com
