The rezoning of six city-owned properties to be sold or donated was approved by the Aurora City Council Tuesday night.
The rezoning would allow the city to market the parcels for residential use, or allow the city to donate the parcels to nearby forest preserves.
Aldermen approved rezoning from two-family zoning to single-family for lots at 930 W. New York St. and at 574 E. Galena Blvd., and rezoning from a B-3 business use to R-3 single-family district for a lot at 127 N. Sumner Ave.
The city will try to sell those lots to someone who wants to build a house on them.
Aldermen also rezoned three single-family housing lots to park and recreation in an area in the city, but not serviced by city water and sewer. The lots are at Prairie Street and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks, 169 Oakview Ave., and south of East New York and east of Oakview.
By rezoning to park and recreation use, the city could donate the lots to an adjacent forest preserve.
Not included in the rezoning was a large lot at 801 Claim St., land that was once part of the Thor Manufacturing Co. property. A part of the former Thor building still exists and is home for a flea market. The vacant lot also is next door to a church.
The council last week voted to hold a recommended rezoning from M-2 manufacturing to R-3 single-family zoning for 801 Claim St. property, which city officials theorized could be broken into four residential lots.
Holding the potential rezoning was the idea of Ald. Juany Garza, 2nd Ward, whose near East Side ward includes the property. She said people in the ward had plans to possibly turn the property into a park or walking area for seniors and area residents.
She said officials need to take a closer look at it, and that the maintenance on it is strictly cutting the grass, so it should not be a great expense.
She also said the land might not be fit for building houses on because it still could be contaminated from the days Thor owned it.
Mayor Richard Irvin has said the city will look at all the reports it has of studies done on the land to see if it is contaminated.
Another lot that was included in the original list of city property to be sold was Clyde Penson Park at Anderson and New York streets. But that was taken out by the city after public backlash from people who wanted the park, which was dedicated to a former city employee who died from a heart attack while working near the property, to be saved.
The city posted on its Facebook page two weeks ago that the park property would be pulled back off the list of possible rezonings, and last week, Mayor Richard Irvin issued an apology from the city, calling it a “major oversight” that the park was included on the list of properties to sell.
Irvin and Ald. Scheketa Hart-Burns, 7th Ward, a friend of the Penson family, said that on April 12, 2023, the city will rededicate the park to Penson.
