MCBROOM DESERVES CREDIT FOR PUSHING FOR IMEA PLAN
Your March 6 article, “Naperville council wants time deadlines, options as it looks beyond IMEA,” leaves out a critical piece of context that materially changes the story.
The article suggests that the push for deadlines and clearer direction began with the mayor’s recent comments. In reality, Councilman Josh McBroom has been driving this issue for months. He raised concerns at multiple prior council meetings, he challenged the lack of urgency and he publicly questioned the decision to “pause” IMEA discussions. He was one of only three votes — Mayor Scott Wehrli and Councilman Nate Wilson were the others — in opposing that pause.
The council members voting for the pause gave no further direction to staff on next steps or how/when to move forward. They probably wanted to do nothing until 2035 to see what options would be available.
Whether readers agree with his position or not, it is a matter of public record that McBroom was the first and most persistent voice demanding a structured plan. The current focus on timelines and options is not new — it is the direct result of his sustained advocacy. Wehrli and Councilwoman Mary Gibson also deserve credit for the meeting’s outcome.
The article unintentionally rewrites the sequence of events and obscures who actually pushed this conversation forward. Naperville residents deserve reporting that reflects the full record, not a partial one.
Gary Kochanek, Naperville
WAITING FOR CITY ATTORNEY’S BENTON + MAIN RESPONSE
On March 2, we wrote a letter to the editor, “Council urged to reconsider Benton + Main rowhouse decision,” describing our concerns about the Naperville City Council’s Feb. 17 approval of the Benton + Main townhome development. Since then, we have not been idle — and neither has the record.
After the council declined to reconsider its decision, 14 neighbors immediately adjacent to the site formally notified City Attorney Michael DiSanto and City Manager Doug Krieger in writing on March 9 of what we believe are significant legal deficiencies in the approval. We requested a written response within 14 days.
We want Naperville residents to understand one thing above all others: under the city’s own approved ordinance, this development cannot take legal effect until the city attorney affirmatively confirms that all terms and conditions of the approval have been fulfilled. That confirmation has not yet been given. The approval is not operative. The city attorney’s review is not a formality. It is a legal prerequisite written into the ordinance itself.
Our formal notification to Mr. DiSanto raises eight specific concerns, including the following: the primary public amenity required for PUD qualification — six city-style parkway planters — was eliminated by 80% after the Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission hearing due to a city administrative dispute over maintenance.
The substitutes offered do not qualify as public amenities under any reasonable reading of the city’s own standards. A private driveway built to satisfy a mandatory stormwater requirement is not a public benefit. Replacement saplings for mature trees being removed are not an enhancement. And the findings of fact the council adopted were drafted by the developer’s own attorneys before any neighbor had testified — not by city staff.
We are not asking the city to stop all development. We are asking it to apply its own rules consistently and transparently. The same conditional use standard that protected Karis Data Center neighbors was applied here without written findings addressing a single neighbor’s testimony.
Naperville’s reputation for principled, rule-based land use depends on whether its institutions hold the line when it is inconvenient to do so. We will report back to this community on what the city attorney’s response is — and whether one comes at all.
Julie Carducci and Chris Carlsen, Naperville
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