Can Berteau Avenue Housing Development Be Slowed, Redefined?

Clarification 8:45 a.m. Thursday: While there had been speculation in casual conversation about the number of homes that might be built at the Berteau Avenue site, Elmhurst Planning and Zoning Administrator Than Werner confirmed on Thursday that "somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 homes" is being discussed. The article reflects his comment.

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If 15 acres of open land were to become available in central Elmhurst, how should it be used?

If you are a representative of the Elmhurst Park District, you might say it should be a park. Parks in the area tend to flood, and this property sits on high ground.

If you are an Elmhurst District 205 School Board member, you might want to rebuild the crumbling Lincoln Elementary School there. It's easier to build on open land than to rebuild on existing school property while school is in session.

If you are a city of Elmhurst official, you might want to use part of that property for flood mitigation, like a detention pond.

But the fact is, most of the 15 acres at Berteau and Schiller belongs to Elmhurst Memorial Hospital, and the word on the street is, hospital officials want to sell it to a home builder. 

It has been widely publicized by Moody's and other sources that the hospital has been struggling under nearly a half-billion dollars in debt since opening its 866,000-square-foot hospital on Brush Hill in 2011. They recently solicited, received and opened bids from potential developers for the former hospital property on Berteau, according to School Board members.

Hospital officials have been very tight-lipped about the negotiations—understandable given the nature of this private real estate deal. But the potential of around 50 new homes is being discussed, and that will affect, well, everyone.

One can hardly attend a meeting these days without someone mentioning the Berteau "wildcard." Park Board members mentioned it when discussing whether they would allow the city to excavate several parks for stormwater detention.

"It would deal the process a real black eye—adding houses, taking that hospital property and not giving first rights of analysis to this triad (City-Park-School) group," park Commissioner Carolyn Ubriaco said at an August Park Board meeting.

A possible land swap was mentioned at School District 205's  "Conversations with the Community" meeting just last week.

"Is there an interest in turning that into public land?" Jim Collins asked, adding, "The possibilities are there" but it would require referendum. 

And, again, at last Tuesday's School Board meeting, the board heard from fellow member John McDonough, who recently attended a meeting of the intergovernmental City-Park-School Committee.

"It would be a significant burden on the schools if this was developed entirely as single family residential, given the number of new students that would be coming into a very specific area of town," he said. 

Board members asked McDonough what the status is regarding the hospital's bidding process.

"The public information is not great because it is a private organization," he said. "Bids were received by the hospital. Where the process goes from that is something the hospital is reluctant to publicize."

He said members of the City-Park-School Committee want to meet with hospital officials to discuss a cooperative arrangement to address "some of the needs that are out there."

Board member Karen Stuefen asked, if the hospital is already in negotiations with builders, isn't it too late for those types of discussions?

"It's hard to jump to conclusions when there is so little information available," McDonough said. "Appropriate planning and negotiations might result in a community development that could address a number of stakeholder interests. Elmhurst has a tradition of doing that."

He said those types of conversations would have to be led by the city, since the school and park districts have "limited abilities."

"The city has a much better tool box in talking to a developer," he said, referring to the city's subdivision and zoning ordinances. "Neither the park or the School District are regulatory bodies. But the city is. There was some very candid discussion about how we … need to help each other reach our goals. It's better for the community that way."

The district has some major facilities needs, he said, namely building repair.

"Our lack of money has been well publicized. The ideas have to be very creative to work around that very central problem," he said.

Board member Chris Blum said no one is forced to listen to the School District.

"We need the city's help to manage the impact on our schools," he said. "We don't have the ability to do anything. They asked us to help them on TIF and stormwater, and we're going to ask them to help us on this. We can ask, but no one has to listen to us."

Having open land in a city like Elmhurst hasn't happened in recent memory, and it's not likely to happen again any time soon, McDonough said. 

"If we let this pass without getting visionary about what can happen there, we've missed an opportunity. We have to bring all the tools to bear that we have. We have a great relationship between the School District, the city and the Park District. The community has really benefited from doing things that way," he said, referring to the North York Road TIF agreement."

When questioned after the meeting about what specifically can be done to influence the development of the property, McDonough said, "All three entities have eminent domain powers."

"Eminent domain always requires the payment of just compensation," he said. "You don't just impose on someone's property if you're a government entity, you have to buy it."

He was quick to add that any talk of eminent domain is "really premature … until you talk about what you envision happening (on the property)." 

He said eminent domain is what parties use when they do not agree.

"Let's give the parties a chance and see what they can agree on," he said. 

But is it too late?

"Sometimes it takes awhile for ideas to develop and sometimes it takes awhile for people to appreciate other perspectives," he said. "Would I have liked to be where we are now three months ago? Absolutely. But did people know what they know and did they see things in context?

"It's private property. They own it. Everybody respects that. If you don't respect that going into the negotiation or discussion, it won't go anywhere."

Impact Fees

On a related note, it was discovered that the city of Elmhurst has not updated its subdivision ordinance with regard to impact fees developers must pay to the park and school district because of demands placed on them by the addition of families into Elmhurst. 

The ordinance is supposed to be updated every three years, but that has not been the case, McDonough said. In fact, city officials could not remember the last time it had been updated, he said. 

Currently, the ordinance requires a builder to pay $6,500 per single family home as an impact fee to District 205. The fee goes toward capital expenses only, to construct new or add on to school buildings. 

The Finance Committee and school administrators will get to work immediately to come up with a more up-to-date number to give the city.