New custom 61-home subdivision proposed for Clow property – Naperville Sun – 1/22/2018

New custom 61-home subdivision proposed for Clow property – Naperville Sun – 1/22/2018

Article Source

A subdivision featuring more than 60 custom-built, single-family homes and a memorial to one of the first families to settle the area that is now south Naperville won a unanimous recommendation from the Naperville Planning and Zoning Commission.

Members of the advisory committee reviewed plans last week calling for 61 houses on 31.5 acres of land just southwest of the Book Road and 103rd Street intersection upon annexation into the city. Developer, Nick Stanitz of Oak Hill Builders and Developers is responsible for the Stillwater and Ashbury subdivisions in Naperville.
“I think this is a logical infill piece to me. It’s one of the last remaining undeveloped pieces on the south side,” said Commissioner Carrie Hansen. “The builder has an excellent reputation and I think adjoining homeowners are going to be pleased.”

Average lot size is expected to be 12,500 square feet — larger than the surrounding development, which average less than 9,000 square feet, said Len Monson, the attorney for Oak Hill Builders.

The developer’s proposal incorporates 7.83 acres of open space that would include benches and a six-foot-wide trail weaving through the development. While the plans also include two deviations from city code — a reduction in interior side yard setback and in lot area for two lots — commissioners said the variances are minor and consistent with the surrounding residential developments.

City of Naperville officials advised against using the current driveway off Book Road as an entrance or exit from the development, Monson said. Instead, access to the subdivision would be provided by via the current Alfalfa Lane at its intersections with both Schillinger Drive and Haider Avenue in the existing Clow Creek Farm subdivision.

The proposal also includes a monument dedicated to the Clow family, one of the original Will County settlers. Robert Clow bought the property in 1844.

“My client will be erecting a memorial to the Clow family to be designed in cooperation with the Clow family,” Monson said. “Our initial thought is there’s some old stone buildings on the property and (we will) use those stones to create a memorial and have a plaque in honor of the Clow family and as a recognition of our heritage here in Naperville.”

The memorial would be erected adjacent to Book Road, Stanitz said.

The 31.5 acres contains buildings left from the farm, and the property has been planted and farmed for years, said Bill Novack, director of Naperville’s Transportation, Engineering and Development department. Annexation of the property wouldn’t open up any additional land to be annexed into the city, Novack said.

The property is currently zoned as agricultural and would need to be rezoned to residential.

Commissioner Robert Williams called the proposal an “outstanding development” with “outstanding cooperation between the developer and the residents in the surrounding area.”

A petition signed by 48 neighboring property owners was submitted in support of the development, and the Clow Creek Farm Homeowner’s Association — of which the 61 houses would be a part — also backs the proposal.

The developer plans to plant 250 new trees and do “a lot of work” around the creek that runs through a portion of the property for stormwater detention, Monson said.

City of Naperville staff supports the rezoning due to consistency with the area. The proposal must be approved by the Naperville City Council before building can begin.

by

Naperville developer plans, memorial to early Will County settler – Daily Herald – 1/19/2018

Naperville developer plans, memorial to early Will County settler – Daily Herald – 1/19/2018

Article Source
A memorial to one of Will County’s earliest settlers is part of the plan for a subdivision on land that long had remained with descendants of the Clow family.

Two stone structures, “held together with moss and mud,” on the site at Book Road and 103rd Street in south Naperville will form the basis for the memorial developer Nick Stanitz intends to build, pending approval of his plan.

Stanitz, president and owner of Oak Hill Builders & Developers Inc., is proposing a subdivision of 61 houses on 31.5 acres he bought from Betty Clow, 96, after the death of her daughter, Julie Clow, 57, in late 2016.

The land was the last parcel of a swath of Naperville and Bolingbrook that settler Robert Clow, along with his six sons and two daughters, bought in 1844 for $1.25 an acre, according to a 1983 book called “Naperville Area Farm Families History.” The family’s settlement eventually totaled 640 ares, or one square mile.

At one point, there were eight Clow brothers in Will County, and institutions such as Naperville’s Clow Elementary in Indian Prairie Unit District 204 and Bolingbrook’s Clow International Airport now bear the family name.

McDonald Farm in Naperville, home of the Conservation Foundation, also rests on 60 acres donated Lenore Clow McDonald. And Riverview Farmstead Preserve in Will County includes a limestone house and two barns built by the Clows in the mid-1800s.

The 31.5 acres at Book and 103rd functioned as a dairy farm until about five years ago, and Stanitz said the Clows kept planting oats and beans until selling the land.

Oak Hill Builders & Developers, Inc. this week received preliminary approval to build 61 houses on 31.5 acres at Book Road and 103rd Street in Naperville, which the company recently bought from the Clow family. Ancestors of Betty Clow, 96, who sold the land, were among Will County’s earliest settlers.
Oak Hill Builders & Developers, Inc. this week received preliminary approval to build 61 houses on 31.5 acres at Book Road and 103rd Street in Naperville, which the company recently bought from the Clow family. Ancestors of Betty Clow, 96, who sold the land, were among Will County’s earliest settlers. – Bev Horne | Staff Photographer
Stanitz, who has built roughly 500 houses in Naperville, including many in the Ashbury and Stillwater subdivisions, said he talked with Betty and Julie Clow for five years about buying the land. When it was put up for sale, he said other construction companies offered bids, but Betty chose his.

“She thought a lot about her neighbors,” Stanitz said. “She wanted a developer in there that would be an asset to the neighbors, not a detriment. So I worked with her through the entire project.”

Stanitz said he went door-to-door explaining his plan to residents in the Clow Creek Farm and River Run subdivisions that border the property. The houses Stanitz plans to build, mostly two-story models between 3,400 and 4,000 square feet, will join the Clow Creek Farm Homeowners Association, he said.

Stanitz’s work to inform neighbors and his reputation as a builder won over members of the planning and zoning commission, who unanimously recommended approval by the city council. The council is expected to consider the application at a future meeting.

A 31.5-acre farm at Book Road and 103rd Street in Naperville, which had been in the Clow family since 1844, now is slated to become a subdivision with 61 houses and a memorial to the Clows.
A 31.5-acre farm at Book Road and 103rd Street in Naperville, which had been in the Clow family since 1844, now is slated to become a subdivision with 61 houses and a memorial to the Clows. – Bev Horne | Staff Photographer
The new subdivision, to be called Clow Creek Farm Addition, will complete two “stub streets” built roughly 20 years ago. It will include 7.8 acres of open space and a 6-foot-wide path with bridges over Clow Creek and connections to nearby sidewalks.

Stanitz is seeking two variations to zoning requirements, one that would decrease the side-yard size and another that would allow two of the 61 lots to be smaller than the 10,000-square-foot minimum for the low-density single-family residence district.

by