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Village, Oswego School District to have financial analysis done on development of former junior high · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Village Oswego School District to have financial analysis done on
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  Speaker 1: development of former Junior High Written by Eric Schlkoff. This
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  Speaker 1: article is being read by an automated voice brought to
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  Speaker 1: you by Everlett. Oswego School District three aw eight plans
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  Speaker 1: to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the Village of
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  Speaker 1: Oswego for a financial analysis to be done on plans
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  Speaker 1: to redevelop the former Trauber Junior High School property in Oswego.
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  Speaker 1: Oswego Village trustees in December unanimously approved a concept plan
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  Speaker 1: for the sixty one unit apartment and townhouse development, located
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  Speaker 1: at sixty one Franklin Saint near the intersection of Washington
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  Speaker 1: Street and US Route seventy one. They also directed staff
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  Speaker 1: to begin negotiating a redevelopment agreement between the Village Oswego
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  Speaker 1: School District three oh eight and the development team of
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  Speaker 1: JTE and architecture firm Cordo gun Clark. The property is
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  Speaker 1: located in a tax increment financing district. When a municipality
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  Speaker 1: creates a tiff district, its property assessment is frozen and
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  Speaker 1: new or increased taxes generated by improvements are used to
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  Speaker 1: pay for improvements or other development incentives. We are required
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  Speaker 1: to do some due diligence. District three eight chief financial
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  Speaker 1: officer in chief school business official, Rafael Obafemi told Oswego
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  Speaker 1: School Board members at their February ninth meeting, we have
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  Speaker 1: to make a decision that's in the best interest of
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  Speaker 1: the folks that we represent here. He noted the project
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  Speaker 1: will be paid for in large part by TIFF funding.
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  Speaker 1: Obafemi said both the village and District three o eight
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  Speaker 1: will benefit from the consultant's work as the analysis will
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  Speaker 1: help future decision making on the potential redevelopment of the property. Ultimately,
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  Speaker 1: the goal is to find an objective source to help
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  Speaker 1: us get to the other side. District three o eight
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  Speaker 1: school Superintendent and Dallid Calgati said the Oswego School Board
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  Speaker 1: is set to vote on an agreement with the village
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  Speaker 1: for shared consultant services on February twenty third. The village
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  Speaker 1: and the school district will each pay Johnson Research Group Inc.
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  Speaker 1: Ten thousand dollars for the services. JRG specializes in tax
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  Speaker 1: increment financing as well as urban revitalization and planning. In
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  Speaker 1: response to village trustees voicing concerns about the height and
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  Speaker 1: density of the development. The developers scaled back the plans
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  Speaker 1: for Trabor States trustees as well as Oswego Village President
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  Speaker 1: Ryan Kaufman, thought of five story building proposed as part
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  Speaker 1: of the plan was too tall, especially in comparison with
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the development. In response, the building has
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  Speaker 1: been removed and replaced with two three story apartment buildings.
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  Speaker 1: In addition, the number of units has been reduced from
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  Speaker 1: two units to sixty one units. As proposed, five to
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  Speaker 1: three story apartment buildings containing one hundred and twenty five
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  Speaker 1: units would be built as part of the latest plan.
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  Speaker 1: Also proposed our six to two story owner occupied townhouse
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  Speaker 1: buildings can containing thirty six units. This is not my
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  Speaker 1: favorite project, Village trustee Karen McCarthy lang said, prior to
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  Speaker 1: voting to approve the concept plan. I don't want to
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  Speaker 1: stand in the way of helping the school district financially.
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  Speaker 1: It's not my ideal project. It's not as creative as
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  Speaker 1: I would have liked it. It's not as original as
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  Speaker 1: I would have liked. But I cannot in good faith
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  Speaker 1: stand in the way of saving the school district money
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  Speaker 1: and helping them in the long run. The building served
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  Speaker 1: as the original Traver Junior High School until the current
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  Speaker 1: Traver Junior High School was built in two thousand and eight.
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  Speaker 1: The property is twelve point thirty four acres in size,
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  Speaker 1: with the building sitting on four acres. It hasn't been
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  Speaker 1: fully operational since two thousand and seven. Kelgatti said there
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  Speaker 1: were one hundred staff members in and out of that
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  Speaker 1: building every single day, he said. Kel Gotti said the
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  Speaker 1: property has become an albatross around the district's neck. He
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  Speaker 1: said the district has to spend two hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars a year for its upkeep I include insurance costs.
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  Speaker 1: He said. A plan in twenty eighteen to turn the
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  Speaker 1: building into a senior housing complex fell through. Longtime Oswego
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  Speaker 1: resident Don Draxler, who lives on Garfield Street, was one
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  Speaker 1: of several residents who spoke against the proposal. He said
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  Speaker 1: the intersection of US Route seventy one and Plainfield Road
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  Speaker 1: Washington Street already is extremely congested. Oswego High School is
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  Speaker 1: also located near the intersection. Kaufman noted a traffic study
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  Speaker 1: will have to be done before the project can move forward.
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  Speaker 1: The traffic study is going to be hugely impactful, he
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  Speaker 1: said after the meeting. If it comes back and it
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  Speaker 1: shows that it would be catastrophic to traffic in the area,
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  Speaker 1: we're not going to let it go forward. But if
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  Speaker 1: it comes back and it shows it would have a
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  Speaker 1: nominal or minimal impact to the traffic in the area,
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  Speaker 1: then that is no longer a concern.