Far west Joliette could see 400 new homes, single-family and townhomes – Shaw Local

A developer wants to build the largest subdivision on far west Joliet in 20 years and is putting some pressure on the city to approve its plan in December.

A housing boom in the early 2000s in the city’s newest section, extending into Kendall County, has catapulted Joliet into one of the fastest-growing cities in the country.

But the housing boom fizzled out due to the national economic crisis in 2007, and the city has not seen a resurgence since.

That could change with McNaughton Development’s plan to relaunch the Vista Ridge subdivision at 8301 Caton Farm Road.

“This will be the first real major development in this part of town since 2007,” McNaughton Vice President John Barry told the city Planning Commission on Thursday.

Barry said McNaughton’s plans for Joliet were “to some extent a victim of bad times.”

But a developer has seen the results of a new home in the nearby Deer Crossing subdivision in Joliet and wants to start working again in Vista Ridge.

McNaughton will restart the neighborhood by adding more homes and smaller lots, which he said is necessary because of today’s higher construction costs.

Things become out of reach. The only way to control costs and make them affordable is to have a slightly smaller lot and a smaller house.”

— Thomas Osterberger, McNaughton Development attorney

Instead of 272 single-family homes and 72 townhomes, McNaughton wants to build 321 single-family homes and 76 townhomes on the 120-acre site.

McNaughton attorney Thomas Osterberger said changing market conditions and higher construction costs are forcing the developer to build smaller homes on smaller lots.

“Things become unaffordable,” Osterberger told the commission. “The only way to control costs and make them affordable is to have a slightly smaller lot and a smaller house.”

Housing affordability has become a national issue.

Mark Fields of Ryan Homes, a developer that will build homes in Vista Ridge, said the average price of a home in the Chicago area has soared from the mid-$300,000s to $425,000 in the last couple of years.

But McNaughton is also asking city planners to approve the revised plan on an expedited basis to meet certain contractual deadlines for construction to begin.

McNaughton did not specify what those timelines were at the Plan Commission meeting.

City planning staff wanted the Vista Ridge proposal to be presented at the next scheduled Planning Commission meeting on Dec. 19 to allow time for the plan to be reviewed.

Instead, the commission agreed to hold a special meeting on Dec. 12 so McNaughton could present his plan to the City Council in December for a vote on final approval.

Commission Chairman John Kella even suggested that the commission give the plan conditional approval Thursday.

However, city officials said there was no final plan yet that could be approved.

“We only had plans for two and a half weeks, which is a very short time frame,” Sean Marcos, deputy public works director for engineering, told the commission. “There are too many questions right now that need to be answered before we can move forward.”

City Planner Ray Heitner has repeatedly told the commission that staff recommended pushing the matter back to Dec. 19 to allow enough time for consideration.

“There are a number of engineering issues and platform issues that need to be addressed before we can prepare the platform for City Council approval,” Heitner told the commission.

One of the reasons McNaughton wants to move forward in Joliet is the interest the developer is seeing in new homes built in the Deer Crossings neighborhood, located on Ridge Road and close to the proposed Vista Ridge development.

Ryan Homes is building homes in the area today. Barry said more than 100 new homes were sold last year.

“(Ryan Homes) has had a lot of success in this area,” Barry told the commission. “They would like to continue this success.”