Park District Against Waiving Fees for Developer

The Wheaton Park District board of commissioners told a developer planning to build a luxury apartment complex in downtown Wheaton the district would not support waiving fees that a city ordinance requires developers to pay the district.

As developers move into Wheaton, they are required under a city ordinance to dedicate land for park purposes or contribute cash in lieu of land dedications—or both. Developer Morningside Group hopes to reduce, or be waived of, impact fees of about $336,000 because of its amenities.

Morningside Group is proposing to build Wheaton 121, a 300-unit luxury apartment complex at 218 Wesley Street that will include a fitness center, a courtyard for residents, public plazas on the corners of Front and Cross and Wesley and Scott streets and public improvements to the streetscape.

Scott Day, attorney for Morningside told the board of commissioners Wednesday that the “significant recreational amenities” introduced at Wheaton 121 will reduce the resident’s need to use other facilities in the community.

The expected demographic for Wheaton 121 residents includes professionals without kids in their 30s and 40s and empty nesters in their 50s and 60s, said Mary Ellen Martin, senior development manager for Morningside.

Commissioner Kim VanderSchaaf said the Leisure Center, within walking distance from the proposed development, offers programs to benefit empty nesters. She added the younger residents wouldn’t have basketball or volleyball courts at the complex, and could use the courts and league programming at Hubble.

“Your target demographics actually very much use our facilities,” she said. “I don’t quite see how this can be as self-contained as you would like us to believe.”

Day said the focus of the ordinance is to take into consideration the extent to which the applicant or the petitioner within the development has instituted private and public recreational space that have a tendancy to reduce the draw to park district facilities.

Commissioner Phil Luetkehans said while the amenities on the property are wonderful, the ordinance was designed to substitute open spaces. “This project doesn’t really provide that open space. Your people (residents) are still going to need that open space just like anyone else,” he said. “I don’t see how it matches a 100 percent reduction.”

Board President Ray Morrill said he thinks Wheaton 121 is a “fantastic project” that will be an asset to the community. “I don’t see where we have support on this board to waive the fees, but there might be some compromise or someway we can work together,” he said.