Oswego School Board moves forward on redevelopment plans for former Traughber school

The Oswego School Board is taking the first step in a plan that could eventually raze the former Traughber Junior High School to make way for a 246-unit apartment and townhouse development.

At their July 28 meeting, Oswego School board members voted to authorize a developer to submit initial development plans to the village of Oswego for the old Traughber property at 61 Franklin St. in Oswego.

Abstaining from the vote was board member Brandi Robinson. The resolution states the board may at its sole discretion and because of changing circumstances, decide not to convey the property to the village or the developer.

As proposed, 216 apartment units and 23 townhouse units would be built in several multi-story buildings on the property. The development would also include a clubhouse, outdoor pool, a playground and a dog park.

The real estate development team of JTE Real Estate and architecture firm Cordogan Clark submitted the proposal.

“This is a multi-tiered process,” Brian Crowley, the board’s attorney, told board members. “This is the very first resolution and all you’re really doing here is saying as the owner of this property, that you consent to these potential developers to start the process with the village.”

Neighborhood concerns

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Oswego resident Katie Heiden told board members that if the development project moves ahead, Oswego School District 308 students should take part in building the project.

“We’ve talked about it for years now, about strengthening our career and technical education classes and students,” she said.

Michael Reynolds, who lives near the property, voiced several concerns about the proposal, including construction traffic.

“I’m going to have a lot of construction traffic in the next two to three years,” he said. “I will be constantly cleaning up the mess.”

Reynolds also voiced concerns about the development adding more traffic congestion to the area and that it will negatively affect the property value of his home.

Last December, Oswego School District 308 took requests for proposals to redevelop the former school into a multi-use sports facility.

The one proposal the district received was from JTE Real Estate and Cordogan Clark. Oswego School Board members discussed the proposal at the July 7 school board meeting.

The building currently is a satellite location for the Kendall County Community Food Pantry. The food pantry has provided canned/non-perishable food items, as well as produce and bread, to families living within the District 308 attendance area.

Oswego School District 308 Superintendent Andalib Khelghati said the food pantry is an important part of the district’s commitment to service.

“We are deeply committed to ensuring that it continues to serve,” he said. “There’s no plan to change any of its services this coming fall. And whatever plans might come, they are part of our community. And we’re not going to in any way sacrifice or put that at risk.”

Why redevelopment the site?

District 308 chief financial officer and chief school business official Raphael Obafemi had told board members the district is spending thousands of dollars each year for its upkeep. A plan in 2018 to turn the building into a senior housing complex fell through.

“We continue to spend an estimated $250,000 a year just to keep the building from falling down,” he said. “As it stands right now, we have limited resources to do capital projects for the buildings that we occupy, that we are using every day for instruction and programming.”

The building served as the original Traughber Junior High School until the current Traughber Junior High School was built in 2008. The property is 12 acres in size, with the building sitting on four acres.

“You have eight acres of just open space,” Obafemi said. “They will assemble all 12 acres and use it for development.”

The Oswego School Board is considering a plan to convey the property to the village of Oswego and to come up with a revenue sharing agreement between the two bodies.

The property is located in a tax increment financing district. When a municipality creates a TIF district, its property assessment is frozen and new or increased taxes generated by improvements are used to pay for improvements or other development incentives.

“With the development that is being proposed, we believe there will be growth in the value of the property, which will lead to increments in the TIF district,” Obafemi said.

The TIF district is set to expire in 2040, Obafemi said.

“As soon as the property gets on the tax rolls and is assessed, we’re going to start getting some increment from the TIF,” he said. “We won’t have to wait until 2040. If everything goes well, it probably will be assessed in 2028. So we’ll start seeing money from 2028 on. And then when the TIF expires in 2040, all that money will come to us. Because it will no longer be in a TIF district.”

The development is expected to generate $700,000 overall in property taxes in the first year, Obafemi said.

“We are the largest taxing body, so we would see a big chunk of that,” he said.

Oswego Village Administrator Dan Di Santo noted that when the village established the downtown TIF district in 2016, it made sure to include the former Traughber Junior High School.

“It was always our intention that the TIF district include Traughber to help the district,” he said. “It was always supposed to be a partnership.”