The Oswego Planning and Zoning Commission will review a concept plan to raze the former Traughber Junior High School to make way for a 239-unit residential development.

The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Sept. 4 at Oswego Village Hall, 100 Parkers Mill, Oswego. The Oswego School Board voted at its July 28 meeting 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.

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

As proposed, two five-story buildings containing 128 residential units would be built on the south side of the site. To the east and west of the five-story buildings, four three-story residential buildings containing 88 units are planned.

In addition, 23 two-story townhouse units in six buildings are proposed on the property’s north side.

Village staff is recommending approval of the concept plan

“Staff believe the proposed mixed residential use is consistent with the comprehensive plan and surrounding neighborhoods,” Oswego Development Services Director Rod Zenner said in a staff report.

Neighborhood concerns

Neighbors living near the property recently voiced their concerns to Oswego School Board members.

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, 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.

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.

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.