During a Yorkville City Council public hearing Tuesday for the annexation of land for a new school, some residents expressed concerns that encroaching on River Road would be a bridge too far.

Yorkville School District 115 officials laid out more details on its proposed plans to build a new school on the 106-acre farmland property it purchased from the Conover family last summer for about $2 million.

The property is located about a quarter-mile west of the current high school campus, north of River Road.

The land is likely to be the site of a new middle school or an elementary school, both of which are included in the $275 million plan outlined in the referendum to build new facilities to accommodate the community’s booming population.

Residents are voting on the referendum on the March 17 ballot.

There also is the possibility of the school district donating some of the land to the Bristol Kendall Fire Protection District for a new fire station.

The public hearing during the Jan. 13 City Council meeting was for the proposed annexation of the property. The school district has also requested the city rezone the property before it submits site plans following the referendum.

During the Tuesday public hearing, residents were particularly concerned about the impact along River Road and the current houses there.

River Road is already too dangerous, with speeding and heavy traffic down its narrow corridor, residents said, and increased vehicles in the area will compound the issue.

Residents who spoke at the hearing said they feared that River Road could be widened as part of the school building project.

Speakers raised issues regarding where access points and roads will be located and where buildings will be placed. They also raised concerns about stormwater accumulating near River Road if anything is built uphill from it.

Heather DiVerde, School District 115’s executive director of facility operations, said while the site plan will not be be developed and submitted until after the referendum vote, she foresees minimum impact along River Road.

“We are not putting a road through from the north end to the south end,” DiVerde said during the hearing. “The road that we will be putting though will be coming from U.S. Route 34 on Beecher Road and we have no plans yet. We are waiting for the referendum and then our architects will be putting something together, and then we’ll be bringing it back to the city. Right now in our application, we did put that we are not putting a road through to River Road. We’d be stopping it up where our school stops.”

Mayor John Purcell said there is already a traffic light on U.S. Route 34 that could help with the additional influx of vehicles.

The school district is having meetings with the Rush Copley Healthcare Center, located just off Route 34 and Beecher Road, on potentially “using some of their land to get a second egress out off of the property,” DiVerde said

If a fire station is also planned for the site, there are no details yet about how cars would get in or where the building would go.

Alderman Daniel Transier encouraged the public to come back and participate with the next steps of the project.

“These steps are going to be public and everyone’s going to have an opportunity to see how it’s going to proceed,” Transier said during the meeting.

There is a public hearing for the proposed rezoning of the land during the city’s planning and zoning commission Wednesday night, Jan. 14. The school district is also looking to rezone a 45-acre property adjacent to the high school.

The project will then come back before City Council on Feb. 10 before the city waits for the school district to submit the proposed plans following the referendum.