‘This is not Oswego’: trustee voices concern over board’s recent approval of more than 600 rental housing units

Oswego Village Trustee Brian Thomas is voicing his concerns over the village board’s recent approval of more than 600 rental apartments and attached homes.

Thomas told his board colleagues June 22 that over the course of three recent meetings they had approved the residences either as part of concept plans for new subdivisions or as part of planned unit development agreements.

At a June 8 meeting, the board voted 5-1 to approve the concept plan for 336 apartment units and 146 single-family homes near Wolf’s Crossing Road and Route 30. At a May 18 meeting, the board voted 5-0 to approve a preliminary and final planned unit development agreements for 143 attached apartment homes at the corner of Orchard Road and Mill Road. And on May 4 the board voted 5-1 to approve the concept plan for a 148-unit rental homes at the corner of Wolf’s Crossing Road and Douglas Road.

Thomas was absent from the May 18 meeting, but cast the lone vote against the projects on the agenda at the June 8 and May 4 meetings.

Thomas said he had recently spoken with residents who were against the influx of rental properties in the village.

The residents, he said, thanked him for voting against the concept plan at the June 8 meeting.

“I want you guys, you as a board, to realize what we’re doing here. This is not Oswego,” Thomas told his colleagues.

“I’ve not heard one person give me the thumbs-up for these projects, and I ask you to do the same. Reach out to your neighbors, family members. See what their thoughts are,” he continued. “I’m telling you right now, this is not good for Oswego.

“Once we open that can, go down that road, where does it stop?” he asked.

The fiduciary responsibility of the board, Thomas continued, “is to the residents of Oswego.”

“This is not that...going forward, we have a chance to stop this. Do we want to be a community for rentals?”

Developers coming before the board often use two points to support the development of rental properties in the village, he told the board.

“One is, that millennials do not want to buy because of what happened in 2006. Well, it can’t always be cherries and roses, I’m sorry,” he said.

The second point, he continued, is a comparison between Oswego and Naperville, something Thomas feels isn’t warranted.

“Naperville has 175,000 residents...we have no mass transportation out here right now,” Thomas said.

“This is serious. This is not Oswego.”