Huntley apartment complex not moving forward, officials say

A proposed eight-unit apartment complex in downtown Huntley won’t be moving forward, the developer and village manager said Monday.

The Village Board reviewed plans for the proposed apartment complex at its Thursday night meeting and some officials and residents expressed reservations about where it was going to be built. The board did not vote on the proposal.

“I struggle with this specific location,” Mayor Tim Hoeft said Thursday night.

Village Manager Dave Johnson on Monday said the developer, Billitteri Enterprises, told him on Friday they no longer were pursuing the project.

“The Village felt it wasn’t the right area for the 8 units proposed by us,” Joe Billitteri of Billitteri Enterprises told the Northwest Herald in a message on Monday.

Billitteri Enterprises proposed the eight-unit building at 11604 Main Street in the heart of downtown Huntley. The apartment building would have had four studio units and four one-bedroom apartments.

Residents who spoke at the meeting Thursday night overwhelmingly were against it.

“I got a real problem dropping these apartments in a residential area,” resident Tom Conley said.

Resident Brent Mullane said he wasn’t against multi-family housing, but spoke in opposition to the project.

Trustee Ronda Goldman, however, said she was open to the apartment complex. She said the village is trying to get younger people who may have grown up in Huntley to move back.

“We have to accommodate a changing society,” Goldman said.

Trustee J.R. Westberg said he would prefer if the space had professional services rather than apartments. He also was concerned about the setbacks on the project.

Setbacks, which regulate the amount of open space around a building, would have been shorter than the village requirements. The village requires 10-feet setbacks on the side, and the project proposed eight feet. Rear setbacks were about 30 feet, short of the village’s requirement of 40 feet.