Orchard Road Apartments Ask Oswego 308 to Lower Impact Fee

The owner and developer of the dubbed Orchard Road Apartments, located along Orchard Road and north of the railway by Mill Street, are looking to cut down on fees and are asking the Oswego 308 school district to consider lowering their impact fee.

Rich Guerard, an attorney representing the owner of the properties, Don Morris, addressed the school board Monday evening about reducing the impact fee that the development would owe the school district. 

According to documents, the 906-unit apartment complex would need to pay the school district approximately $2.6 million in fees to build the proposed complex.

However, in a letter dated on Sept. 3, Guerard said the developer had an "unofficial agreement" to waive all the fees that were owed to the school district.

In the letter Guerard writes, "We understand that it will be difficult, or impossible, for the school Board to waive 100 percent of the usual fees" and asks that the board consider a reduced fee of $1,000 per unit, or $906,000 total.

"We understand there may be another number and can look at it from our viewpoint, but we’ve been told by the developer that is the number they are looking at," said Geurard of the $1,000.

The apartments themselves are being proposed at market rents, not section 8 or any other of subsidized programs.

"This project more than pays for itself," said Guerard of the complex. He said the complex would generate about $2 million in revenue for the district annually, even after the expense of educating children.

The  number of children that would attend Oswego schools living in the complex is up for debate. The State of Illinois suggests there will be about 120 while the developer, comparing this apartment complex to similar ones, estimates about 60. 

"You can estimate all you want, but nobody really knows," said board member Greg O'Neil.  "To say there’s only ever going to be 121 students... it could be ten times that.”

Board president Bill Walsh said that some students may move from residences within the district to the apartment complex, which would offset that number slightly. 

Board member Danielle Paul said she felt the estimate of children was rather low. "You’re going to have apartments with multiple bedrooms. The bedrooms are going to be occupied by somebody.”

The other fees that the apartment complex would need to pay include water fees and a fee from Fox Metro, which, if the school took $1,000 per unit, would cost the developer $9,600 per unit. 

Published Sept. 10