Autumn Ridge Housing Project Won't Go To Voters After Board Decision

HOMER TOWNSHIP, IL — A plan to develop 40 acres of Homer Township property and turn it into a senior housing community hit a major road bump after the township board voted down the idea of sending the issue to a referendum in November at a special meeting on Thursday night.

The township board voted 4-0 not to pursue adding the referendum to the November ballot and allowing voters to decide the issue. Village Clerk Vicki Bozen told Patch in an email on Friday that there there is no further discussion regarding the proposal, which would have added 93 single-family homes and 20 duplexes to the property that formerly was the Welter family farm.

Township Supervisor Steve Balich told Patch last week that he thought the proposal to develop the property was a win-win. The land, which was purchased by the township for $2 million in 2001, is zoned for single-family homes, but many opponents of the plan said that they preferred to preserve the natural beauty of the area.

In recent weeks, opponents of the project flooded township board meetings to voice their opinion on the project. Balich said that most of the opposition came from residents of nearby subdivisions and said that many were concerned about additional traffic coming through their subdivision. However, he said plans called for subdivision entrances to be blocked off to outside traffic.

Yet, while he said that the project would provide affordable housing to empty-nesters and other residents 55 years of age and older, he felt like the acceptable solution to the issue was to allow voters to decide the fate of the project.

"There's a lot of people who like this project and are calling to ask how they get on the list to buy one of the houses and then there's a lot of people who live in the subdivisions next to (the land) who don't like it," Balich told Patch last week.

He added: "Whatever the people want to do, that's what we'll do."

But following Thursday’s vote, the issue won’t reach voters after the township’s four board members voted against the idea of the referendum.