Route 47 Fill Site Proposal Sent Back to Commissioners

Yorkville’s plan commissioners are expected to list the reasons they don’t want construction crews to dump clean dirt from the on a property along Fox Road.

The commissioners voted, 0-5, against suggesting Brandon Road Properties receive a special use permit, but they did not include written “findings of fact,” Yorkville City Administrator Bart Olson said. Plan commissioners will be discussing those reasons Wednesday but are not expected to take another vote. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the conference room.

The City Council’s Economic Development Committee postponed discussing the matter Tuesday until the commissioners finished; the City Council will make the final decision on the special use permit.

Under the proposal, crews would dump clean dirt on 46 acres (20 acres north of Fox Road and about 26 acres south of Fox Road) east of Pavilion Road, according to a March 7 memo by Community Development Director Krysti Barksdale-Noble. The property presently is used for farming but city leaders approved a concept plan for 77 homes there in a subdivision called Evergreen Farms Estates in 2006.

The location would only receive “uncontaminated soil,” as determined by an environmental engineering firm hired by the Illinois Department of Transportation, Barksdale-Noble said.

The property would be used to store soil for crews to use later, although some of the soil would fill and grade low areas, Barksdale-Noble said. It would be used like that for a year or two and would return to agricultural uses afterward, she said.

The truck traffic would vary, with up to 20 or 25 truckloads being dumped there daily.

Construction along Route 47 in and around Yorkville's downtown could begin within weeks.

Editor's note: The March 7 memo by Community Development Director Krysti Barksdale-Noble is attached to this article as a PDF.