It could also be that Crestview Builders at one time intended to build but with the collapse of the housing market, they are looking for a bail out from the park disctrict to the tune of 1.4 million besides the 2.7 million they paid Dr. Soper at the peak of the bubble balloon real estate market.

I doubt that property is worth half what they paid for it after the collapse to the real estate market....especially land values!

The Park District should offer Crestview Builders 1.35 million dollars as a firm and final offer...take it or leave it.

The City Council should show some class and return the stautus of the property to single home in the event it is ever developed.

Wehrli should not have been allowed to vote on his Cousin's project. Since he voted instead of recusing himself the vote should be rescinded. It was an inappropriate vote bordering on possibly being illegal!

The City Attorney who gave legal advice that this conflict of interest is acceptable and not of material consequence, should be terminated and her future pension donated to the Park District to be used as part of the proceeds to purchase this parcel! I would not object if she was given a balloon payment to return to law school and sharpen her legal skills. They appeared to have rusted out a bit since her graduation!

It would be a real travesty to let Crestview make a 50% profit on just buying and selling a piece of land on the backs of Naperville taxpayers. And a neat trick if they are allowed to get away with it. The sequence of events tells it all:

1) Crestview (owned by You Know Who) buys the land zoned for single family.

2) The city council (having You Know Who’s relative of the same name on board) then rezones the land to multi-family, increasing the value.

3) Crestview then wants to sell the land to the city (via the Park District) for a nice big profit.

Pretty good amount of cash for just sitting through two property closings. I suspect that Crestview had this type of deal cooked up before they ever bought the land. If this deal is approved by the Park District the only group to benefit will be Crestview and the people attending the next You Know Who family reunion.

Let us not forget this is the piece of land that amounts to an overflow retention pond. It will be flooded whenever we have 5-10 inches or more of rain in 48 hours.

Crestview bought it knowing it was flood prone.

They apparently found out after the fact that it was much more flood prone then they initially thought.

Now they trully don't want to build due to the flooding problems, but want their establishment buddies to bail them out with a 50% profit on what they paid Dr. Soper.

Why should we give them a 50% profit from 2.7 million to 4.1 million, in a declining land value market combined with the fact that it turned out of be a borderline flood plain.

And rezoning this parcel from single to multi would just make the flooding worse with more concrete and less retention space.

There is something very fishy going on here. The Napergate Man would have sniffied it out. The Naperville Sun needs to sniff it out in the absence of the Napergate Man.

If it walks like a duck, it usually is a duck. If it smells like skunk it is usually a skunk! Let us do a thorough investigation and not bail out those who make mistakes with windfall profits!

It is enough that we are subsidizing downtown. Let us not subsidize developers. This land is way to moist to be any kind of park. Most times of the year you will find hundreds of little water spots between the two ponds. During rainy season in late fall and early spring, you will find several smaller ponds between the 2 ponds that remain full of water for weeks.

Let us smell the skunks and let the ducks enjoy walking these ponds. This is swampland better suited for DUCKS!!!

Funny BUBO, those of us who have been around since Naperville had a population of 20k people always wondered the same thing, does every farm field need to be turned into a subdivision? Now that all the newcomers have their houses, development needs to stop? NIMBY? Sorry, but as Mr.X pointed out, there already is an overabundance of open property in the area, and a section of upscale town homes would make a nice fit, as there is a lack of reasonably priced housing in the area.

As far as Crestview and who benefited, most likely the same people who benefits from any development, the developer who invests his money and time to get zoning, planning, and building done, the local contractors who do the actual building, which means jobs, the buyer who purchases in the development and the City, as the land is now on the tax roles.

Who benefits from the city or Park district buying it? A handful of NIMBY's who don't want it developed, yet want the taxpayers to buy and maintain it for them.

Change the zoning back to single family and let Crestview build on it as the Master Plan called for.

Giving them multi-use residential is what escalated this piece of land to where it is no longer affordable to be kept as open space.

Either they build as residential or sell it to the Park District for the single home residential value....not the inflated multi-use price obtained by a vote influenced by corrupting powers.

Again what you see here is Brestal's influence at play. He influences the Council Members to convert single family to multi family to enrich his client developers who in turn enrich him. It is a racket...the Napergate Man exposed this racket 10 years ago and they are back at it again...how sad!!!

Questions that come to mind:

What else (open space)can the park district purchase for the same money?

Since open space is in fact running out, this is the last chance to purchase open spaces, but at what cost? And where?

How much did Crestview buy this for before the City Council helped them out with spot zoning? Who benefited? The Usual Suspects?

Does every remaining lot in Naperville really need a strip mall or townhouses? Will our overbuilt strip malls end up as rows of: liquor store, bar, massage parlor, convenience store, empty space?

At some point, are the Developers like the Barbarians who were late for sacking the city? Having to settle for raping a corpse?

What's left to plunder?

The purchase of Hobson Ponds land from Crestview should not be a Park District priority.The immediate area already has great amount of open space. Springbrook is just to the south and the Riverwalk to
the north, and hobson ponds, hobson park, garden plots
and knoch park in between on West street. Sure it would be nice to add to the contiguous space, but it's
already broken open by hobson west nd the townhomes.
How would adding the 6 acres to hobson ponds benefit Naperille more than other projects? Hobson ponds seems underutilized to begin with due to the other open space and parks in the area that are more easily accessed. Would part of the 6 acres become a parking lot so all of Naperville could enjoy it? The park district passed on buying walnut ridge and mayneland when they were on the market over the past few years.
Has open space replaced recreation facilities as a priority of the park district? If they purchase teh hobson ponds land, they better announce how it will be used to justify the cost.

I find it funny how with all the complaining about taxes in Naperville escalating, that spending money on land to pacify a small handful of NIMBY's is a good idea. At least when Walnut Woods wanted to save the land 203 was selling to a developer, they came up with $1 million to put towards trying to purchase it. These Hobson Ponds NIMBY's just want the City/Park District to spend our tax money for their little pet project. No thanks, let Crestview develop it as planned and let the city collect the tax money. That is what everyone is clamoring for isn't it? Less waste and lower taxes?

Considering the DuPage Forest Preserve District just purchased the 41-acre Cenacle Retreat near downtown Warrenville for $5 million (about $122,000 per acre), how much is the strip of land between the Hobson Ponds really worth as open space? It's stuck in the middle of two busy sreets across from residential developments, and right between the two Park District ponds on the other two sides.

I don't think it's worth spending alot of our tax dollars on it. The Park District still owns the Hobson ponds, so we can still enjoy fishing, and future Park District activities around the ponds without paying for the overpriced land in the middle.

Here is an article on the Cenacle sale to the DuPage Forest Preserve District:

http://www.mysuburbanlife.com/winfield/archive/x165092956/Forest-Preserve-District-to-buy-Warrenville-retreat-house

Since the property is in between two small existing parks I think it makes tremendous sense. The combined park will be a true asset to Naperville.

Absolutely not! Apparently, this is the only property in town that has actually increased in value.