The council chambers overflowed with people anticipating a public hearing regarding an update on the Savannah Green project at Monday night’s DeKalb City Council meeting.

While this public hearing was intended to field responses from the city council, its primary intent was to provide the plan commission with further direction in terms of how to handle Savannah Green.

Construx owner Mike Suhaldonik talked about how its similar project in Normal was successful and favored by outside entities and that it received international and state recognition.

Suhaldonik also reiterated the Savannah Green philosophy of providing a neo-traditional style housing concept. The concept is a beautification process that has mailboxes, garages and utilities around the backside of the house while the facade remains just the layout of the house.

This in turn provides an appealing look to the houses and the subdivision as a whole, something Suhaldonik said is not seen in most housing developments or subdivisions.

DeKalb resident Gary Wiggins said he hopes the council does its homework and considers rejecting the plan because three other DeKalb governmental bodies have already done so.

Second Ward Alderman Kris Povlsen said while he is in favor of neo-traditional housing, he is not in favor of annexing close to 800 houses.

“The school board and voters have spoken,” Povlsen said. “Looking at it at this magnitude, I’m really not able to support continuing at the planning commission level.”

Third Ward Alderman Steve Kapitan said the timing of this annexation in terms of three failed referendums is why he rejects the plan.

“There are elements coming together that mitigate us from accepting this proposal,” Kapitan said.

Seventh Ward Alderman James Barr said the 700-plus homes proposal is too aggressive for the short term, and therefore didn’t support it.

Because this topic was a public hearing, the city council made no decisions and did not vote.

The other public hearing was based off a request by Ken Nelson of Maple Park to discuss the annexation agreement of about 18 acres of land near Ridge Drive and Hillcrest Drive.

This housing proposal is an in-fill, that is, a housing project that fills in a small housing development on open land within surrounding neighborhoods. The plan includes a 45-lot single-family home subdivision with the overall layout and construction similar to houses in and around Hillcrest Drive. The project would also address the overall area’s drainage problems and could create an extension of Ridge Drive.

The primary concern over this project was the impact fees towards the school district. The plan calls for generating $69,700 in impact fees toward the school district to help new students entering schools from this new development. Attorney David Witheft spoke on behalf of the plan and tried to dispel any concerns about a lack of impact fees being paid to the school from this project.

“We had a negotiating agreement with Dr. Ali as to what was a reasonable impact fee,” Witheft said. “They emphatically approved, endorsed the school impact fees. This is not like we shoved impact fees down the school board’s throat.”

Povlsen said he’d like to see the impact fees raised even higher while Kapitan said he’d like not to make a decision on any housing developments until the Growth Summit has been altogether completed.