Only one vote was cast against the city of DeKalb’s decision to annex land bordering the Greenwood Acres development on Hoger Farm at Monday night’s DeKalb City Council meeting.

Third Ward Ald. Steve Kapitan cast the lone vote against the annexation of approximately 14.55 acres of vacant land south of Greenwood Acres Drive, bordering the Greenwood Acres development on the former Hoger Farm. Kapitan’s primary concern with the development was that before Greenwood Acres Drive is extended to Peace Road, people might take the proposed Kelly extension to Route 14, Route 14 to Pleasant Street and Pleasant Street to Peace Road.

Shari Neeley, a representative of the developer John Clare Ltd., informed the council that the company’s traffic engineer had estimated that only 5 percent of the drivers on the proposed Kelly extension would be such “cut through” drivers. She said the development had been designed to channel traffic around, rather than through the development.

Kapitan asked if John Clare Ltd. had considered connecting the regional bike path with the real estate development, and Neely responded that plans already call for a linkage point at Dresser Road. Kapitan persisted, asking if additional linkage points were planned. Neely said none were planned.

Kapitan also asked if the former drive-in movie theater, west of the area, should become part of the real-estate development. Kapitan said he didn’t think the land effectively could be developed as retail space without the addition of another road. City staff advised Kapitan that the property is still viable commercial space with access to an interior road and that subsequent development is up to the owner.

After opposing the annexation, Kapitan also cast the solitary vote against a zoning change being granted for the development of Hoger Farm from single family residential zoning to mixed-use planned commercial development zoning. Kapitan questioned the failure of John Clare Ltd.’s traffic engineer to write an estimate on the impact of traffic to the industrial portion of the development. Neely responded that until plans are drawn up for the proposed industrial development, the traffic engineer can only guess at how many people would be driving through the industrial park, so a traffic study would not be possible.