Aurora council approves Eola Preserve plan after months of resident protests and developer concessions

The Aurora City Council on Dec. 10 approved an ordinance and a preliminary plat allowing Pulte Homes to build a 54-unit townhome development called Eola Preserve at 620 North Eola Road, voting 9–3 on both items after weeks of resident meetings and negotiated changes.

The approvals include a conditional use plan (ordinance 240708) and a preliminary plat and plan (resolution 240709). The council received extended testimony from nearby residents who said the project would worsen an already difficult left turn from their subdivision onto Eola Road and increase traffic and privacy impacts on adjacent single-family lots.

City staff and the developer presented a traffic study that was reviewed by Aurora engineering staff and DuPage County traffic engineers; those professionals concluded the intersection has enough capacity for the additional trips generated by this development and that a traffic signal was not currently warranted. The developer also presented comparisons that a hypothetical 30 single-family-home alternative would produce only three fewer left-turns in the evening peak hour than the proposed 54 townhomes.

Developer representatives described a…