‘That’s going to max us out’: Glen Ellyn village president candidates address housing density in downtown

James Burket, left, and Gary Fasules are Glen Ellyn village president candidates in the April municipal election.

There’s long been a debate around Glen Ellyn about how much multifamily housing the village should allow in the downtown.

And it’s seeped into the race between two candidates running to become the next village president.

Once Glenwood Station — the latest apartment development — comes online, “I don’t think we’re going to need any more density downtown. I think that’s going to max us out,” says James Burket, a former village trustee who is seeking the top leadership post in next month’s election.

Burket and his opponent, sitting village Trustee Gary Fasules, were asked about the pace of development downtown and whether it needs more apartments during a recent joint interview with the Daily Herald Editorial Board.

Fasules quoted a former trustee in noting that “it’s going to get very hard to build any more buildings because of the cost to consolidate the parcel, to put it up, you’re not going to get it.”

Holladay Properties developed the 86-unit Glenwood Station building on the site of the old McChesney & Miller grocery store. The downtown also has seen another longtime merchant, Giesche Shoes, torn down to make way for an apartment complex that now rises above Main Street.

Burket called a previous Giesche redevelopment proposal, put forth by the Opus Group, “fantastic.”

“I think what we got was less than ideal. But as I tell people time and time again, that building’s there, it’s not going anywhere. We need for it to thrive,” Burket said. “We need for people to be in it. We need for them to, do as our plan: get out of the building, walk around town, eat in the restaurants, drink in the coffee shops, drink in the bars, that kind of thing.”

Fasules believes there’s one element missing: more owner-occupied units.

That means “a condo building where, like myself, my wife and I, we want to downsize. We want to stay in Glen Ellyn. There’s only limited areas where we can go to buy a condo,” he said.

Fasules, though, acknowledged “that gets very tricky because banks don’t finance them so you’re in a Catch-22.”

The candidates also weighed in on whether the downtown fire station should be replaced on the existing site or moved elsewhere to make it available for developers.

Fire Station No. 61, at Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, has a number of building code and accessibility issues, according to a study by FGM Architects, the firm selected by the Glen Ellyn Volunteer Fire Company to complete an analysis of its existing facilities.

“They don’t necessarily want to move, and the reason they don’t want to move is to get the volunteers to a central location,” Fasules said. “It’s easier there than if it was on St. Charles Road.”

Burket said “you do want to keep that fire department downtown,” but he suggested there are locations downtown “that you might be able to consider, maybe not now, but in a few years.”

The election is April 1.