Pulte Homes is proposing to build nearly 200 houses and townhouses on the border of Herrick Lake and Danada Forest Preserves, which belong to the people of DuPage County. The proposed parcel is Lot 4 of the Nokia property (the big red X on the map) near Naperville and Warrenville Roads, currently 67 acres of open green space surrounded on three sides by the nature preserves. 

The proposed mega-development would forever install hundreds of buildings, residents and vehicles within mere feet of crucial preserve habitat. The negative impact would be staggering and irreversible. 

The Herrick Lake and Danada Forest Preserves have been carefully curated and protected by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County over the past century. It has not been easy, but it has been worth it. These stunning and unique preserves are home to more than 254 wildlife species and 470 different types of plants. Humans seek fresh air, exercise and refuge here every single day. 

This whole area is wetlands, with a cyclical Great Blue Heron rookery only a few hundred meters from the property border. Furthermore, the DuPage Forest Preserve’s wetlands project is just north of the proposed housing development. 

Now imagine a thousand toilets flushing, thousands of lights and hundreds of cars traveling on the edges of these protected lands. Every single day. Think about the noise and light pollution, the trash generated, the stormwater runoff. 

Pulte's proposed high-density plan also will add significant traffic congestion to the already very busy corridors of Naperville Road, Ogden Ave., I-88 and its access ramps, Freedom Drive, Warrenville Road and Butterfield Road—corridors also on the verge of adding a Costco and big-box grocery store in the coming months. The quality of life in the greater surrounding area (including Wheaton, Warrenville, Naperville and Lisle) will be permanently diminished. 

We urge the City of Naperville to reject Pulte’s requested proposal for development. The Naperville City Council and the Planning Commission have been given the responsibility to be good stewards of the community, and this project fails to live up the standards that have been put in place to protect both the environment and our overall quality of life in DuPage County.

Thank you.