Aurora City Council to vote on financing fiber route to Habitat for Humanity subdivision

The Aurora City Council is set to vote on financing a new fiber optic route on the West Side to facilitate the Habitat for Humanity Green Freedom subdivision.

Aldermen are expected to approve next week a resolution to spend $243,686 with NTI National Technologies, of Downers Grove, to build the fiber connection to the city’s network, instead of leasing space on Kane County’s fiber network as was originally planned.

The money would be an add-on to a $265,666 contract for additions to the fiber network approved in the 2023 Capital Improvement Project fund, which was for other additions to the city’s fiber network. Overall the city planned to spend $1.35 million in total for additional fiber as part of the capital improvement budget.

NTI is one of the regular fiber providers the city uses to build onto its OnLight Aurora fiber network.

The Green Freedom subdivision will include 17 Habitat for Humanity homes of between 1,500 and 1,700 square feet on an 8.5-acre site between Lindenwood Avenue and Jericho Road.

The homes will be built along Garden Avenue, which would extend from Garden Road and Lindenwood Avenue in unincorporated Aurora Township to Jericho Road.

The subdivision has received a lot of attention because it will be a “smart neighborhood,” the first affordable, net zero subdivision in the country, developers have said.

It’s also a rare partnership between utilities – gas and electric – to create the net zero element of the housing, meaning the subdivision will use only as much energy, overall, as it generates.

It’s a first for Habitat for Humanity, too, which traditionally has built houses one at a time, not an entire subdivision at once.

The fiber connection is necessary for many of the energy-efficient applications in the subdivision, and Michael Pegues, Aurora’s Information Technology director, said originally officials planned to lease fiber space from Kane County that runs along Orchard Road.

But Pegues said county attorneys said they cannot continue to provide fiber to municipalities without new state legislation, “despite us using their fiber for a decade.”

Officials anticipate getting that new legislation in September, but the city needs to be ready to connect the Green Freedom subdivision by June, city officials have said.

Despite the additional up-front cost, officials said the situation will actually save the city in the long run, because it would own the fiber, rather than have to rent it over 10 or 20 years.

At this week’s City Council Committee of the Whole meeting, some aldermen wondered if OnLight Aurora would be part of the fiber connection, and whether or not Nicor will lease the fiber from the city.

Pegues said that has yet to be decided and there will be negotiations about the “last mile,” which is the final actual connection to the houses.

“We’re building to the site,” he said. “Once we do, there will be discussions about (the connection) to the 17 homes.”

slord@tribpub.com