Settlement Reached for Fieldstone Place Improvements

It’s more good news for residents of Fieldstone Place.

During Monday’s Village Board meeting, Village Attorney Steve Andersson announced that after two and a half years of negotiation, a settlement has been reached over the performance bond at Fieldstone Place, a subdivision east of the Fox River and south of Montgomery Road.

Fieldstone Place, which includes both condominium units and single-family houses, was a project of Grand Pointe Homes, begun in 2003. That year, the village received a performance bond of $2.6 million, to cover public improvements in the subdivision. As those improvements were completed, the bond was reduced, and by November 2004, it totaled about $793,000.

But then Grand Pointe went bankrupt, and in 2009, the village declared Fieldstone Place in default of the agreement, and filed a claim on the bond. The needed improvements, like sidewalks and repairs to streets, remained undone while Andersson worked with the bond company on a deal.

In September of last year, he was hopeful that a settlement could be reached, but negotiations were still ongoing.

That settlement, unveiled on Monday, will find all the improvements completed – the bond company, Bond Safeguard Insurance Company, will hire a contractor within 30 days to finish sidewalks, roads and other projects, with a completion date of November 15. This includes curb and gutter work on many of the subdivision’s streets, new sidewalks throughout, and work on fire hydrants and storm sewers.

And it includes two broken street lights, including the one at Manning Avenue and Briarcliff Road that trustees in July. The agreement also includes finally handing over a parcel of land west of Briarcliff Road to the Fox Valley Park District, for a community park. This was in the original plans for Fieldstone Place.

Bond Safeguard will also pay the village an initial $30,000, and an as-yet undetermined amount in lieu of building sidewalks for the subdivision’s empty lots. Last month, the subdivision's new owners Montgomery Homes, owned by Tony and Tony Montalbano, to build out the 17 undeveloped lots on the west side of Briarcliff Road, and the village will install sidewalks once those are done.

Andersson said if those sidewalks were to go in first, they could be damaged during construction of the houses. So instead, the bond company will pay the village to install them afterward. The bond company will also not remove the large dirt hill to the north of Holmes Place, since Montgomery Homes will use that in constructing the new houses.

Trustees were pleased with the final settlement, and approved it unanimously.

“I think Steve (Andersson) did a great job on this,” said Trustee Denny Lee. “I didn’t think we’d get as much as we did.”

Full disclosure: Montgomery Patch Editor Andre Salles is a resident of Fieldstone Place.