Mark Kiel’s neighborhood is just east of Route 83, near Bensenville and the outskirts of O’Hare International Airport, and yet life in Oakdale Woods is quiet, “like living in the country.”

East of the subdivision, down Old Grand Avenue, is the Fischer Farm, a historic homestead that sells eggs. It’s a community where neighbors wave to each other.

“The people that want to stay have a lot to fight for,” Kiel said.

He and other residents of Oakdale Woods are opposing a developer’s attempts to buy homes in the unincorporated area. They’ve put up yellow yard signs against the “Transwestern Industrial Buyout.”

“I know some people want to stay for their kids. Some people want to stay because it’s close to work … I’m at a time in my life where I’d like to stay here as long as I can,” said Marie Starsiak, a retired teacher.

Transwestern has no information to share at this time, according to a spokesperson.

In recent years, other homes near O’Hare have been demolished to clear the way for industrial redevelopment.

Oakdale Woods residents say the neighborhood has roughly 90 houses.

Among those who live there are seven women — 59 to 80 years old — who reside in a Ray Graham Association home. They all have intellectual or cognitive disabilities.

“These are also women that, given their age and their level of disability, I fear that this would be a very difficult move for them, and one that would, I think, put their health and happiness at great jeopardy, which we don’t want to do,” said Kim Zoeller, president and CEO of the nonprofit organization.

The home is staffed around the clock and specially customized for the women and their mobility needs. “We’re happy where we are,” Zoeller said.

“It would be … a very costly and very disruptive pursuit on our end to try to replicate what we have in Bensenville,” she said. “And that doesn’t even speak to, again, the quality of life for the women that really enjoy living together and thought that they were going to be in their forever home.”

The market

About three years ago, dozens of homes in the incorporated Bensenville neighborhood of Mohawk Terrace were flattened to make way for industrial space.

“We continue to see developers looking for any patch of land to try to put more warehouses, or even take down existing warehouses to build more modern Class A properties,” Bensenville Village Manager Evan Summers said.

What makes the area so attractive to developers?

“We have O’Hare. We have rail yards. We have the tollways, the highways. This is a logistics hub here,” Summers said. “And as more and more commerce moves online, and we’re all doing online shopping, logistics is what makes that happen. So it’s warehousing for goods and moving those with trailers to their endpoint destinations.”

Oakdale Woods residents say they received letters with offers for their homes in June. According to a copy sent to the Daily Herald, the initial budget for the land is $30 per square foot. The Transwestern spokesperson did not respond to a request to confirm the number.

Residents came to the village with a copy of the letters that they received, Summers said.

“We were kind of caught off guard. We didn’t know that those letters” were going to go out, he said.

Summers has met with Transwestern once. That was in July.

“Basically the village’s position on it, and what we told them it was, we’re not going to get involved in negotiations with the homeowners. The Oakdale Woods neighborhood is a quiet neighborhood,” Summers said. “It’s unincorporated. We don’t have jurisdiction over it, and so those homeowners can make the decisions that’s right for their families.”

‘No desire to move’

Most of the lots in Oakdale Woods are about a half acre, Chris Weinbrenner said, and some are a little larger. He said he was offered just over $600,000 in June.

“Everybody has a price, for the most part, and then there’s some people that literally will die in their home and are fine doing that. As of right now, I have absolutely no desire to move,” Weinbrenner said.

Opponents acknowledge some people want to sell.

“Everybody got the letter, and … it really changes the equation as far as how you’re going to sell your house, when you’re going to sell your house, why you’re going to sell your house,” Starsiak said.

The subdivision is part of Elmhurst Unit District 205. Starsiak is concerned for “the families, the people who have small businesses here.”

“I see the unincorporated areas around these towns and in DuPage County as kind of a middle ground. We’re a middle ground. We’re an economic middle ground,” she said.

Homes are on well and septic systems. Though it’s close to O’Hare, Starsiak wouldn’t call Oakdale Woods bucolic, but it’s nature-oriented.

“Until they decide to not pursue us anymore,” Weinbrenner said, “we’re going to continue our fight. But at the same time, everything is going to be in limbo, like a cloud hanging over our heads.”