In the path of Chicagoland

When it comes to residential development, Chicagoland just keeps redrawing the line in the sand. Sleepy outposts suddenly find themselves at crossroads piling up with a remarkable numbers of minivans.

First it was the Fox River, then Randall Road. Now suburbanization has hit Illinois Highway 47. Is it inevitable that sprawl will push even farther west?

Three decidedly different communities in the path of the next wave of home-building and big box stores offer views about the prospects of becoming suburban.

Yorkville

It has been a long time since anyone in Yorkville built a log cabin or manufactured buttons from clamshells plucked out of the Fox River. Even so, Yorkville’s small-town heritage is a not-so-distant memory. Now the community of just under 7,000 is definitely at a turning point. The population is expected to reach 15,000 by 2010.

“The theme is, this is a small town that is in transition. We’re preserving the small-town image, and I don’t believe anything that is happening at this point is hampering that character. I think the developers want to capture that, too,” said city administrator Anton Graff. But, Graff added, small-town Yorkville ends where its million dollar operating budgets and traffic volume begin.

It will be harder to capture Yorkville’s rural heritage when the farms around it sprout houses. But preserving open lands, especially to help distinguish community borders is important to Yorkville.

“[Yorkville’s comprehensive plan] process so far has identified open space as one of the characteristics of Yorkville, and the way to retain that is, don’t just think of open space as creeks, wooded areas, wetlands and prairies. We’re going to throw in the farmland, too, as long as the farmers are willing to coexist in the environment,” Graff said in an interview.

One sign that growth is on the horizon is the presence of Oak Brook-based Inland Real Estate Development and companies like it. The company acquires, develops and sells land. “We’re heavily invested in Yorkville,” said Tony Casaccio, president of the company. “Our opinion is this area will continue to grow. The outer ring of development is continuing to move farther west as the cost of housing continues to rise close in. People are looking to find less expensive land where they can buy homes affordably.”

Suburban: 3 towns in path of Chicagoland

Yorkville’s emerging comprehensive plan will call for boundaries pushing north to the edge of Kendall County at U.S. Highway 30, and south toward Caton Farm Road. “We have a boundary agreement with Sugar Grove to the north. We’re not going to put much substance yet to the south, except to identify it as future Yorkville,” Graff said.

In 1995, Yorkville reinforced standards to ensure the minimum lot size for single-family homes is 12,000 square feet. The mix of local and out-of-town developers who are willing to meet or exceed the requirements are helping to shape a community of attractive homes and controlled density. For instance, the city has standards for roof lines and landscaping, and, for town homes, requires two-car garages and encourages brick fronts. Bristol Club, by Lay Com, for example, has a secured entrance and lot sizes that start at 25,000 square feet. Homes surround a 24-acre core of woods, greenspace and water. Some lots at Windham Development’s River’s Edge back to a park and conservation area on the banks of the Fox River.

At Heartland, by Richard Markers Associates Inc., greenspace flows past homes like a waterway, and a playground is bordered by backyards instead of streets.

People who live in the area have mixed views on all the changes. Longtime resident Michelle Pfister has already experienced small-town Yorkville and welcomes the latest edition. “I think it’s exciting; I look forward to seeing it. I think we just have to deal with and accept it and do the best we can to keep Yorkville a nice town,” she said.

Frank Farmer, who lives in neighboring Oswego and comes to Yorkville for senior citizen club activities, has a concern. “It’s some of the greatest land in the world, and here we plant houses on it. I mean, it’s gone forever,” he said.

Tammy Burdzinski and her family moved to Heartland from Bolingbrook in November. “… We were very excited because Yorkville is much smaller,” she said. “Yorkville has lots of areas for way with planned communities. I think the local people may be a little overwhelmed, it’s such rapid growth for them, but everybody is very friendly and receptive.”

DeKalb

Go west on Interstate Highway 88 past Aurora, and it’s 25 miles of corn and no exits before DeKalb pops up with Northern Illinois University, a new 400-acre business/industrial park and a keen awareness that Chicagoland is closer than ever before.

“In the last two years, the City of DeKalb has really been discovered by the Chicago market. We’ve been running 200 to 250 housing starts a year, but that will most likely double in the next year. The inventory of places to build is going up phenomenally. We have an awful lot of developers kind of hunting around, looking for large tracts of land that are under single ownership and easily services by utilities,” said community development director Paul Rasmussen.

Where sun and rain once made the crops grow, developers are raising the roof on everything from subsidized units at Eden’s Garden, by Franzen and Rosenow Development, to classically suburban models at Rolling Crest, to executive enclaves at DeKalb Associates’ The Bridges of RiverMist.

In a county where census figures indicate 92 percent of the land is in farms, DeKalb, population 45,000 including resident NIU students, certainly has room to grow. But how big is too big?

“People say we don’t want to be in Aurora; they are growing way to fast to want to keep our own identity. With strong environmental and agriculture, there is a real sense we don’t want it here, with farmland eaten up in a Rasmussen explained.

William Monat, plan commissioner and past president of NIU, said he would prefer to see developers pass back east. “There is a segment that keeps it the way it was 30 years ago with nothing wrong with them, but they refuse to accept the reality of growth.

“People say we don’t want to be Naperville or Aurora; they are growing way too fast, and we want to keep our own identity. With the county’s strong environmental and agricultural ethic, there is a real sense we don’t want to see sprawl here, with farmland eaten up in a mindless way,” Rasmussen explained.

William Monat, plan commissioner chairman and past president of NIU, said some residents would prefer to see developers pack up and head back east. “There is a segment that would like to keep it the way it was 30 years ago. There is nothing wrong with them, but they cling to the past and refuse to accept the reality that there is going to be growth. We need to try to make it happen the way we want it to, and it should be balanced,” Monat said.

Nick Samardzija, a DeKalb firefighter and lifelong resident, moved with his family to Genoa in 1997. “We left because of the development. School were overcrowded and taxes were going up due to that,” he said, adding that increased taxes are a price people pay to stay in an area. “And if you can’t, you’ve got to go west and keep going west until you get to Iowa.”

Aubrey Serewicz, who has lived in DeKalb for more then 40 years, takes exception to some types of development. “The marketplace is going to dictate what the developments are. Unfortunately the marketplace is not simply, ‘Do people want houses?’ because you have venture money trying to create a market for themselves,” he said.

Chemung/Harvard

Tucked into McHenry County’s quiet northwest corner is a crossroads called Chemung. Anyone who has heard of Chemung generally agrees it is part of Harvard, except that it is still Chemung on the map and – a fine point – it predates Harvard. Chemung is only about 3 miles west on Illinois Highway 173, but remains outside of even the moderate development activity in Harvard.

For about five years now, Harvard has been issuing about 50 single-family-home permits a year within three subdivisions.

Park Pointe, by Bryn Mawr corp. Shadow Creek, by Timber Construction Ltd., is planned for 243 homes, about half of which were to be detached two-story homes and half ranches. Will Clark, president of Timber Construction, said they found that in the Harvard area, buyers are favoring the ranch, and so the developer is accommodating them on lots originally designated for the two-story models.

At Oak Grove Crossing, by Harvard Homes, the buildout of single-family homes is about one-third complete, with the next phase set to start in spring. The subdivision has 30 acres of parkland with a pond. Tom Smith of Re/Max Traditions in Woodstock said sales have been strong as suburbanites seek greater peace and quiet.

Is more development on the way? “I think it’s going to happen. I don’t think there is any question that it will. I guess the biggest concern we have is the unknown. What will it bring?” said Chemung native Dale Sinderson, whose Chemung Tech Roadside Art Studio is easily the most colorful operation in town.

Despite its McHenry County address where housing growth from 1990 to 2000 exceeded 40 percent, Harvard and its environs, with a combined population of 17,233, are still country places. Motorola arrived with much fanfare in the 1990s, but laid off thousands in the last year, and this corporate entry into the local market did not result in a development boom.

“I’ve been hearing it’s going to happen here for 14 years, and, yup, someday growth is going to hit us. We’re still waiting,” said city administrator Dave Nelson. “Potential – we haven’t gotten beyond that yet,” agreed Chemung Township Assessor Bob Nolan.

Any rumbling in the eastern sky has so far done little rainmaking. Not everyone welcomes large-scale development, anyway. Said Sylvia Smith, a 65-year resident of Chemung and owner of the local tavern: “It seems to be doing all right the way it is.”