Aurora Beacon-News
March 17, 2002
Developers recognize advantages, disadvantages of proposed routes
By Marie-Anne Hogarth
STAFF WRITER
SUGAR GROVE &emdash; This village's Alexander family has kept a lot of things quiet, like just how many tens of millions of dollars they might eventually make from the sale of 1,500 acres of prime farmland to one developer.
Careful with their investment, and realizing that the deal involved some 30 adults from three different branches of their family, the Alexanders allowed Kimball Hill Homes to do most of the talking about the project.
Plans are described as mainly residential, although it is still early and well before any public review process.
Still, the Alexanders broke their usual silence last week to oppose Kane County Board Chairman Mike McCoy's favored version of the Prairie Parkway.
Family members spoke to reporters at a village meeting, telephoned at least one Kane County Board member and sent e-mails to reporters voicing their opposition &emdash; all before the majority of the board disappointed them and endorsed McCoy's proposal.
The Illinois Department of Transportation remains to make the final decision.
"Kimball Hill Homes has hired Randall Arendt, a nationally recognized conservation planner," wrote Alexander family member Barbara Harty of Burr Ridge in her e-mail to County Board members. "This compromise alignment bisects our property."
McCoy's compromise alignment, a southern extension of Route 56, would cut through the Alexanders' land, potentially impacting some wetlands on the southeast corner of the property, according to Kimball Hill Homes, although it is hard to tell from the available maps.
McCoy says his version of the road minimizes these impacts. For instance, he tried to avoid a cluster of trees.
It is understandable that the Alexanders and Kimball Hill Homes would oppose McCoy's version of the outer belt. For one thing, the road would mar the family's vision of a pedestrian-friendly community.
"You can't have kids crossing a four-lane highway," says Scott Jesseman, a family member.
Second, as is the case in other developments of this scope, the sale isn't final until Sugar Grove gives its stamp of approval on the whole plan. So, it is in the family's interest to eliminate obstacles that might make the project unworkable.
What's less predictable is the reaction of others in the development community, all who benefit differently depending on which outer-belt alignment wins. Yet, many seem to favor the western alignment over McCoy's compromise alternative.
One developer &emdash; Inland Real Estate Corporation &emdash; cared enough to contact state and federal officials about its preference for the western route.
Inland president Tony Casaccio said representatives from his company talked to people from U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert's office at political functions, as well as to Kirk Brown, the state secretary of transportation, about Inland's choice route.
Despite this aggressive stance, Casaccio says his company owns land along both proposed outer belt corridors &emdash; the proposed version and McCoy's compromise alignment. Inland even owns land along a third easternmost version of the corridor.
It's a tossup how these various alignments impact Inland's various projects, according to Casaccio.
One parcel owned by the company west of Orchard Road, fronting on Route 34, would be cut in half by the easternmost outer-belt option, but three other projects benefit from the McCoy compromise.
Another commercial project, at Route 34 and Eldamain Road, is just 400 feet from an interchange of the outer belt through western Kane County.
Casaccio was joined by others who cited regional traffic concerns, although these were more-tepid endorsements.
Wiseman Hughes' Jim Hughes Jr. said that he would support the western alternative "at first blush." His Windsor Pointe development, east of Route 47 on Galena Boulevard, would be close to a very busy road should McCoy's option &emdash; a southern extension of Route 56 &emdash; win out.
"It's kind of a double-edged sword from a development standpoint," Hughes said. "You want to locate in a community with excellent transportation facilities, but you don't want to be too close to (a large road)."
Arthur Zwemke, president of the Naperville-based Moser Enterprises, endorsed the idea of a western outer belt, but he said he would prefer priority be given to another IDOT project &emdash; the Wikaduke Trail, a similar ring road roughly paralleling Route 59.
Other developers with more at stake had little to say.
Chicago attorney Ron Cope's Town Center, proposed on 134 acres bounded by Galena Boulevard and Routes 47 and 56, would be directly adjacent to the beltway, should McCoy's version be favored. Cope didn't want to comment, saying that he was still studying the maps.
Another developer making little comment was Neumann Homes, builder of the Walnut Woods subdivision, just south of Interstate 88.
Sugar Grove village officials oppose McCoy's outer belt version, saying the Walnut Woods project likely would be impacted. Ramps likely would be built to handle traffic going from Route 56 onto westbound Interstate 88, they say.
Yet, Cory Singer, spokesman for Neumann Homes, says the company doesn't believe that any of Neumann's communities would be impacted by the roadway proposals.