![]() “The devil is in the detail,” said Sugar Grove resident Mari Johnson, who lost her long-held seat on the village board because of the 2019 backlash to the earlier development plan. Many I’ve spoken to see this project as a “done deal.” Others say the focus must now be on zoning, annexation and the TIF agreement, which likely will be bundled for approval from village leaders later in the year. It’s a statement that often gets eye-rolls from those who are dead-set against warehousing, as does the village’s much-repeated mantra to “trust the process.” ![]() “We control what the buyers adhere to,” she said, specifically mentioning architectural enhancements and landscaping as examples that could improve the aesthetics of those large buildings they insist must be part of the development to make it feasible. Those comments - not surprisingly - are echoed by Crown Director of Community Development Jennifer Cowan, who told me the company is taking in feedback and meeting internally as a team to discuss modifications to the plan and/or additional enhancements. Officials will be involved in plenty of negotiations, analytics, engineering and consulting to make sure “we get the best deal possible,” he said. Koeppel insists the biggest misconception is the village does not care - that it’s building at all costs and that developers can do whatever they want. But we can’t pick and choose” what the market demands. “I’d love to see data centers with lower traffic” versus warehousing, he said. New Village Administrator Scott Koeppel insists most of the feedback from Sugar Grove folks has “been positive,” and that the village is listening to all concerns, including those voiced by neighboring communities. Unfortunately, distribution and warehousing is currently what the market demands, a fact repeated frequently by Crown officials, as well as by Sugar Grove officials who acknowledge that for too long village leaders stayed on the sidelines when it came to development and are facing pressure from residents tired of high taxes and who want more amenities. ![]() There were other Elburn residents at the meeting, but Walter said more needs to be done to “start waking people up” because “they should be concerned with the impact” this development will have on their community. His concern, as he told me in a previous story, is also the traffic that warehousing would bring to his small downtown that’s already seen a disturbing increase in trucks. Reinert is especially wary of truck traffic, as is Elburn Mayor Jeff Walter, who attended one of the Crown meetings to learn more about infrastructure and the proposed TIF. But they are wrong,” she said, referring to the burden this development could place on infrastructure, schools, emergency responses and roads. “I like to think people are just so busy and caught up in their own things.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |