Thinking Inside and Outside the Box

• November 3, 2004

The Backdrop

The longtime farming community of Elburn, Ill., located in western Kane County nine miles west of the urban corridor along the Fox River, has felt tremendous development pressure in recent years. This momentum is expected to spike with the expansion of Metra commuter rail service from Geneva, Ill. to Elburn in 2005. In the face of this trend, Elburn would like to remain quaint yet viable, retaining what locals refer to as its “Mayberry”-like atmosphere where growth is managed and residents benefit from friendly and quiet neighborhoods, a low-crime rate, a volunteer spirit reflected in the second-largest Lions Club in the United States, and open space that reflects an agrarian heritage and concern for the environment.

The village’s population rose from 1,275 in 1990 to 2,756 in 2000, according to the U.S. Census, and it is projected to hit 3,126 by 2005 and 20,000 by 2030. The village has a median household income of $67,426. Most homes are owner occupied (86.6%) and single-family (92.4%), with densities in growing areas traditionally kept at or below two per acre, but much smaller lots in the center of town. Nearly three-quarters of the homes (73.7%) are valued between $100,000 and $199,999.

But much is in flux as growth pressures encircle Elburn: Sugar Grove to the south along Interstate 88 has been annexing land aggressively and approving large-scale developments. LaFox to the immediate east has begun to see “St. Charles-like” housing developments. Further east, the booming suburbs of Aurora , St. Charles , Geneva and Elgin have made their influence felt, particularly along the traffic-choked big-box retail strip on Randall Road. The proposed Prairie Parkway, to be located three to four miles west of Elburn, eventually could bring growth pressures from that direction as well.

Thus far, the village has relied upon its informal “box” of wetlands and creeks – a square-shaped area created by the Welch and Blackberry creeks and the Virgil ditch – to form a boundary line within which development is considered and beyond which it is not. But Elburn knows it needs to plan for growth and master its own destiny by taking more proactive steps to preserve natural resources for both aesthetic and environmental reasons and encourage development that will enhance the community. The town wants to permanently protect green space around its outskirts to strengthen this more informal “box,” wind bike paths and other green space through town itself, and figure out how to expand its tapped-out water and sewer systems and upgrade its aging infrastructure, all of which will require new financial resources.

Elburn intends to continue to look hard at new development proposals, believing in “better, not just bigger,” but does not wish to stop growth. The village has invited expansion within its “box” by agreeing to become the new end of the line for Metra. Actual development permits issues have been modest: 76 permits in the Williams Ridge subdivision north of town and 300 in the Blackberry Creek area to the southeast, with several hundred more to come. And more new developments will follow, as evidenced by the 149 permits approved in 2003, up from 53 in 2002, as well as “for more information” realty signs sprouting from numerous area cornfields.

The village envisions a transit-oriented development of new housing and retail near the new train station, which will open in late 2005 only blocks from the center of downtown. The 264-acre site is currently farmland that sits between downtown and the Blackberry Creek development. Recently, talks with one developer were broken off after two years of negotiations.

Due to population increases on all sides and ever-greater freight traffic on the rail line that crosses it, the main north-south Route 47 has grown increasingly clogged. Elburn officials are trying to think through a bypass using Anderson Road east of 47 as an alternative route for trucks and other traffic that will require an overpass to cross the two high-volume freight train tracks through town.

Local schools face growth pressures, as well, while longtime residents already feel over-taxed and have turned down several referenda for both the schools and the public library. After many years with no schools in Elburn itself – children were bused to a 1,200-student elementary school in Maple Park only four miles away – recent developments have resulted in the construction of two new schools. But the rejected referenda have fueled hesitation about creating a park district, which the town lacks.

The Charge

To gain a fresh set of eyes, village officials asked the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Chicago and Campaign for Sensible Growth to organize a panel of experts that would make recommendations on how to proceed with its vision and goals. A two-day Technical Assistance Panel, which convened Sept. 29 and 30, 2004, brought together developers, financiers, architects, lawyers, planners and consultants to think about how to tackle this set of dilemmas. The panel reviewed detailed briefing books, met with village officials and residents, toured the village by bus, and deliberated over the issues themselves before developing a presentation for officials and residents given at the end of the two days.

In addition to providing answers for Elburn, the recommendations developed could help create a model for ULI and the Campaign for Sensible Growth to apply in other settings. In its policy paper, “Greenfield Development Without Sprawl: The Role of Planned Communities,” ULI recommends combining planned open space, regional transportation planning and mixed-use developments with diverse housing choices. The panel indicated that Elburn could respond to these general recommendations with specific action.

Major Recommendations

For Elburn to achieve its interlinked set of goals and objectives, the panelists divided its presentation into four areas:

Vision

The village needs to plan its future, including streets, blocks and park locations, to give developers a vision for how the community will develop, from small lots close to the transit-oriented development site, to larger lots on the perimeter of the village. The panel recommended proactively executing the vision of the village through the following action:

• To manage growth, keep suburbia from engulfing Elburn and permanently stamp the area along the “emerald necklace” as open space, negotiate boundary agreements with all its neighbors, particularly fast-growing towns like Sugar Grove.
• To protect its small-town feel while accommodating growth, create a detailed comprehensive plan establishing the town framework and include design principles, down to the block level.
• To ensure fulfillment of the vision, use additional and innovative regulatory and financial implementation tools (see below, under implementation).

Countryside conservation development

• To protect the “emerald necklace” of open space and natural waters resources, work with Kane County Forest Preserve District to acquire land and/or easements’ and retain 250-foot buffers on both sides of the streams that make up the “box.”
• To insure completion of developments that meet the community’s needs, require developers to do their part in the development of new proposals to connect bicycle and pedestrian paths.
• To protect open space and provide recreation, inventory assets to save and establish a park district for both land acquisition and programming. Preserve the Lions Club ball field and the gun club (southwest of town) for recreation through conservation easements.
• To promote a healthy lifestyle, adopt a community-wide bicycle trail plan, with all paths linking into a village-wide network.
• To attract a wide mix of demographics including seniors and young couples, both to help support schools and to foster a wider sense of community, encourage mixed-use and multi-family housing in approving new developments and increase density beyond two units per acre.
• To maintain the rural feel, create true parkways along major collector roads and along Routes 38 and 47.
• To free up usable open space, mix housing uses, cluster housing and offer density bonuses beyond two units per acre in exchange for reduced impervious surfaces.
• To improve the overall environment and retain an agrarian aesthetic, plant more and larger trees as well as native landscaping along parkway collector streets and set houses back from major streets while requiring that they face the streets.
• To improve stormwater management and slow traffic flow in subdivisions, reduce street widths.
• To improve stormwater management plant natural vegetation and naturalize all detention ponds (leaving an area open for fishing in those ponds the village stocks).

In-town transit-oriented development

Adjacent to the new Metra station is a large site being considered for transit oriented development. The following recommendations were made regarding that area.

• To develop the area near the train station most effectively, scatter parking lots, mix housing and retail, focus on a weekend draw like a farmer’s market, and try to link the area to the old downtown.
• To make the site effective, incorporate linkages to the station, downtown, and the larger community and region. Concepts to include in the plan include flexible uses to respond to market demand in the station zone, open space between the development and the proposed new overpass.
• To promote availability of a variety of housing for all ages, building types should include mixed-use residential and retail; mixed-use flats over retail; multi-family; duplexes, townhomes and single family residential.
• To maneuver traffic around the transit-oriented development without bisecting the town, build a bypass road that extends Anderson Road south and then west to connect Route 38 to Keslinger Road .
• To ground the TOD plan, define the size and character of blocks and establish standards for streets, parkways and sidewalks, and bikeways.
• To capture trips within the transit-oriented development (TOD), consider a divided parkway design for the bypass with a wide sweep around the new development.
• To help redevelop the old downtown, consider using a tax-increment financing (TIF) district as a conservation tool and explore becoming a Main Street community, focusing on a niche market.
• To bring in large-scale retail, set aside land near Routes 38 and 47; to accommodate industrial uses, consider the area west of town near I-88.

Implementation

The panel emphasized that Elburn needs to proactively execute this vision in the face of rapidly accelerating development on all sides. They agreed strongly with village leaders’ expressed desire to provide a wide variety of housing types, which would ensure that Elburn retains the multigenerational character that many suburbs have lost, with young adults and elderly unable to afford – or not desirous of – large, single-family homes on half-acre lots. Bigger-box retail could work inside the town’s box and would be a needed contributor to the tax base, but competition from Randall Road is stiff – and Elburn should be sure not to snuff out the retail its downtown and new transit-oriented development, the panel said.

Continuing to maintain open space around and within the town is not only central to the town’s vision but adds value to all development, the panel said. But panel members do not think the town is currently doing enough, which chair Gregory Hummel said “is probably a central, hard message we want to deliver.” The panel urged city leaders to articulate the vision behind their broad comprehensive plan in greater detail by showing where future parks, roadways and other public facilities would be located, providing a framework that shows what uses should occur in each sector of the community. “You tell the landowners what you want,” said panel member Steven Friedman. “It will shape how your community feels, how walk-able it is and how interconnected it is.” In addition, they emphasized the need for tying a comprehensive plan to financial plan and a natural resources inventory. Take an inventory of natural assets, the panel said, in order to protect them upfront, and use floodplains for recreational activities. Additional parks will be needed for recreation as the community grows, and the panel recommended siting them now so future developers know where they should be located.

Routing truck traffic around the new transit-oriented development and providing amenities within the development such as a convenience store or drycleaners will help cut down on traffic through the center of downtown. A boulevard-like design for the new Anderson Road byway should be more pedestrian-friendly and less likely to divide the community in half. Retail should be sited near the train station with parking pushed toward the edges of the station area so people walk through the retail area.

Soccer and other play fields could provide a buffer near the overpass, and parking lots near the station could be used for parking for recreation events in the evenings and on the weekends. Additional parking could be located north of the tracks for commuters coming from that direction. A wider sweep for the bypass would maximize mixed-use synergies and sales-tax revenues, and it might be cheaper to build, since it would cross the train tracks at a narrower point further east of downtown.

A key issue is the financial planning that must be done before development overwhelms the village’s vision. Financial tools to protect the streams of the emerald necklace include land purchase and bonds, as well as conservation easements. Other tools the community must analyze prior to approving development include annexation agreements, incentives of density bonuses or transferable development rights. Financing sources include federal, state and local grants; and partnerships with non profit organizations.

To utilize all of these, the village needs a complete financial plan and capital budget, the use of general obligation bonding, alternative revenue bonds, developer exactions, and special service areas. The panel recommendation a TIF for the downtown and TOD site and listed more than dozen sources of grants, loans, and project financing sources.

“You have an absolutely wonderful opportunity,” Hummel concluded. “We’re excited. We think you’re on the verge of greatness.”

ULI Chicago and Campaign for Sensible Growth Panel Members Gregory W. Hummel, Panel Chair and Partner, Bell, Boyd & Lloyd, LLC, Chicago Robert E. Cowhey, President, Cowhey Gudmundson Leder, Ltd., Itasca

Douglas Farr, Founding Principal, President, Farr Associates Architecture and Urban Design, Chicago

Stephen B. Friedman, President, S.B. Friedman & Co., Chicago

David K. Hill, Chairman and CEO, Kimball Hill Homes, Rolling Meadows

William R. Humphrey, Illinois State Director, The Conservation Fund, Chicago

Diane Legge Kemp, Principal, DKL Architecture, Inc., Chicago

Joyce O’Keefe, Assistant Director, Openlands Project, Chicago

Bruce A. Reid, Executive Vice President, Arthur Hill & Company, LLC, Evanston

Randy Tharp, Senior Vice President – Construction, A. Epstein & Sons International, Inc., Chicago

Nicholas F. Wilder, President, Waveland Partners, Chicago

Sponsor Representatives David B. Morrison, Village Administrator, Village of Elburn

Dr. James L. Willey, Mayor, Village of Elburn

ULI and Campaign for Sensible Growth Participants Scott Goldstein , Chair, ULI Chicago Public Policy Committee, Vice President of Policy & Planning, Metropolitan Planning Council, Chicago Ellen Shubart , Manager, Campaign for Sensible Growth, Chicago Cindy McSherry, District Council Coordinator, ULI Chicago, Chicago

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