News on Virgil Development

Daily Herald
January 15, 2005

Voters in tiny Virgil to have their say on growth

<>By Patrick Waldron
Daily Herald Staff Writer

Residents of one of Kane County's smallest communities opposed to a proposal that would transform their hometown from a rural hamlet to a growing suburb are bringing their case to the people.

All the voting people, anyway.

A group of project opponents say they have gathered enough signatures to put an advisory referendum on the April 5 ballot asking Virgil residents if they approve of the potentially 3,000-home Founders Creek subdivision.

"We did not knock on one door where they liked Founders Creek in its present form," said Roxanne Stover, spokeswoman for Preserve Virgil, the group pushing the referendum question. "Not one household."

Last year, St. Charles Township-based residential developer B&B Enterprises approached the village board with concept plans for a massive subdivision that would virtually surround Virgil. If built, it would inflate the village's population from less than 300 today to more than 6,000 in the next decade.

Village officials say they have not agreed to anything but argue something needs to be done to give Virgil an economic and tax base, as well as give it some say in its own future as urban sprawl reaches its borders.

But activists with Preserve Virgil say the village board is going about growth the wrong way and moving too fast. If B&B Enterprises is allowed to annex into the village, opponents believe, developers will take over.

"If Virgil were to grow," Stover said, "we'd like it to grow slow enough to mirror what it is now, a rural village."

Village President Mark Marion said the future of Virgil hasn't been decided yet and all officials are doing now is listening - to everyone.

"The project is not spelled out yet," he said.

As for the referendum question, Marion said if people want to express their support or opposition with a ballot then so be it.

"They are absolutely entitled to do whatever they want to do," he said.

B&B Enterprises spokeswoman Janet English said Friday the referendum question - which was accepted by the village clerk Thursday night - was "news" to the company. She declined further comment on the resident's election day proposition.