News on Virgil Development

Daily Herald
December 20, 2004

Sprawl or nothing?

By Patrick Waldron
Daily Herald Staff Writer

With a population barely larger than Kaneland High School's senior class, Virgil sits just beyond the reach of urban sprawl.

A rural community of 287 in western Kane County, it is little more than a collection of buildings bordering the Great Western Trail.

Residents there don't pay taxes to the village.

Village business is based in a room inside a former Catholic school.

Its economy moves with a single company: Sauber Manufacturing, a truck equipment and parts maker.

To some, that's Virgil's charm. But to others, that's Virgil's problem.

Since its incorporation in 1992, Virgil has been left out of the Kane County boom.

The general store closed, as did the bank and the post office.

Now developers are knocking on the door, and village officials are struggling to see if developers will control Virgil or help it.

"They need something out here," Village President Mark Marion said. "It's going downhill. We need to do something. Whether what we need is B&B Enterprises remains to be seen."

One vision

Last month, B&B Enterprises, a St. Charles Township-based residential developer, outlined one vision. It forms the basis of a new Virgil closer in size to Sycamore across the county line.

The new plan has room for as many as 3,000 new homes. That many addresses easily would up the village's population to more than 6,000 people in the next 10 years.

"It's going to be a nice community when it's completed," said Janet English, a spokeswoman for B&B Enterprises. "Virgil is a charming little village, and there is a lot of potential there."

A new Virgil also is contingent on village board approval, which could take months to secure. All that's certain now is that seven property owners want to sell their farmland, and that group includes one representative from the influential Sauber family.

B&B Enterprises' initial plans would cover 1,571 acres according to its present shape. How many homes, what style of houses, and the layouts of the neighborhoods are details not yet completed. English said single-family homes, townhouses and apartments are all under consideration.

Developers are eyeing a configuration that would produce at least 2,600 homes.

Put together the pieces, and it all surrounds today's Virgil, with half north of Route 64 and the parallel Great Western Trail and half south. Part of the eyed property falls within the 1.9-square-mile village and some outside. The project area also sits on a school district border, breaking into the Kaneland and Burlington school districts.

Those are the details driving scores of Virgil and unincorporated township neighbors to fight the plan.

"They should scrap this whole project and start with a smaller project," said Roxanne Stover, a Virgil Township resident active in the new group Virgil Citizens for Responsible Growth.

Differing opinions

Opponents to the B&B Enterprises plan say they are not against new homes in town. Instead, they believe allowing too many to annex into the city will create new tax burdens and stick older residents with the bill.

Stover points to Sycamore and its more than century-long history of growth that brought it to 12,000 residents. By comparison, Virgil has been an incorporated village for only 12 years.

Generating enough money to create a community 2,000 percent greater than what exists now cannot be done in a decade, even with developer-paid for streets, sewers, school land and village hall space, Stover argues.

"Just because B&B puts those things on a map doesn't mean they are going to give them to you," she said.

But it's those same features and numbers many are complaining about that, if done right, could bring new life to Virgil, project supporters say.

"There are different opinions on how much Virgil should grow and if it should grow at all," said Paul Bednar, an Elgin-based land planner hired by the village. "My job as a planner is to see how much is appropriate and to control it."

Part of curtailing sprawl, Bednar said, is using development principles that promote open space and a mix of neighborhoods with small local shops or general stores people can walk to.

"There is going to be a lot of infrastructure we are going to have to incorporate here," English said.

Ask Marion and he'll say Virgil needs the sewage system, sewers, water infrastructure and roads.

That wish list is central to an economic development plan and comprehensive land use plan the village has been working on for more than three months. Those long-term blueprints were under way before B&B Enterprises arrived, village leaders say.

Sandi Yockey, a trustee and the village's economic development director, said her job is to get residents to disconnect B&B Enterprises from the overall efforts to steer growth.

The specifics come later, she said. Right now the goal is to set a roadmap for the future that at the center includes economic revitalization.

"It would be nice to see Virgil come alive again," she said.

Money problems

With Sauber Manufacturing as the only substantial tax payer in town, the village government runs on $3,000 a month. Past tax producers such as the town's general store closed. Even the town bank and post office blew away.

Needless to say, Marion said, the bills are tight and a simple snowstorm can stretch the budget of this village that incorporated a decade ago to fight a landfill proposal.

Without some new strength, Yockey fears the growth that is headed to western Kane County will someday swallow up Virgil.

"None of us would be screaming if they would grow responsibly," Stover said.

B&B Enterprises believes it can provide all that, plus land for two schools, public park space, a new downtown and area for a municipal center to serve a growing village.

Getting it done won't be easy because many don't want the term "growing" anywhere near their village.

A survey presented this weekend by Bednar shows 44 percent of Virgil residents want no new residential development.

"Growth is coming," she said. "If we lose Virgil we lose our voice."