When you live in a rural area in the shadow of behemoth Cook County, bragging rights can be hard to come by.
Kendall County may be the birthplace of the harvester and home of a retired speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, but it seldom tops the nation on any outsider’s list.
On Thursday, however, Kendall County, which has experienced exploding population growth for most of this decade, grabbed the crown as the fastest-growing county in America, new U.S. census estimates revealed.
Kendall swelled by more than 42,000 people from 2000 to 2007, a 77.5 percent rise that just edged out Flagler County, Fla., for tops in the U.S. among counties with 10,000 people or more.
And despite the problems that accompany growth — the trucks hauling in bulldozers, the road-widening projects, the strip malls and “big-box” stores popping up everywhere — some locals are pleased with an implicit message in the statistics. Kendall County, they say, is a pretty good place to live.
“I think it’s terrific,” said Yorkville Mayor Valerie Burd. “That’s what I want my mayorship to be about. I want to make it the best.”
Kendall’s growth rate far outpaced other expanding northeastern Illinois counties: Will (34 percent), Kane (24 percent), McHenry (21 percent) and Lake (10 percent).
With an estimated 2007 population of almost 97,000, Kendall’s one-year population growth from 2006 was nearly 11 percent. That was more than twice the growth rate of any other county in Illinois.
In raw numbers, however, Will County added the most people of any Illinois county since 2000, growing by more than 171,000 people. Kane followed with nearly 97,000 new residents, then Lake (almost 66,000) and McHenry (almost 56,000).
Kendall officials are expecting growth to continue despite a slowdown in the housing market that has given the region southwest of downtown Chicago a breather in the last year.
Kendall may lack some of its beefy neighbor’s major attractions — there’s no Lake Michigan or Navy Pier, no Field Museum or Joffrey Ballet — but locals note that a lovely stretch of the Fox River runs through the county and a new water park and equestrian center are in the works.
Even Plano — “Birthplace of the Harvester, Home of the Reaper” — is home to a cultural landmark that draws visitors from around the world: Farnsworth House, built by the renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1951. And don’t forget Plano’s Dennis Hastert, who went from teaching history and coaching wrestling at Yorkville High School to being the longest-serving Republican speaker of the House.
The town’s population, 9,415, shot up by nearly 3,800 from 2000 to 2006.
When Burd moved to Yorkville 21 years ago, it was a fading farming community where the only bakery and furniture store had just closed. But from 2000 to 2006, the population rose from 6,189 to 12,596, bringing in major stores and developments. It is expected to keep expanding after the current downturn.
Trends bigger than Kendall County contribute to its growth. Just as collar county dwellers are willing to commute to the Loop in exchange for a bigger house at a better price, so have Kendall towns become bedroom communities for businesses in DuPage and Kane Counties.
But there is also a more controversial side of growth. Three garbage companies have sought (unsuccessfully, so far) to create dumps in Kendall, and a proposed Prairie Parkway threatens to bring further change as it paves over farmland.
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Countywide, new housing construction has stalled recently. New permits in both incorporated and unincorporated Kendall are down roughly 50 to 60 percent from their peak in 2004, said Jerry Dudgeon, the county’s director of planning, building and zoning.
In the unincorporated areas overseen by county administration, housing starts fell from 150 in 2004 to 42 in 2007.
Still, the county’s top rank nationwide over the longer haul doesn’t surprise Kendall County Board Chairman John Church, he said.
“I don’t know that that high of a number will continue,” he said, “but I think the trend upward is certainly going to continue after this lull is over, because there’s a natural flow of the population moving out here.”
Oswego saw its population shoot up from 13,326 in 2000 to 26,252 in 2006, and that figure may be several thousand below the current level, said Gary Adams, village administrator.
During the peak of the growth, from 2004 to 2006, the village was issuing 600 to 900 new housing permits a year, he said. The village is projecting 320 in the current year, but Adams said the town will be dealing with growth for some time.
“There’s the infrastructure and traffic and all kinds of other issues,” Adams said.
During the time of breakneck growth, even people in the real estate industry were surprised at the prices houses were going for, said Lisa Nelson, managing broker with Coldwell Banker Primus Realty in Yorkville. They don’t expect the current slowdown to last forever.
“If you look at things historically … we’re just going through a cycle,” she said.
Plano Mayor Bill Roberts said he doesn’t mind the rapid growth as long as it is managed properly. He adds that the Census Bureau listing wasn’t the only brush with fame the area has had. The new movie “Witless Protection,” starring Larry the Cable Guy, was filmed in Kendall County last year.
“Oh, our main street looked wonderful,” Roberts said. “The farms here locally and the country roads that they used and the state parks — we looked great.”
But it isn’t likely that Hollywood will add to the stampede of newcomers. In the movie, Plano was a stand-in for a town in Mississippi.
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