CAMPTON HILLS
More subdivisions can exit village, judge rules
Recent rulings by a Kane County judge will allow several more subdivisions to disconnect from the newly incorporated Village of Campton Hills.
In writing his decision on five related lawsuits, Judge Michael Colwell ruled last week that the neighborhoods, totaling more than 500 acres, may secede from the village because, among other reasons, the town’s tax base is adequate without them.
Last month, Colwell ruled that two tracts near Dittman and McDonald Roads may disconnect from Campton Hills. The Village Board voted to not contest the decision.
“We’re very excited, to say the least,” said Timothy Elliott, an attorney for two of the five plaintiffs. “This is the way the law is supposed to work.”
In his ruling, Colwell wrote that he was persuaded by expert testimony that showed Campton’s per capita equalized assessed valuation would remain higher than neighboring communities even if the residential areas in the lawsuits were allowed to disconnect.
The affected neighborhoods include all or parts of Burr Hill Club, Campton Farms, Cheval DeSelle, Hidden Oaks, the Moraines, Prairie Lakes and Wide View.
“My clients got caught up in someone else’s vision of how a village should be formed,” Elliott said.
Campton Hills has been fighting disconnection lawsuits in order to maintain land boundaries and population promised to the majority who voted to incorporate the village less than a year ago.
The court calculated that the village would operate at a nearly $400,000 surplus its first full fiscal year.
The judge also agreed with a second expert witness for the plaintiffs who asserted that future growth would not be affected by the subdivisions withdrawing from the village.
William Braithwaite, an attorney representing Campton Hills, said the Village Board would consider whether to contest the ruling.
Colwell will rule on other similar disconnection suits in the coming months.
— Gary Gibula
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ELBURN
Trustees hope for help on municipal buildings
Trustees are hoping a developer will offer cash and acreage to build a new village hall and police station, even though a space utilization study indicates the current site could hold buildings large enough to serve up to 50,000 Elburn residents.
“You did a good job doing what we asked you to do,” Trustee Craig Swan told spokesmen from FGM Architects of Oak Brook on Monday. “But I don’t like it that we’re jamming all that in one place, and I really hate the thought of having the train tracks right behind it blowing horns all day.”
The current municipal complex, on North Street east of Illinois Highway 47, holds a combined village hall and police station, a water tower and pumping station and a war memorial. It backs up to the Union Pacific railroad tracks on its south edge. The village could build a two-story, 26,200-square-foot village hall and a two-story, 39,200-square-foot police station with a basement behind the current combined building, then replace that building with a parking lot once construction is complete, said FGM architect Mary Ann O’Hara.
“I know police departments prefer to have everything on one level, but that’s just not feasible at this location,” she said. “Stormwater management is kind of a big issue on this site.”
A detention pond would take up about one-fifth of the site, preliminary plans show.
It would cost between $22.3 million and $25 million to build and furnish the proposed village hall and police station, depending on the construction materials used and whether the buildings are sized to serve a village of 25,000 residents or 50,000 residents, O’Hara said. Elburn officials estimate the village’s current population is about 5,000.
“We’ll have to wait for a developer or two to put up some money and maybe some land,” trustee William Grabarek said.
Two major subdivisions will come up for annexation agreements this year, Village Administrator Dave Morrison said.
— Denise Linke