The 238 homeowners in exclusive Trout Valley have apparently won the right to vote on whether to become the fourth community to join the recent wave of incorporations in McHenry County.
But for now, Trout Valley residents are still on the ropes in their battle with Cary and a developer over a sewer easement and the planned 300-home Gentry Ridge subdivision next to them.
Gov. Jim Edgar signed legislation Friday making incorporation possible for Trout Valley, though he also amended the bill to give petitioners until Jan. 1, 1998, instead of Jan. 1, 1996, to file for a referendum.
The change is expected to be approved easily by the General Assembly in November, according to state Sen. Dick Klemm (R-Crystal Lake), the legislation’s sponsor.
If residents vote to incorporate, Trout Valley would join Barnard Mill, Greenwood and Ringwood among McHenry County’s newest municipalities.
Incorporation could give Trout Valley new powers to fight Cary and United Homes Inc., the Rolling Meadows-based developer of Gentry Ridge.
Lorraine Sheehan, treasurer of the Trout Valley Homeowners Association, said incorporation supporters in the 500-acre community along the Fox River, where homes on predominantly one-acre estates selling for $200,000 to $500,000, “are ready to go” on incorporation.
But Bernard Narusis, Cary village attorney, questioned whether most Trout Valley voters will want to incorporate.
“Trout Valley residents are going to have to ask how incorporation is going to improve their lifestyle because right now they can have restrictive housing covenants that municipalities have no authority to enact,” Narusis said.
“There is the possibility of higher taxes and politicized elections,” he added. Also, “the Trout Valley Homeowners Association doesn’t have to comply with the Open Meetings Act because it’s not a public body.”
In any event, attorneys for both sides agreed Monday that incorporation by itself wouldn’t stop the 1,800-foot sewer line-not unless the Trout Valley Homeowners Association can overturn two recent McHenry County court judgments.
One court decision affirmed the legality of a sewer-line easement under River Drive, from near the Cary Country Club to Cold Spring Road. The other, returned Friday by a McHenry County jury, trimmed to just $45,000 the $459,000 payment the homeowners group had demanded from Cary and United Homes for that easement.
“We contend that the village violated its own procedures in acquiring the easement, and if we win that suit, Cary will have to start all over again,” said Margaret Borcia, attorney for the homeowners association.
Meanwhile, Borcia added, Trout Valley residents could vote to incorporate, and the fledgling village “could refuse to grant the easement.”
“If (Cary) goes ahead with the sewer project before appeals are ruled on, it will have to take the sewers out if it loses,” she said.
Borcia and Narusis said talks have been held, but none are going on now.
“If we could reach an agreement on how close houses in the subdivision would be to our boundaries, the whole issue could be settled,” Borcia said.
Narusis, however, was confident that Cary and United Homes would prevail.
As for the developer’s outlook, Michael Cason, vice president for planning at United Homes, was unavailable for comment.
In the meantime, Sheehan said, the court battles have taught residents that “we have to incorporate so this doesn’t happen again.”
“We’re ready to go as far as getting signatures to get the issue on the ballot,” Sheehan said.
Trout Valley’s easiest win for the foreseeable future probably will be in the legislature. The November session will likely be more concerned with next year’s state budget, building more prisons and possibly a new Bears stadium, Klemm said.
“The bill passed almost unanimously the first time, and I don’t think there’ll be much concern in November,” Klemm said.
Meanwhile, Trout Valley still has some fight left in it, regardless of whether it eventually incorporates.
The homeowners association has filed a third lawsuit. It accuses Cary of violating its procedures in annexing the area for the proposed Gentry Ridge subdivision.
A status hearing on that suit is set for Aug. 31.
