Fifty miles southwest of Chicago, a planning battle is on.
Four municipalities are converging on the quiet fields and farmland of Kendall County, threatening to draw the pastoral region smack into the ring of suburbia.
Development and housing demand are flowing southwest from Bolingbrook and Naperville to fuel the expansionist fires in Joliet, Plainfield and Shorewood. Minooka expects a commercial and industrial boom along interchanges with Interstate Highways 80 and 55 and U.S. Highway 6.
“It’s going to be very difficult for (Kendall County) for sure, to preserve their agriculture,” said Minooka Village President Keith Flatness. “They’ve got the pressure of four towns coming at them.”
Kendall County officials tried a land-use plan to put their demands in writing. They turned to the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission for support. They challenged the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency in allowing the dreaded development to seep in.
Nothing seemed to work. So now they have invited the converging towns into the fold.
Joliet, Plainfield and Shorewood will each kick in $2,000 and help Kendall County draft a new land-use plan for its two southeastern townships, Seward and Na-Au-Say. Minooka will share the results of its own planning process, which is due to begin shortly and wind up in about 10 months.
“I can’t predict what direction this will take,” said Steve Manning, Kendall County’s director of planning, building and zoning. “That’s why we’re doing the plan, to see what type of land use is best.”
The county has made no secret of what it desires. Though planners expect growth around the towns of Plano, Yorkville, Oswego and Aurora in the northern part of the county, they don’t want any other municipalities to spread across the border.
Yet these days, officials seem more willing to find some middle ground between total farmland preservation and absolute development.
“I don’t think it’s quite that black and white. I think there are ways that both objectives can be achieved,” Manning said. “It’s a big area we’re talking about.”
Joliet has already spread into Kendall County. Homes are going up in the city’s 188-acre Kendall Ridge subdivision, which stretches across the Will County-Kendall line.
And the city gained approval from the Illinois EPA to extend its sewer and water service over some 200 acres of Kendall County, a move the county is appealing. Rich Warrington, associate counsel for EPA water program development, said a final ruling should come from the agency’s director in mid-September.
The state agency is responsible for granting permits to water and sewer service providers, once that service is requested by property owners. In this case, Joliet is the only provider around.
“We’re kind of limited,” Warrington said. The EPA can prohibit service for environmental reasons, but it can’t prevent property owners from developing their land or requesting annexation into a town.
Joliet officials say there is no reason for anyone to try.
“We’re asking that we be treated the same as other municipalities in Kendall County,” said James Haller, Joliet director of community and economic development. “We’re in Kendall County now, and we will only continue to grow into Kendall County.”
Plainfield and Shorewood said they, too, are getting annexation requests from across the county line. Both expect to mirror Joliet’s movement along upscale residential lines.
“We know the development is going to occur in the near future, meaning within the next five years,” said Peter Waldock, Plainfield director of community development. “It’s a logical progression for Plainfield.”
Gary Holmes, Shorewood’s village administrator, said he doesn’t know how soon his town’s growth across the county line will come–but it is coming.
“It all depends on how soon these farmers want to annex their properties,” he said. “We’re not extending these lines just for development’s sake. We’re moving them as the developers and farmers ask that they be extended.”
Minooka has been held back by I-80, which runs along the town’s northern boundary and falls right at the Grundy County-Kendall line. Digging a single set of water and sewer lines under the highway would cost about $120,000, Flatness said.
Nevertheless, Minooka is already negotiating with a couple of commercial developers who want to develop the interchange of I-80 and Ridge Road.
“People are afraid . . . that we’ll be an instant city overnight,” Flatness said. “And the possibility certainly exists. There’s a lot of vacant land all along our borders that could easily be developed.
“Most people who live here are really not opposed to growth, as long as we can control it.”
That’s where all of the land-use planning comes in. The joint plan is supposed to provide an outline of exactly which areas will be developed and which are to remain under the plow.
“We’d rather settle it through long-range planning as opposed to disputes over land use and boundaries,” said Shorewood’s Holmes. “That way each community will know what to expect when we get out there.
“Right now, it’s kind of wide-open, and whoever gets there first will do whatever they want to do.”
