Above the massive fireplace in South Barrington’s Village Hall hang portraits of the first four mayors of the tiny town–men who at times fought off developers’ attempts to pave over the pastoral landscape that surrounds residents’ palatial homes.
The fifth mayor of South Barrington, Patricia Graft, sits in an office she shares with the town’s development coordinator. A year after she was elected, Graft is leading the nearly 30-year-old village into a new era of rapid commercial development–a radical departure from the community’s history of anti-growth policies.
“South Barrington has always been thought of as a luxury-home community, but we have a lot of vacant land on our borders,” she said. “Developers and retailers see a good mesh. We can’t think of ourselves as strictly residential.”
With the opening of a new 30-screen movie megaplex and plans for a new sewer line that could bring office buildings and hotels, South Barrington is facing a future as a bustling commercial frontier.
The megaplex alone brought 5,000 people a day to the town during the first 11 days it was open. That’s more than the 4,000 people who call South Barrington home.
But the community’s future lies in the hands of a relatively inexperienced village board struggling to keep pace with its ambitions and distance itself from the controversy of the previous administration.
Five years ago, village officials backed a controversial proposal to build 300 homes on the 94-acre site where the new theater now sits, at Barrington Road and the Northwest Tollway. The proposal for high-density housing led to confrontations between the board and residents and a bitter deannexation suit that ultimately was resolved in South Barrington’s favor after years of setbacks in the court system.
For Graft and the new trustees, the challenge now is not only to heal divisions from that time but also to embrace development in a way that will be beneficial.
The village board recently hired two consultants to help guide the elected officials.
Hiring consultants “is very forthright of the community,” said David Bennett, executive director of the Northwest Municipal Conference. “Skills you can always teach. It’s the attitude that is inherent to an individual or a board.”
But Donald Klein, executive director of the Barrington Area Council of Governments, cautioned: “You always hope they go out and get the best advice they can get. What they have to be very careful about is that they are reflecting the real wishes of the constituents who elected them.”
Planning consultant Steve Lenet was hired to explain land-use issues to village officials and help trustees prepare a new comprehensive plan, Graft said.
Lenet’s fee has not yet been determined, said Village Clerk Barbara Rahden.
The village also is paying $7,000 for consultant Paul LaFraniere to help the board organize its priorities, Graft said.
“He is going to help us decide where this village is going to go in the future,” Graft said. “We need to start making decisions.”
Inviting more development will not compromise South Barrington’s status as an affluent, small community of big houses on large lots, said Trustee Bernadine Rosenthal.
“So long as we maintain low-density housing, I don’t think it will change the perception of South Barrington,” Rosenthal said. “This community is probably far more aware of what should be done with land because of the litigation in the past.”
The village board also is considering whether to build new police headquarters or expand the Village Hall for the 18-member police force. The police department is now housed in the Village Hall, and village officials are doubling up on office space.
