Looking east toward the Fox River from the top of a hill near Huntington and Circle Drives in Algonquin, by many accounts, offers one of the most breathtaking views in the village–particularly at this time of year.
“It would make a great autumn overlook area,” nearby resident Jerry Glogowski said of the heavily wooded site west of Illinois Highway 31.
The spot’s natural beauty is just one reason Glogowski and many of his neighbors are fighting a proposed townhouse development there, hoping to see the 13-acre parcel preserved as open space or developed as lower-density, single-family homes. They say the 69 townhouses Sundance Homes wants to build would add traffic to congested Huntington Drive, just up the street from Illinois 31 and Algonquin Road, and further crowd Community Unit School District 300.
Village officials said there is little the village can do to keep the spot as open space. For 30 years it has been zoned for multifamily residential use, and to change the zoning without property owner Pat Gilman-Frisch’s consent would violate her property rights. Gilman-Frisch said she does not want her property rezoned because it would reduce its value.
The village asked the McHenry County Conservation District to try to purchase the land, said Community Development Coordinator Jeff Mihelich, but district officials were not interested. The group already is involved in a protracted legal battle as it tries to acquire a 160-acre parcel along the Fox River in Cary where United Homes wants to build the Gentry Ridge subdivision.
For more than a year, however, village officials have been negotiating with Sundance to lower the density of the project. Last January, the Village Board’s Planning, Building and Zoning Committee said it would recommend no more than 58 homes for the site–a requirement it reiterated at a recent meeting.
But Sundance also refused to budge on density, having already trimmed five units from its plans last year.
“It would not make economic sense to limit the property to 58 units. It’s not going to happen,” Sundance attorney Thomas Burney said. He said studies the company conducted indicate the development would add no more than 15 children to area schools and fewer than 50 cars to Huntington Drive during rush hour.
Committee members said the lower density is needed to allow space for a park. For a subdivision this size, Mihelich said, village code requires a park-land donation of 1.4 acres or the equivalent in cash–whichever the Village Board requests.
Sundance wants to donate about two-thirds of an acre of land and the rest as cash. In addition, Sundance plans to keep 9.8 acres near the top of the hill as a conservation easement.
“That’s 78 percent of the site,” Burney said.
But the committee said it wants the full 1.4 acres of park land because the proposed easement is too steeply sloped for a park.
The village’s master plan calls for a park within walking distance of every neighborhood, committee Chairman Lorraine Ritt said, adding that one is needed at this location.
Because no agreement could be reached, the committee recommended the Village Board deny approval of the subdivision, which is scheduled to be considered at the board’s Tuesday meeting.
Previous attempts to develop the property, including a 1994 proposal for a 110-unit condominium complex, were abandoned after residents protested.
This time, however, the developer and Gilman-Frisch appear unwilling to back down. Gilman-Frisch, who purchased the property 20 years ago, said she might consider taking the village to court if it rejects the subdivision next month.
“We have to be able to use that property,” she said.
