Mary Manning remembers a Norman Rockwell-like childhood in Huntley, which her family has called home since her great-grandfather came here in 1850 from Germany. “We didn’t have a lot of money during the Depression, but we had lots of room to play and Mom didn’t have to worry about our safety,” she recalls of the whistlestop named for Thomas Huntley from New Hampshire, who platted the original town. “One day, we’d play cops and robbers, the next day we were pioneers. Dad was on the school board, so when they got new buses, we got one of the old, wooden-frame buses for a playhouse.”
By the 1930s, Huntley had a small, commercial center that provided for most of the residents’ needs — groceries, farm implements, furniture. “For new clothes and shoes, people took the hourly trolley to Elgin,” says Manning.
“For many, many years, the sign at the edge of town said (population) 650,” she says. “Everybody knew everybody.”
For better or worse (depending on whom you ask), Manning’s Huntley is history. Actually, it has been since village officials first heard the words “Del Webb.” The Phoenix-based developer broke ground in 1998 for its 2,000-acre, 5,500-home retirement community, Sun City, on Illinois Highway 47. Then, other production builders followed in its wake, turning farm fields into grids of new homes.
After inching up from 650 in the ’30s to 2,453 by 1990, the population zoomed to 6,000 by mid-1999. Now, village officials count heads by the month, not the year. This pace will continue and top 31,000 by 2010, according to a study conducted by an outside consultant and commissioned by the village. The study predicts that the population will peak at approximately 40,000 by 2020, says Village Administrator Carl Tomaso, who has been wearing two hats. Village President Jim Dhamer died last month. “It all depends on our growth policy and annexation,” Tomaso reports.
So far, the growth policy is pro-growth and annexation has been extensive, leading to boundary agreements with Gilberts, Algonquin and Lake in the Hills to the east and Hampshire to the west. The development frontier still exists to the north, which is unincorporated McHenry County, and to the south, which is unincorporated Kane County.
Residential building permits trickled out of village hall until 1998, when the village issued 594, up from 58 in 1997. The 1999 tally was 768 by Nov. 11.
One farm at a time, bulldozers are replacing tractors. The former Weiss family farm is now Southwind, a 550-home subdivision-in-the-works by Cambridge Homes in Libertyville. “Growing families who want as much space as they can get for their dollar” are Cambridge’s buyers here, says sales manager Diane Frost. So far, the builder has sold 255 of these two-story homes with 1,450 to 2,800 square feet and three to five bedrooms. The base prices of $150,000 to $207,000 include a choice of 10 floor plans and various exteriors. Some lots can accommodate walkout or lookout basements.
In October, Cambridge began selling town homes in Southwind, targeted for empty-nesters and first-time buyers. The 166 two- to four-bedroom units will have square footages of 1,300 to 1,625 and base prices of $125,590 to $140,990. Only two-story units are available now, but Cambridge will add ranches in 2000.
Down the road, a combination of family farms is now Wing Pointe, by Kirk Homes in Streamwood. Completed, it will include 462 single-family homes and 158 town homes.
Kirk’s three- to five-bedroom, single-families have 1,400 to 2,750 square feet and base prices of $152,990 to $190,090. Kirk offers ranch, split-level and two-story models. “Sitting rooms off of the master bedrooms — serenity rooms — are standard in our three largest plans,” says Kathy Eiben, vice president, sales and marketing. “Kitchens are large for entertaining and for more than one cook . . . buyers are telling us the whole family is cooking.”
Kirk plans to build 158 two-story town homes with 1,300 to 1,800 square feet next year. The company has not yet announced the prices.
A few pine trees remain on the otherwise stripped former Tures Nursery, soon to be Heritage of Huntley, a 323-home development by Westchester-based Town & Country Homes.
Other builders that have purchased land in Huntley and intend to build homes there in the next few years include Neumann Homes of Warrenville, which bought 413 acres. A spokesman from Pulte Home Corp. in Hoffman Estates says his company is “under contract” with 257 acres in Huntley, where Pulte has proposed a master-plan community incorporating open space.
Buyers who want custom homes can find a handful of custom builders who are building in town, including Monte Kosmicki, president of Diversified Enterprises Inc. in Marengo. “I have a spec home in Huntley now that shows our work,” says Kosmicki. “It’s a four-bedroom on 3/4 acre, with 2,500 square feet plus an unfinished, bonus room over the garage.” The $264,900 price includes hardwood floors and lots of millwork.
“You can still get a 1/2-acre or 3/4-acre lot out here, but not for long,” reports Kosmicki. “Already, the land costs a lot more than it did five years ago.”
Custom builder Bob Dill, owner of R.J. Dill Building and Development in Huntley, has 36 1- to 4-acre lots in Pebble Creek, a subdivision that’s on unincorporated land but has a Huntley mailing address. His buyers, mostly professionals in their 20s or 30s, are spending $300,000 to $500,000.
Existing homes in Huntley run the gamut from modest to luxury. Recent listings include a three-bedroom, ’60s ranch for $160,000; a 10-year-old, four-bedroom, two-story for $210,000; and a four-bedroom, two-story on one acre in Pebble Creek for $299,900. “Historical fixer-uppers rarely come up for sale,” reports Irene Bauman from Coldwell Banker Residential in Algonquin. “Many are handed down from generation to generation.”
Although Huntley is only 8 miles from the Metra trains in Crystal Lake and Gilberts, builders and real estate agents report that few of their buyers commute to Chicago. “Most of them work along I-90,” says Eiben. Like the other builders, Eiben says many of her buyers are moving here from built-up northwest suburbs to the east.
As young families flock to Huntley, it’s no wonder Huntley School District 158 is suffering from growing pains, with some unfilled teaching positions and a student population that’s doubled since the 1996-97 school year. The district just completed one school addition and is building two new schools. Supt. Jerry Hartley predicts the district will present another referendum in November 2000 to ask voters to pay for two more schools.
Will the thousands of new seasoned citizens in Huntley support tax hikes for new schools even though their children are grown? “As one Sun City resident told me, `We’ll support new schools as long as you don’t put a dome over the football field,’ ” says Hartley. “In other words, they see the need but they don’t want the money spent excessively. I’m upbeat about their support. Many of them are volunteering in the schools and two came to a meeting we had last night to recruit more substitutes.”
To mitigate the inevitable increase in property taxes, which now run about $7,450 a year for a $300,000 home, the village is expanding its commercial/retail base. The base already includes several long-time, industrial employers and a mall called Prime Outlets at Huntley. No need to court newcomers, says Tomaso; they’re coming to him. “At this point, we don’t have to try to get more of a business base. I get calls every day,” he says. “But a lot of them are waiting in the wings, and aren’t building until the new population is here.”
The Huntley Public Library already bit off a larger bite of residential taxes to build its new facility, which, appropriately, resembles an old barn. The new set of stacks is 10 times larger than the old library.
As developers donate cash or land for parks, the Huntley Park District is expanding its amenities, which now include playgrounds, ball fields, and tennis, volleyball and basketball courts. In the works is a new park at the Southwind subdivision. On the drawing board is development of the former Deicke family farm into a park with animals.
Missing from the recreational mix is a swimming pool, considered a priority by many residents moving here from mature suburbs. “Residents told us in a survey they would support a referendum for a pool or water park,” says recreation director Betsy Warrington.
Other nearby recreational amenities include the Hemmens Cultural Center and the Grand Victoria Riverboat Casino, both in Elgin; Santa’s Village in East Dundee; and the Illinois Railway Museum and Donley’s Wild West Town, both in Union. Sun City will open a public golf course in 2000. Joggers and bicyclists can pick up the Prairie Trail in Algonquin, which heads north to Wisconsin and south to the Fox River Trail. McHenry County College doubles as a cultural center, hosting art shows and musical and dance performances.
Typical of the new Huntley residents are thirty-somethings Mia and Bill Geheren, who moved from a rental in Park Ridge to a new, two-story, four-bedroom home in Southwind. “We got a lot for $200,000 — hardwood floors, Corian countertops, walk-out basement, a brick front,” says Mia. “It’s great for our 4-year-old son because there are lots of kids in the neighborhood. They were everywhere on Halloween….””
At the other end of the demographic spectrum is Charlie Becker, a Huntley village trustee and grade-school classmate of Mary Manning. “We have an obligation to the new, young people to provide water, sewer, police protection, and to educate their kids,” he says. “But we also have an obligation to the senior citizens in town to keep the taxes stable.”
Driving through town in his Ford pickup, Becker laments the loss of family farms he recalls from his salad days. But, he says he speaks for other townies when he says continued growth is unavoidable. That includes most of the farmers, he says. “Some of the younger ones are taking the money and buying more land to the west, in DeKalb County,” he says. “The older ones, well, they’re taking the money.”
“This is the most critical time in Huntley’s history,” says Becker. “We’re growing so quickly, we’ve gone from simple arithmetic to physics. Now, we must be in a managed-growth phase instead of giving developers carte blanche. We know now that we were too easy on the developers at first. We need to slow down and make sure we set aside enough park land, school land and open space. This land has been here since the last glacier came through. Another few years won’t make much difference.”
While Becker and the other trustees negotiate with developers, Manning is compiling a town history for Huntley’s sesquicentennial in 2001. The celebration will include a cemetery walk and tour of the town’s 19th Century homes. Many homes built by Huntley’s early characters still stand, including those that once belonged to Huntley; Prescott Whittemore, who named the township after his New Hampshire home, Grafton; and Edward Cook, a pharmacist/coroner/fire chief and breeder of exotic chickens.
“We want the town’s history in writing while many of the older people are still here,” says Manning. “I hope it will help the newcomers realize that there was a different Huntley here before they arrived. Things are changing, but we should appreciate what was here. They all want to come here because it’s country. But now it’s not country anymore.”
Becker agrees, offering a more colorful critique: “For a long time, we were just a pissant, little town. Now we’re a pissant, little town that everyone wants a piece of.”
