Not everyone is happy that tiny Gilberts is about to explode in population.
More than 150 years old, the farming community along the Northwest Tollway, some 45 miles from the Loop, is squarely in the path of residential growth.
Gilberts is just the latest cornfield to be planted with new homes, as the Chicago area creeps steadily outward from its core.
But village president Michael Isitoro has his own vision of the future of the community: “I was elected to control growth. The new subdivisions were part of a 1995 annexation agreement approved by the previous board. We’re bound by that agreement, but we wouldn’t do it again. Today, we would want one or two units to the acre, resulting in about half the homes.”
Isitoro estimated that the new subdivisions will quadruple the population of Gilberts.
“Now we have a population of 1,000, three taverns and a small convenience store,” he said. “We need to build the tax base.”
The face of Gilberts will be changed by the construction of 1,476 homes in the southern part of the village along Big Timber Road. The 571-acre site will be developed by three builders–Ryland Homes, Residential Development Group (RDG) and Brittany Homes.
Gilberts is just one of the rural communities that could be developed with new housing near the northwest corridor that parallels Interstate Highway 90 west of Elgin.
Located on the outer edge of suburbia and the fringes of sprawl, this region is potentially one of the hottest future home building markets in the Chicago area, according to real estate analyst Tracy Cross.
“The demand is there. But the area may not reach its residential potential because of possible governmental constraints. If the villages demand larger lots and more expensive homes, buyers may go farther out out seeking affordability,” said Cross, president of Schaumburg-based Tracy Cross and Associates.
This ripe area for growth includes Gilberts, the south part of Carpentersville, western Elgin and Hampshire. Marengo, farther northwest, is not yet in play but could be in five years, Cross added.
The vast stretches of cornfields along I-90 can create a false impression, according to planner and real estate consultant Allen Kracower: “Thousands of acres look vacant. That can be misleading, because all that land is zoned, is under planning and has been held in speculation for years. Someday there will be thousands of people living there.”
In Gilberts, the earth movers already are grading the 381-acre Ryland tract, which is planned for a mix of 1,060 single-family homes and townhouses in five product types.
Called Timber Trails, it will preserve 152 acres of the site as open space. A sales trailer is scheduled to open in mid-November.
Peter Skelly, president of the Illinois division of Ryland, stressed the benefits to Gilberts: “The subdivision agreement calls for the builders to improve the village’s water and sewer system. They need it and we will donate it.”
Skelly said two single-family product lines will be introduced first at Timber Trails. They range from 1,390 to 2,050 square feet and are priced from the mid-$150,000s to the $190,000s. The other line will have from 1,740 to 2,570 square feet and be priced from the mid-$170,000s to the low $200,000s.
James Coughlin, senior vice president of RDG, said the water and sewer improvements represent “growth paying for itself.”
RDG plans to build 333 homes in Gilberts. Called Woodland Meadows, the subdivision will include a mix of 271 single-family homes and 62 duplexes.
How far will the Chicago region expand?
Coughlin noted that early Chicago grew along rail lines, but now growth follows the highways, such as I-90.
“I see a closing of the gap between Schaumburg and Rockford,” he predicted.
Brittany Homes plans 83 single-family homes in Gilberts.
The Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) forecasts that Gilberts will have 7,186 residents by the year 2020.
One builder traced the history of northwest area housing construction: “When we started to build in Elgin 30 years ago, it was viewed as way out,” said Jack Sorenson, president of U.S. Shelter Group.
“Then the market moved out to Randall Road and now to Route 47, in part fueled by jobs moving out there. Now the trend is going west of Elgin. It’s a strong area for new housing,” Sorenson said.
Hampshire, located south of I-90 and west of Ill. 47, has a population of only 2,500 but plenty of vacant land.
Mayor William Schmidt said the area “is very ripe for residential, but we want to protect the image of the town. We don’t want to saturate it with dense housing.
“We want to spread out homes and maintain the open space by having larger, estate-type homes on a minimum of half-acre to three-quarter-acre lots.
“In five years, I see great interest in vacant farmland in the north part of the village,” he said.
Schmidt pointed out that Hampshire is well located, being midway between Chicago and Rockford, an hour’s drive from the Loop and 40 minutes to O’Hare International Airport.
He emphasized that Hampshire’s housing is no bargain-basement in price: “Some new homes are in the $220,000 to $250,000 range and others go up to $500,000 in wooded, desirable areas.”
Meanwhile, Marengo waits for new housing to head its way:
“We’re very concerned about explosive growth,” said Terry Smith, city administrator of Marengo, a town with a population of 5,000 surrounded by farmland.
“We’re in line for growth, but we’ve had slow growth in the last five years, an average of 50 to 60 new homes a year,” Smith added.
“Though some communities want to slow growth, others embrace it. One of those is Huntley, located north of I-90 at Illinois Highway 47. The village is riding a construction boom, thanks to Del Webb’s Sun City, which is planned for some 6,000 homes on more than 2,000 acres.
Other production home builders have followed Del Webb’s lead into Huntley.
“Huntley’s population was 3,100 in 1996, and projections call for 30,000 by 2010,” said Dave Johnson, assistant village administrator and community development coordinator.
“Growth will happen. The important thing is how you manage it. When we hit 30,000, my hope is that Huntley will still be the place people came here for originally–a small town with country charm,” Johnson said.
However, he noted that some comments about traffic congestion have been voiced at plan commission meetings.
How can sprawl be controlled?
Planner Kracower, president of Buffalo Grove-based Allen Kracower & Associates, commented:
“There should be master planning at the state level that would designate growth corridors.
“Regional planning by NIPC has little, if any, authority.
“County planning departments exercise little planning because municipalities annex county land that will be developed.
“If local governments want to control sprawl, they should not annex more land.”
Kracower, who is the planner for Gilberts, believes that neighboring towns should work out boundary agreements to avoid vicious competition in annexations.
To maintain open space he suggests that wetlands, woodlands and flood plains should be preserved, and municipalities should set aside 15 acres for recreation for every 1,000 residents.
“Growth should be balanced,” said Kracower. “Besides homes, there should be offices, industry and commercial. We’re beginning to do that in Gilberts.”
