Everybody loves a winner, so when the Huskies of Northern Illinois University were ranked in the top 20 in college football earlier this fall, the team and its home town of DeKalb received unexpected national attention.
And, although the Huskies fell lower in the rankings after two losses, DeKalb remains on top for many home buyers.
Located amid a vast sea of cornfields some 60 miles west of the Loop, DeKalb previously for many years was viewed as too far out for substantial housing development. But now, as residential developers push the outer edges of the metropolitan area seeking less expensive land, DeKalb is ready to emerge as one of the next boom towns.
“Chicago builders must look at DeKalb as the next frontier. In the last five years, there has been an increase in residential development in the DeKalb-Sycamore area, which also includes Cortland,” said John Lewis, an economist in governmental studies at NIU.
Nearly 2,000 new housing units have been approved by the City of DeKalb and 829 have been built, according to Paul Rasmussen, DeKalb’s director of community development. The houses are being built in 11 subdivisions.
“The population of DeKalb was less than 40,000 in the last census. We expect 50,000 by 2010,” Rasmussen said.
“DeKalb attracts home buyers because they can get a bigger house for less money here,” he said, adding that other lures include a rich cultural life because of the university and a low crime rate.
Though rural on its fringes, DeKalb has a busy suburban feel along its main streets, many lined with every type of big-box retail mega store.
In the 1870s, DeKalb was nicknamed “Barb City” when it started to manufacture barbed wire fencing. The university was founded in 1895, and today the city hums to the youthful beat of NIU’s 25,000 students.
Because of the diverse attractions of the college town, plenty of available land and a location along Interstate Highway 88, DeKalb caught the eye of home builders. Two of the latest to come to town are Wiseman-Hughes Enterprises and Summit Homes.
Summit plans 318 multifamily units on 55 acres off Illinois Highway 23 (Sycamore Road) northeast of the NIU campus. Called Summit Enclave, it will havea mix of townhouses and duplexes. Base prices for the townhouses range from $119,900 to $141,900 for 943 to 1,389 square feet.
A model is scheduled to open by the end this month, according to Dan Urben, vice president of sales and marketing for Summit, which is based in Hoffman Estates. At least two dozen buyers have already signed on the dotted line.
Wiseman-Hughes is building Devonaire Farms, 330 houses on 152 acres south of the campus — with a view of the football stadium. Base prices range from $178,900 to $210,900 for 1,900 to 2,700 square feet.
Five models are open and are being furnished, said James Hughes Jr., partner in the Wheaton-based firm. Hughes noted that Devonaire Farms is just a 25-minute drive for people who work in the Naperville-Aurora corridor.
Another developer, Macom Corp. of Naperville, has entered a joint venture to build the Bridges of RiverMist on 240 acres in DeKalb. Approved for 475 housing units, it offers a mix of single-family and multifamily dwellings.
The house prices range from $225,000 to $450,000 for 2,400 to 4,500 square feet. Many of the lots back up to water.
Macom President Paul Lehman predicts that DeKalb will take off in home sales in the next two years:
“DeKalb has the advantage of being an established community with all the amenities, including good schools, parks and municipal services. It’s the big city of DeKalb County.”
Lehman added that it has the first exit off I-88 west of the Fox River Valley.
But can DeKalb be considered a Chicago suburb?
“Technically, it already is a suburb, with more than 16 percent of its residents working in the Chicago area,” said Lewis.
But some residents want DeKalb to retain its identity as a small college town.
“We don’t want to be a suburb. We’re emphatic about that,” Rasmussen said. Some think that even architecture should reflect DeKalb’s semi-rurual setting. A neo-traditional housing proposal was considered by the plan commission but was rejected because it was too urban, Rasmussen said.
“We want to be part of the Chicago economic area, but separate from it,” he said, noting that DeKalb’s economic future may be bolstered by new high-tech firms and new warehousing and distribution centers. Already, a 450-acre industrial park has opened near I-88, and DeKalb’s airport will have a 7,000-foot runway next June.
Rasumussen said a resurgence also is taking place in the city’s historic downtown, which includes the Egyptian Theatre, a 1929 Art Deco design, where movies, plays and concerts are staged.
“The residential trend should increase with the opening of rail commuter service to Elburn (10 miles east of DeKalb). Already, there is huge residential development between St. Charles and Elburn,” said Lewis, who is a member of the Sycamore Plan Commission.
The extension of the Metra West Line from Geneva to Elburn is scheduled to be completed by late 2005 or early 2006. As an example of the size of future projects, Lewis said one builder recently presented a proposal before the Sycamore Plan Commission for 1,100 houses on 678 acres. He estimates that Sycamore will grow from its current population of 12,000 to a maximum of 22,000 to 23,000.
Rasmussen said that a total of 1,445 housing units have been approved in two small towns near DeKalb — Cortland to the east and Malta to the west.
But Lewis believes that housing development will not bridge the gap between the western edge of the Chicago area and DeKalb.
“There will still be farms in between. This will not look like Naperville,” he said.
Rasmussen also takes a conservative view on the possibility that DeKalb will be a boomtown. “People think we’re bombarded with growth,” he said. “Actually, we anticipate a low, managed growth rate of 2 percent a year. Compare that with 25 percent in Oswego.”
DeKalb’s infrastructure — water, sanitary sewer, transportation — could handle a population of 100,000, Rasmussen estimates, but he contends that the main impediment to growth is the need to expand the schools.
One of DeKalb’s famous citizens is taking note of its rapid expansion. Supermodel Cindy Crawford, who graduated from high school with the class of 1984, says, “It’s so much bigger than when I grew up in DeKalb. The spirit of the community has changed a bit.”
And not all builders agree that DeKalb’s time has come.
“There are other places that are not as far away and still affordable,” said Christopher Shaxted, executive vice president of Lakewood Homes, based in Hoffman Estates. “Is the price difference worth driving an extra 30 minutes?”
Shaxted warned that higher impact fees (one-time charges on each new house by the municipality for schools, parks and other services) could “kill affordable housing in DeKalb.”
Rasmussen said that DeKalb’s new impact fees set more than a year ago were deliberately kept at a rate about 10 percent lower than towns to the east.
However, he added that the school board would like to raise school impact fees to $3,000, from a current $1,300 to $1,500.
Urben of Summit Homes calls DeKalb an emerging market.
“I don’t see a huge spike overnight. But once the perception of distance goes by the wayside, it will have tremendous growth,” he said.
Hughes of Wiseman-Hughes says DeKalb is “value-driven. People used to think going out to DuPage and Kane was like moving out of the country,” Hughes said. “Now they are going out to DeKalb, where house prices are 25 percent less than in closer-in locations. A new, 2,500-square-foot house that costs $300,000 in Aurora will go for $200,000 in DeKalb.”
Meanwhile, the question in DeKalb remains: Will the football team’s success translate to other endeavors?
“It’s exciting for the whole town,” said Hughes.
“Now people are coming who haven’t been here for years,” said Rasmussen.
And some may even decide to stay in all that new housing.
