Editor's note...here is another great article touting our area! We had the front page of the Tribune last week and now the front page of the Sun-Times Real Estate section! Take a look!
July 18, 2008
BY SANDRA GUY - Sun-Times Staff Writer
Pop-up neighborhoods and big-box stores are the stereotype of an ex-urban neighborhood, but town officials in Kendall County are installing bike trails, intensifying planning efforts and revitalizing their downtowns to reinvent themselves as destinations.
"Many people moving into this area are looking for larger lots but they still want city services," said Valerie Burd, mayor of Yorkville, about 50 miles west of Chicago.
Booming Kendall
Despite a national housing market meltdown, Oswego, Plainfield and Yorkville are still growing. Oswego has doubled in size in the past eight years, to an estimated 28,000 today; Plainfield nearly tripled to 37,300, and Yorkville nearly tripled, to 15,240.
All three have overwhelmingly Caucasian populations, and they boast mostly young families as their core demographic.
Income bracket widens
It's enviable that the area has seen its upper-income population grow.
In Yorkville, the percentage of the population making $200,000 or more grew to 4 percent in 2006 from 2.5 percent in 2000, and those making $150,000 to $200,000 tripled during that time, to 6 percent. Eighteen percent make $100,000 to $150,000, while 22 percent garner annual incomes of $75,000 to $100,000. In Oswego, the percentage of households making $75,000 to $99,000 stood at 22.5 percent of the population in 2006, and is expected to edge up to 23.5 percent by 2011.
Those making $100,000 to $149,999 surged to 21.4 percent in 2006 from 2.4 percent in 1990, and those making $150,000 and more jumped to 10.4 percent of the population in 2006 from 1.6 percent in 1990. The percentage making more than $150,000 is expected to increase to 13.9 percent by 2011. Plainfield boasts similar numbers. Nearly 28 percent of the village's population have household incomes of $100,000 to $149,999; 11.7 percent have incomes of $150,000 to $199,999, and 8 percent make yearly incomes of $200,000 and more.
"This is one of the wealthiest per-capita counties in the state," Burd said of Kendall County. Kendall ranked No. 41 of the highest-income counties in the United States in the 2000 U.S. Census. The median family income was $64,625.
Building booms
The boom times continue, even if at a slightly slower pace. Yorkville, with 25 residential developments going through the approval process in early May, encompasses 20 square miles, and has a planning area of 70 square miles.
The city annexes only upon request, and within one-and-a-half miles of its borders in areas not in another municipality.
Plainfield has quadrupled its borders, growing to 21.6 square miles from 5.6 square miles 18 years ago. New residents asked the village to annex them so they could receive the village's water, sewer and police services, said Jim Testin, community development director.
Oswego has benefited from spillover growth from neighboring Plainfield, Montgomery, Yorkville and Aurora. Its annexations have occurred with the goal of logical and contiguous growth, said Oswego Village Administrator Gary Adams. Oswego has worked out partnerships with bordering taxing bodies as part of its annexation system.
Amenities, natural and man made
The Fox River is an important part of Yorkville's development. The city has purchased 4.5 acres of privately owned, wooded riverfront land at the southeast corner of Main Street and Route 47, and will combine it with state-owned land to develop passive parkland from Route 47 to the Glen Palmer Dam.
The development is part of Yorkville's shift into preserving wooded open space rather than developing the land as a bike trail or some other active use.
That's not slowing the development of park land, however, with the city installing 60 parks this year. The parks resulted from Yorkville's adoption of a Land Cash ordinance in which developers are required to provide a certain amount of land or the cash equivalent for public parks.
The park board seeks to ensure a park within one-half mile of each resident. Yorkville has a contract with the Kendall County Forest Preserve District to develop part of the Hoover Forest Preserve, a 400-acre former Boy Scout camp, as an active recreation area, including baseball and soccer fields.
The city also expects to benefit from the state's reconstruction of the once-dangerous Glen Palmer Dam. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has installed a four-step dam at the site and will add islands that will extend 500 feet upriver and 500 feet down-river to create a white-water canoe and kayak chute. The latter phase should be completed by fall of 2009.
The issue is a personal one for Mayor Burd, whose neighbor and neighbor's brother were killed at the dam trying to save a kayaker who had gotten caught up in its force.
"[The dam] had such a force of water, it had dug out a deep pit at the base. If you stepped into that, it was like being in a washing machine," she said.
The redesign will let fishers find peace and quiet on the islands, and give canoeists and kayakers their own chutes so they will no longer have to go around the dam.
Yorkville hopes to see private businesses such as restaurants and sportsmen's stores open or expand in the recreation area.
"There are a lot of river views," Burd said. "Once you get past Sheridan, there are high cliffs similar to Starved Rock."
Plainfield and Oswego cite similar draws such as attractive schools and safe public spaces, as well as close proximity to natural resources.
Michael Cassa, executive director of the Oswego Economic Development Corporation, said homeowners in surrounding towns have discovered they can get a "nice return" on selling their homes and moving to Oswego.
A $400,000 investment in Oswego can buy a four- to five-bedroom house on a 15,000 to 18,000 square foot lot, with a three-car garage.
As for natural resources, Oswego requires developers to connect its bike and trail system so it has no gaps.
"You can ride all around town and never leave the system," Cassa said.
Ironically, Plainfield may have developed its community-minded reputation because of media coverage that followed an Aug. 28, 1990 tornado that killed 29 and injured 350. The tornado struck Plainfield, Crest Hill and Joliet.
"The community came together, and it got a lot of attention," said Jim Testin, Plainfield's community development director. "The community really showed character, with everyone working together to help."
Plainfield is slated to be a stop on Metra's Suburban Transit Access Route, or Star Line, proposed to link outer-ring suburbs extending from Joliet to O'Hare International Airport.
Another key to retail development is Route 34, the third largest commercial corridor behind Randall Road and the Fox Valley Mall area at Routes 34 and 59.
Oswego is the site of a proposed 500,000-square-foot lifestyle center, The Streets of Oswego, that would house upscale restaurants and retailers on Route 34.
Oswego has already seen its sales tax revenues nearly quadruple in the past decade, to $5 million this year from $1.2 million in 1998.
"That's annual money spent on road improvements, police protection and other necessities," Adams said. Plainfield has seen its sales tax revenue jump to $4.6 million from $1.38 million eight years ago.
In Yorkville, sales tax revenues have tripled in the past decade, growing to $2.5 million in fiscal 2007-2008 from $855,372 in fiscal 1997-1998.
Another mall, the 32-year-old Countryside Shopping Center at Routes 34 and 47 in Yorkville, was demolished three years ago with the use of $500,000 of a $3 million TIF bond. In its place, developers are proposing to break ground this fall on a landscaped, multi-million-dollar destination shopping center with a hotel, restaurants, and high-end retail.
Downtown dilemmas
Meanwhile, Yorkville struggles to reinvent its downtown, while Oswego continues to improve its downtown district.
Yorkville 2nd Ward Alderman Joe Plocher laments the downtown's fate in the face of big-box retailers and shopping malls.
Yet the city's residents appear to want a viable downtown. They chose among four options what was considered the most ambitious: destroying all buildings on the east side of Route 47 and relocating City Hall and a town green there.
The plan would revitalize six blocks, from the river on the north and south to Fox Road. The goal is to see a bookshop, restaurants, an ice-cream shop and specialty retailers that could draw people downtown. A developer is proposing building a 20-unit condo development with six retail spaces downtown.
The plan is on hold because a $4 million federal grant to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has been approved but not funded, and IDOT has yet to come up with a $1 million matching grant to help buy rights-of-way and widen Route 47 in the downtown area.
Oswego is reconstituting its downtown as a centerpiece. It has built a new village hall and is extending downtown across the Fox River.
The village has taken advantage of Illinois First grants under former Gov. George Ryan's administration and a federal grant under U.S. Rep. Tom Cross and his predecessor, Denny Hastert, to install new benches, planter boxes, street lighting, utility lines and parking spaces in the downtown shopping district. Oswego has emphasized quality design and development standards for residential and commercial development.
"You can't build a metal building in our town. You cannot put up a pole sign," Adams said.
Plainfield has spent more than $1 million on improvement projects for its historic downtown, and is restoring historical buildings on Lockport Street - the commercial heart of the downtown area -- to their original appearances.
A diversifying economy
Yorkville, long dependent on Caterpillar, F.E. Wheaton & Co. and Amurol Confections for private employment, is seeing its economic base diversify. Raging Waves Water Park is slated to open in mid-June and employ 300, and a Rush-Copley convenient care medical service will open July 21 at 1100 W. Veterans Parkway with 50 part- and full-time employees.
Many residents still endure long commutes, so Yorkville officials are looking to install a park-and-ride to provide commuters transportation to the Metra station in Aurora.
Plainfield has depended on industrial jobs at Chicago Bridge & Iron and Plainfield Stamping and Molding, but service-sector jobs are now growing at big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart, Menard's, Meijer, Kohl's and Target.
Government job growth
To keep up with the exploding residential growth, the towns have had to expand their own payrolls. Yorkville has doubled the number of its city employees in the past 10 years, to 92.
The new hires included an assistant city administrator, a city planner, a landscape architect and a digital mapping coordinator.
Indeed, 15 percent of the city's employment base is taxpayer-funded schools and city and county governments.
Plainfield has added 71 employees in the past five years, bringing the total to 105. The village focused on hiring police officers, building inspectors and public works and planning department workers.
Oswego has added five village employees in the past few years, and hires one to two new police officers each budget year.
David Krahn, 55, a life-long Oswego resident, says the village retains its close-knit feel.
"You still know people," said Krahn, a former village board member. "People are cordial and enjoy seeing you, enjoy the camaraderie."
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