Opponents of a plan to build more than 1,900 homes outside of St. Charles made their feelings known about the proposal during a plan commission meeting on Wednesday night.
With many wearing “Save La Fox” buttons and others carrying signs that said “Pulte Go Home,” more than 150 people filled the council chamber at the St. Charles city hall as plan commissioners reviewed the concept plan.
Pulte Home Co. LLC filed a concept plan with St. Charles for a development it calls Charles Farm in an area generally south of Route 38, west of Brundige Road, north of Keslinger Road and east of Harley Road. The company is requesting that the city annex the site.
On Wednesday, plan commission Chairman Peter Vargulich said he thought the plan is “workable.”
“But the plan on whole is missing what I call some sensitivity issues,” he added.
Vargulich said he thought more of a transition was needed from farms on Brundige Road to the houses in the development.
Rustic Road Farm in La Fox, located on Brundige Road, is along the eastern edge of a proposed development.
Sandy Bressner/Shaw Local News Network
Pulte has proposed building a Del Webb age-restricted housing community on half the site, with single-family detached houses and townhouses on the rest.
It is near the unincorporated village of La Fox.
The commission heard a presentation by Pulte. It then asked questions about walking paths, the prices for the homes, amenities, and the size of a buffer between the development and four farms on Brundige, which is an official “rustic road” for Kane County.
Along a rustic road, developments must maintain a historic rural/natural “viewscape” for a certain amount of feet from the roadway. The farms include a spot that hosts weddings and a new vineyard and winery.
Some protesters wanted the commission to discuss why the city would even consider annexing the site. They said it touches St. Charles by just 1,300 feet on the northeast corner.
“I don’t think anybody in this room gives a damn about a bike path right now,” one speaker from Campton Hills said.
“This proposal is way beyond tweaking. It needs to become a clean-sheet development. But it does not go through St. Charles, with all due respect,” said former county board member Drew Frasz, the president of the La Fox Civic Association. “Please do not take the bait the developer is dangling.”
The development would be in Campton and Geneva townships. The Campton Township board voted Tuesday to oppose it. Campton Hills Village President Barb Wojnicki and Elburn Village President Jeff Walter have also sent letters of opposition.
“For decades, Elburn has worked with the La Fox community and others to promote growth while also preserving green-space delineation between our communities,” Walter wrote. “This proposal will jump St. Charles over a large open-space complex and land a large residential development on top of La Fox with no connectivity to St. Charles.”
Much of the site is the same area proposed for a development in the early 2000s. La Fox-area residents ultimately worked with a developer to come up with a less dense proposal in 2007. It would have been developed under the authority of Kane County.