Elburn Village President Jeff Walter says he was surprised to see media reports about a developer’s plans for 970 acres outside of St. Charles.
“This is a big surprise to us that something like this would come this far west,” he said.
Pulte Home Co. LLC has submitted a concept plan for the proposed Charles Farm with a request for annexation to the city of St. Charles to build a 970-acre residential development of more than 2,000 residential units. The plan calls for a Del Webb 967-unit active seniors community, 846 single-family homes, 198 townhouses, and 15 acres of commercial development.
The western border of the proposed development, Harley Road, is about a mile from Elburn’s border.
“For decades, Elburn has worked with the La Fox community and others to promote growth while also preserving green space delineation between our communities,” wrote Walter in a statement to St. Charles Mayor Vitek and the St. Charles development director. “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.”
Walter said that this proposed development would also result in confusing layers of school districts, fire districts and other agency lines.
Walter said that the village of Elburn, along with a number of other surrounding government agencies, have supported Drew Frasz, former Kane County Board member and president of the La Fox Civic Association, in coming to terms with several developers over the past 24 years to oppose large-scale, high-density developments that would have disrupted the rural community identity of La Fox it wants to maintain.
The area includes the La Fox Historic District, Rustic Road designated Brundige Road, and over two miles of Mill Creek, which contains endangered species.
After four years of working together, Frasz and the other members of the La Fox Association were successful in reaching an agreement between La Fox and a developer to build “Settlements of La Fox” community of 1,275 dwelling units on 1,200 acres and 45% open space with Kane County oversight.
The Kane County Board approved that plan in 2007. However, it was put on hold by the 2008 recession.
Frasz said the development proposed by Pulte has over twice the density of the previously negotiated agreement.
He said that the developer has not reached out to the community of La Fox, and the plan ignores the La Fox Historical District and the Brundige Road Rustic Road designation.
Pulte Homes will present its concept plan for the development at the St. Charles Plan Commission meeting at 7 p.m. tonight, Sept. 4.