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Deal brings peace to LaFox
by Tom Schlueter
Kane County Chronicle
June 11, 2006
Five years ago, residents were up in arms about a proposed subdivision called Grand Prairie that would
drop 1,600 homes around this historic village.
Then, a funny thing happened on the way to your typical residents-versus-developer dispute: The two sides
started getting along.
“If you keep sticking to that ‘absolutely nothing’ stance, you’re going to lose the war,” said Drew Frasz,
a member of the citizens group Concerned LaFox Area Residents.
“We just decided to sit down and start from scratch, and [we] basically had a blank piece of paper,” said
Peter Brennan, an attorney acting as spokesman for the developers, Town and country Homes and Wyndham
Deerpoint.
In 2001 and 2002, the area around LaFox had become peppered with anti-Grand Prairie signs. The estimated
550 LaFox residents dug in their heels, formed Concerned LaFox Area Residents, and prepared for a long
battle.
At the same time, the developers of the project – now called the Settlements of LaFox – did not find
sympathetic ears with the county or St. Charles.
While the developers understood that they needed to revise their original plan, the land around LaFox –
which now has its own Metra station near LaFox and Keslinger roads – was going to be developed one way
or the other.
Frasz, CLAR President Mike Jessun, board member Jim Morgan, and other members of the group knew that if
they remained steadfastly opposed to any development around LaFox, they would have little say in the process
when the inevitable development came.
The Settlements of LaFox undoubtedly will change this historic village. The goal of CLAR is to ensure that
current and future residents have a stake in the end result and that neither is left out of the planning.
“We’re trying to create a sense of place, not a place that makes no sense,” Morgan said.
It was January 2005 when CLAR and Brennan sat down and began talking. Brennan, representing Town & Country,
and Richard Guerrard, representing Wyndham Deerpoint, signed a letter to be included with their development
application.
The letter includes a provision for the developers to give CLAR a lump sum payment of $125,000, and $1,275 for
each “saleable residential lot, upon all occupancy permits having been issued.”
A civic organization, which CLAR is in the process of establishing, would act as a homeowners association once
development starts and be responsible for administering the fund.
Kane County Development Director Phil Bus said donations to a private citizens group could not be included in
the developers’ application to the county.
“I don’t know what a developer may or may not be negotiating with a private organization,” Bus said. “The
county is looking to get as much impact fees as it possibly can.
“I don’t think it’s unusual to make peace with potential objectors,” Bus added.
In addition to the monetary contribution, the developers reduced the density by 400 units, to 1,205, and
adjusted its plan to locate spray fields for the land-application wastewater treatment to the edges of the
development.
“Once we sort of agreed on the basics, it actually became a helpful working session,” Brennan said. “Many of
the design elements were at the suggestion of CLAR. They are as responsible for the design as we were.”
The developers have on their plan a building that will be used initially as a sales office. Once the
subdivision is filled, the title for the sales office will be turned over to the civic group to be used as
a public building.
The subdivision’s preliminary plan is being reviewed by the county’s development staff, Bus said.
“It’s a master-plan community. We’ve been going through a long process, and we’re not done yet,” he said.
County board chairwoman Karen McConnaughay gave credit to CLAR and the developers for coming up with a plan
that both can be happy with.
She referred to it as a modern development that incorporates smart-growth elements, such as a town center,
the ability to walk through the town center, and using the new LaFox train station as its center.
“It has all the types of attributes that try to encourage,” McConnaughay said. “They approached it with the
right kind of mindset.”
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