THINKING TWICE
As subdivisions spring up across the Illinois landscape, by Jennifer Davis For Marengo, "growth" has become a four-letter word. This is a town that, until recently, boasted an old-fashioned Ben Franklin general store complete with nickel candy. Levin's Dry Goods, which used to stay open until midnight on Saturdays so area farmers could socialize, is still a family-owned fixture after some 70 years. Not that there isn't new industry. There is. But, "you can drive down the main drag and it looks pretty much like it did 100 years ago," swears Dick Fish, a Marengo native and the city administrator. That century-old look and feel is something many here want to preserve, which is why residents packed the high school's gymnasium back in '96 to protest the annexation of 6,000 acres, a move that would have swelled this 5,000-resident McHenry County town to six or seven times its current size. But just a 12-minute drive away is another town that has annexed 5,000 acres over the last several years and is darned proud of it. Drawls Huntley Mayor Jim Dhamer, "I don't spend a dime." Instead, Mayor Dhamer makes developers buy the land, put in the infrastructure and pay impact fees. Further, he brags, his small farming town is picky. He points to a new 1,800-acre senior citizen development that will break ground soon. "No kids," says Dhamer, succinctly summing up the project's biggest plus. Others have seen their schools overwhelmed by a flood of new students. They've seen new housing so outpace the capacity of community services that families have moved in and turned on their taps to black mud. But Dhamer isn't concerned, even as he describes three planned subdivisions that are expected to draw 10,000 people to Huntley over the next 10 years. "We're in control." Local control is the key when it comes to growth, a phenomenon that's turning northwestern Illinois' tiny farm. communities into boom towns as Chicagoans and inner-ring suburban residents head west. Urban emigrants are seeking unspoiled land free of traffic jams and crime, and good schools for all: the American dream. But many are finding it is just a dream. Congestion, crime, overcrowded schools — these problems have followed. Further, researchers say, prime farmland is being paved at an alarming rate. Nevertheless, some towns, like Huntley, see new subdivisions and industrial parks as economic development, while others, like Marengo, see a threat to their rural lifestyle. Either way, it's up to politicians like Mayor Dhamer. They make the zoning and annexing decisions. The state has no say, though that could change under proposed legislation to require towns to rein in their borders. "The great paradox is that by moving out there, they're destroying the very values they're trying to get," says David Schuiz, founding director of the Infrastructure Technology Institute at Northwestern University. "But people keep thinking they can escape by leapfrogging farther and farther out. So now we have something I like to call hypersprawl." Whatever they call it, environmentalists, developers, urban planners and some legislators want to control it. Instead, they've found that it's the folks in towns like Marengo and Huntley who have the power to decide who builds where. "If the city council wants it, it's usually a go," says Joe Gottemoller, a Crystal Lake lawyer who often represents developers, but helped Marengo residents win their fight. "Zoning is 99 percent political." Further, the Chicago-area population is expected to grow by 25 percent over the next 20 years, according to the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission, the only state-funded planning agency. Between 1970 and 1990, population growth for that region was only 4 percent. Says NIPC: "Double the current congestion levels and you'll have some idea of the challenge that the first 20 years of the next century presents." Other disturbing results of sprawl have also emerged. The American Farmland Trust, a national conservation group, has ranked northeastern Illinois as the third most endangered area nationwide in terms of urban sprawl. Ann Sorensen says it's worse than that. "That study was based on '92 data. There's been tremendous development since then in McHenry, Will and Kane counties," says Sorensen, director of the Center for Agriculture in the Environment at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, a policy research arm of the American Farmland Trust. "If you 26 / April 1998 Illinois Issues look at a map of some of these municipalities, what you see are these weird octopus-shaped cities branching out, aggressively annexing to the tollways." Illinois lost 594,536 acres of farmland between 1981 and 1996. "And those are conservative numbers," says Jim Hartwig, head of the Illinois Department of Agriculture's farmland protection program. "That's 4.2 acres per hour for 15 years." And six northern counties — Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will — accounted for nearly one- third of that loss. Will County had the greatest acreage loss: 52,114 acres. DuPage County had the greatest percentage loss: 63 percent. Illinois is not alone. The entire Midwest, a region built on agriculture, is facing urban sprawl. The difference, says Peoria Heights Democrat state Rep. Ricca Slone: "Every other state in the Midwest is moving on this." She's right, says Laura Tomaka, a policy analyst for the Council of State Governments. Last year, for instance, Wisconsin created a council to study state land use. This year that state's legislature will consider farmland preservation tax credits. And Ohio, where agriculture is the state's leading industry, is considering recommendations from its farmland preservation task force, including voluntary incentives and coordination of state and local development.
Indeed, every one of Oregon's 157 cities has a growth boundary, thanks to stringent state law. Slone has introduced a bill to force Illinois' boom towns to rein in their borders, something she admits has little chance of passage. "Its purpose is to raise the issue." Frankly, that seems to be about all Illinois can do. Two-thirds of the state's population lives in cities governed by home rule, and the General Assembly has historically shied away from bills preempting city control. Thus, education about the pitfalls of sprawl is the answer for Hartwig. He runs the state ag department's farmland preservation program, which aims to convince towns like Huntley to control sprawl and the loss of farmland. Beyond that, the state approved a law in the early '80s that allows county boards to establish protected areas for farmers. Those areas, at least 350 acres, must then be farmed for 10 years. "Some states give tax breaks [to ag areas], but we don't," says Hartwig, adding that Illinois already taxes farmland at a lower rate, unlike some states. "The main incentive is having the county board's stamp of approval. And the city can't charge you for sewer lines and such unless you're directly benefiting from them." Illinois has 44 protected areas, concentrated mostly north of Peoria. Still, the largest one — 10,000 acres — is in southern Jersey County. Some states also buy the development rights to at-risk farmland, adds Hartwig. Again, Illinois does not. "A couple of years ago, there was federal money available, but we didn't have the mechanisms in place to go after it," says Hartwig, referring to the 1996 federal farm bill. That fiscal year, 17 states took in $14.5 million in federal matching funds to protect farmland. "We tried to pass something at the last minute, but it didn't work." Even though Illinois' farmland protection program lags behind many others, some say plain old information is making a difference. "Municipalities are thinking twice," says McHenry County Board Chairwoman Dianne Klemm. "Their citizens have had enough. I guess you could call it a trickle-up theory." She also believes city officials are realizing there's "nothing that says you have to let yourself be pillaged and plundered by developers. You don't have to be a victim. It's nothing you can really point to yet. It's really more just a change in attitude." Another answer, says Schuiz, is to make our cities attractive again. Revitalize the neighborhoods, make the schools better, bring down crime and people may return for the culture and the ease of living close to work. William Biggerstaff is hoping the wave of suburbanites will return from whence they came. Until then, this Marengo tree farmer will fight for the rolling farmland he grew up on. "I've spent my entire life in McHenry County. I grew up on a farm on the east side, and I've slowly been chased to the western edge by Illinois Issues April 1998 / 27 |
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