Villa Olivia plan OK'd by Elgin officials, now in court's hands

Elgin city leaders Wednesday voted 5-1 in favor of the controversial plan to redevelop the 139-acre Villa Olivia golf course, but the real decision probably won't come until next spring.

That's when a three-judge appellate court panel will decide whether a covenant banning development on 98 acres until 2022 will stand.

Until then, developers with Ryland Homes are pleased they have a tentative green light. The company proposed building 96 single-family homes and 279 townhomes, but eventually agreed to remove seven townhome buildings and to increase landscape buffers between the subdivision and existing homes.

Residents from the nearby Castle Creek subdivision, who oppose the Villa Olivia plan, were still holding out hope the appellate court would side with them. But overall, they took to heart that they received some concessions from Ryland.

"The plan that was approved is better than what (was) started with," said resident Andrea Evensen. "Could it have been better? Yeah, I think so."

Mayor Ed Schock, along with Councilmen Juan Figueroa, Robert Gilliam, John Walters and John Steffen voted in favor of the plan.

Councilman David Kaptain cast the lone "no" vote, saying residents in the new area would shop in Bartlett instead of Elgin and the services provided to each new home there would result in a net loss to the city.

"The annexation will be a very, very bad business decision," he said.

Schock noted the plan would provide the east side with high quality construction and a key 12-acre commercial development.

"That's one of the things we've heard over and over - 'There's no commercial on the east side, there's no commercial on the east side,'" he said. "It's an opportunity for use to have some nice commercial development on a pretty important intersection."

Ryland attorney Peter Bazos has said single-family homes will start in the $400,000s.