Controversial Elgin subdivision on hold

The housing slowdown has hit the Stony Creek subdivision, a controversial development on Elgin's west side that helped spur the creation of Campton Hills.

While removal of the sales trailer and signs from the 1,300-acre site might have given Campton residents hope Ryland Homes was abandoning the project, company officials say they do not intend to sell the land and leave.

"That's not our intention today," said Bob Meyn, Ryland's vice president of sales and marketing, noting the company has bought about a third of the site and has contracts to buy the rest.

Meyn said final engineering for inner roads, sewers and other infrastructure at the site off McDonald and Corron roads in Campton and Plato townships is proceeding.

Permits for heavy grading for detention ponds must be secured and an off-site lift station must be constructed.

The housing slowdown, combined with the unfinished work, caused Ryland officials to stop marketing or selling homes at Stony Creek, Meyn said.

"We could not move forward and sell homes in good conscience without knowing when we could be able to deliver a home," he said.

Meyn said the engineering and other work should be completed by 2009. "We expect a much clearer picture by that time, if not sooner," he said.

Stony Creek is often credited as the impetus behind a referendum in the spring of 2007 to incorporate the 20-square-mile area now known as Campton Hills.

Incorporation supporters claimed the 900-plus home development on Elgin's far southwest side would encroach on their "semirural" community.

By creating their own municipality, supporters believed they would have more control when it came to preserving the area.

"We're glad to see the homes aren't going up and we'll have a little breathing space before any development takes place there," said Campton Hills Trustee Jim Kopec. "It was not a compatible community to the rest of Campton Township and we're glad to see it get delayed."

The land was brought into Elgin and the project approved in September 2005.

Ryland is still building and selling homes at Cedar Grove, a single-family and townhome development just north of the Stony Creek site.

Elgin Mayor Ed Schock said Ryland's delay was a "wise and prudent" business decision considering the slowdown in the housing market and other companies, such as Kimball Hill Homes, filing for bankruptcy.

"I would be shocked if they would go forward with such a development because there's such a huge cost for infrastructure," said Schock, who noted some larger subdivisions in Elgin took nearly 20 years to completely build out.

• Daily Herald staff writer Josh Stockinger contributed to this story.