Action on Elburn Station development delayed

Five years of planning may start to come to a head in mid-February, as the Elburn village board prepares to vote on a preliminary plan agreement for the big Elburn Station development.

The matter was scheduled for a vote Tuesday night, but village President David Anderson postponed the vote to give trustees time to thoroughly review an inch-plus-thick stack of memos and land-use maps.

Trustee William Grabarek also pointed out the board hadn’t received official minutes of the plan commission meeting at which the commission recommended approval of the plan, and said it would be improper to vote without reviewing those.

Shodeen Inc. proposes to build houses, townhouses, apartments, stores, offices and industrial buildings on the eastern edge of the village, from Keslinger Road to Route 38. The preliminary plan calls for 2,275 residential units, including 1,472 multifamily units. The development straddles the Union Pacific railroad tracks and the proposed Anderson Road extension and overpass. The preliminary plan is the first item the board would vote on. There is a pre-annexation agreement yet to be considered, then final plans.

Shodeen Inc. President Dave Patzelt said it could take 20 to 30 years to build.

An Elburn resident, and a resident of the unincorporated area east of the proposed development, urged the board to reject the plan.

Sandy Kaczmarski said the plan might have made sense during the booming real estate market of the early 2000s, or in five years, but not now.

“I know we live just outside the village limits, but this impacts us as well,” said the Still Meadows Drive resident.

“It’s a bad idea. It seems to be very premature. You look at this presentation and they talk about big-box stores coming in ... Are we on another planet or something? Has anybody noticed what is happening with the economy?

“There aren’t any big-box stores that are going to beating down a path to build on Route 38.”

Trustee Jerry Scmidt, however, praised the plan.

“I don’t see what’s not to like about it,” he said. “ ... We need growth in Elburn. We’ve got to get people here.”

The board will discuss the plan more at its committee-meeting Jan. 23. Anderson suggested that the village could vote on the matter at a special meeting Feb. 12.