Warehouses, businesses eyed for 760 acres off tollway in Sugar Grove
The Sugar Grove plan commission will consider whether industrial and commercial buildings, as well as some apartments and houses, should be allowed on 760 acres of farmland near I-88 and Route 47.
The proposal from developer Sugar Grove LLC has infuriated some nearby residents, who plan to speak against it at a public hearing at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Sugar Grove Public Library, 125 S. Municipal Drive.
A Kane-DuPage Soil and Water Conservation District report rates much of the site as "prime" farmland. Sugar Grove LLC has been leasing the land to farmers.
The developer has not submitted specific site plans. However, a traffic-impact study submitted to the village indicates the first phase of development would include about 4 million square feet of industrial and warehouse use.
Sugar Grove annexed much of the land in 2013. It was zoned for estate-residential, the most-restrictive zoning classification, which is often given when land is annexed to a municipality. In 2014 the village amended its Comprehensive Land Use Plan for this area, designating it largely for business parks.
The village expects the site will be attractive for such use, including warehouses and distribution centers, once the tollway finishes converting the Route 47 interchange from a partial to a full interchange. That construction starts this year.
The developer is asking for the land to be designated as a planned development district, containing six "zoning lots." Zoning standards would be customized for the development.
Documents, including the traffic-impact study, are available on the village's website, sugargroveil.gov.
The land is owned by Sugar Grove LLC, which is affiliated with CC Industries, which is one of the companies owned by the Crown family of Chicago. The Crowns have been involved in real estate investing for more than a century; Forbes magazine listed them as the 27th richest family in the United States in 2016.
The land was bought between 2001 and 2006. It is in Sugar Grove and Blackberry townships. Sellers included James and John Feece and Barbara Hauser, and Dennis and Sharon Nickels, according to Kane County land records, plus several trusts. A Jim Feece serves as a Blackberry Township trustee, but it is not clear if he is the same as the land-seller.