McHenry County Blog

Pat Kennedy has been attending meetings of the McHenry County Regional Planning Commission. What she has observed and her conclusions about it follow:

I have been attending most of the McHenry County Regional Planning Commission meetings over the last several months.

The most recent draft chapter, titled,

"Economic Development,"

is very disturbing.

There are several areas that should cause great concern for most of the citizens of this County.

One of these is the plan to encourage “Retail, Service Destinations” at 18 cross-roads in the rural areas of our County. The draft states,

“Four-corner businesses can provide needed provisions for motorists traveling in the unincorporated areas of the county . . .”

The short-sightedness of this proposal is staggering.

Encouraging these cross-roads businesses would immediately create increased congestion, decreased traffic flow and destruction of the rural atmosphere that the public so clearly stated they wished to preserve.

In addition, they would create what in planning circles is called “an entering wedge” which simply means that they would encourage every expanding development around each of those cross-roads.

The full copy of this draft chapter can be found at this web address.

= = = = =
Click on the map to see all the places McHenry County zoners want retail development. Should people be curious about who owns property at these intersections?

One final thought: putting retail establishments at dark crossroads all over McHenry County will create one other problem: light pollution.

I am certain that lots of people move to the rural parts of McHenry County to escape the light pollution emanating from shopping areas like Crystal Lake, Algonquin and McHenry. A lot of people would be willing to trade nighttime darkness for a slightly longer drive for a gallon of milk.

Labels: McHenry County Board, McHenry County Regional Planning Commission, Zoning

Lisa Haderlein, Executive Director of The Land Conservancy of McHenry County, took on McHenry County's zoning department Tuesday night.

The Northwest Herald's Kevin Craver had a fine article on her and other citizen's complaints, but I thought you might like to read her entire presentation. It follows:

I want to share with you some information about implementation of the County’s new Conservation Design Subdivision regulations.

Approximately one year ago, the County Board passed a resolution supporting creation of conservation design development standards.

In that resolution, the board said it was doing this to “encourage more efficient use of land and public services…promote protection of Groundwater supplies, natural areas and natural resources…”

Specific goals included:

• “to preserve the integrity of the land and its natural functions;…
• "to preserve and restore remnant wetlands, woodlands, savannas and prairies…;
• "to preserve the hydrologic condition and infiltrative capability of the soil by minimizing mass grading and impervious surfaces…” among other goals.

The County staff are rapidly turning it into an ordinance to give developers the ability to dramatically increase density on sites, while virtually ignoring the natural resources, and mass grading the entire site (in at least some instances).

Oh, the problem isn’t the issue of “density bonuses” that some worried about, no, none of the projects that have been reviewed to date actually meet the standards for any bonuses, yet they are seeing density increases of 30-70%.

That’s right.

How about a development that was previously platted with 60 1-acre homesites that is now winding its way through the approval process to resubdivide so to have 103 one-third acre homesites!

Yep, that’s right,

• a 70% increase in the number of homes that will be built –
• a 70% increase in traffic,
• a 70% increase in spray-irrigated sewage, etc etc.

And to boot, they are mass grading the entire site – you can drive by it right now on Church Road in Coral Township.

There was a point in the conversation about the new ordinance where I encouraged people to support this step by the county board, thinking (naively) that perhaps with such a clear policy direction as is written into the ordinance, that surely, the staff couldn’t get away with screwing this one up too.

Well, I was wrong.

And I am not afraid to admit it, and had I known then what I am seeing now, I would have fought adoption of the ordinance.

To the County Board’s credit, I do not believe that the majority of you are even aware of what the staff is doing to undermine the intent of the ordinance.

Lisa Haderlein
904 N Jefferson Street, Harvard IL

Craver's article emphasizes that Sue Ehardt, zoning czar, is about to get the boot.

Labels: Land Conservancy of McHenry County, McHenry County Board, Zoning

Last night the Crystal Lake City Council was scheduled to take up a strip mall and condos for the intersection of Bard and Huntley Roads.

There is a short previous article about the re-zonig.

I went home before the vote.

But, I thought might be interested in the large number of variances being recquested.

Just click on the text image.

The pre-election picture of the property has a Shepley for Mayor sign, among others.

I included it in an article entitled,

Labels: Bard Road, Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake City Council, Zoning

McHenry County Board members don’t like listening to people complain about intrusive neighborhood zoning requests.

The Northwest Herald’s Kevin Craver touches on it in this article.

Recently, there was the end run that Fritz Duda dis-annexed from the Village of Barrington Hills. It was the old Alexander MacArthur farm. Alex, who was a leader in the incorporation of Barrington Hills, would not have been pleased at the higher density being proposed under McHenry County zoning laws.

Barrington Hills folks are quite vociferous and effective when they get up in arms about something. Just ask the supporters of the Fox Valley Freeway, more honestly know as the Fox Valley Tollway.

Two other fights are going on that take the time of McHenry County Board members.

One proposes a gravel pit southwest of Woodstock in the Franklinville Road area. Driving through last weekend allowed me to see all sorts of signs.

The other is a threatened trucking operation on Route 176 near Burton’s Bridge. The Northwest Herald story by Craver that I linked to in the previous sentence says the Burton's Bridge folks convincingly won the first round, but, since the signs are still up, it is obvious they do not think the zoning fight is over.

I also drove by it recently.

What I noticed in both cases is that local residents have their own professionally printed signs and a web site.

Zoning change opponents in Burton’s Bridge may have the public relation advantage because the proposed truck depot will dump more traffic on a road a lot more people take than the rural roads near the proposed gravel pit.

The biggest route 176 sign is a banner that says “NO ZONING CHANGE” in bright red letters on top. The bottom gives an internet site called WWW.NUNDA-NEIBHBORS.COM. It’s at least 12 feet long and probably 4 feet high.

Next to it is what looks like a 4 foot by 4 foot sign with an arrow pointing across the road to the property that the opponents obviously believe will affect their subdivision of homes adversely.

Above the red arrow are these words: “NO ZONING CHANGE.” The “NO” is also in red.

And, there are five small flags flying on top of the smaller sign—in different colors. So besides the motion of the flags attracting commuters’ attention, there is enough color so that even most colorblind guys can see something.

But, that’s not all signs put up by the Nunda Neighbors.

There’s another sign with six flags waving in the wind.

It says,

I didn’t get the top of another sign in the frame, but I think it was on the other side of one of the flag waving signs mentioned above. The message is
Then, in a rectilinear box,
Red arrows point up next to the “Traffic Up, Accidents Up” message and across Route 176 to the proposed truck depot under “No Zoning Change.”

There are some professionally printed yard signs, too.

In yellow letters surrounded by blank ink one can see the words,
above black letters on a yellow background saying.

I didn’t look closely, but I think on the other side is this message:
in black letters on yellow and I didn’t get a good view of what’s underneath (perhaps someone can fill in the blanks in a comment from its picture from this mystery side of the two-sided sign)

And, I saw one final sign. It relates to the Congregational Church that replaced Burton’s Bridge School, with that elementary school district went belly-up and was absorbed by Crystal Lake’s District 47.

It says,

In the future, what I saw west of Woodstock.

Labels: Burton's Bridge, Nunda Neighbors, Truck Depot, Zoning