The Elburn Planning "Trifecta"

When residents ask, I always tell them that the Village of Elburn has three distinctive planning attributes worth remembering.

First, our village is surrounded by the Blackberry and Welch Creek wetlands that determine a six square mile box of available village space. We tell developers all the time that we want to build our town inside that box first, and not sprawl off into the countryside. We believe that building a "tighter" town centered on an actual business corridor and a Metra facility will have many long term benefits for our future residents.

Second, as yet, Elburn is not terribly threatened by our neighbors. Our town benefits from a natural community separation that gives us more time to carefully think and plan for our future. Towns threatened by their neighbors make hasty planning decisions out of fear. Developers exploit these hasty decisions, and in doing so create unintended growth patterns that adversely affect these cities for years.

Finally, Elburn is fortunate to be wholly contained within the boundaries of the Kaneland School District. If someone set out to plan a "perfect" town, they would most certainly want all of the resident children to attend the same school district. When everyone attends the same schools, it promotes interconnections and fosters a cohesiveness that is difficult to achieve in divided communities.

So, that's the Elburn planning "trifecta." We have favorable geography. We're not rushing to meet threats. And, we have an opportunity to grow our community within the same school district now and into the foreseeable future.

Fortunately, building a community isn't a horse race. And, when we "run for the roses" the only prize worth winning is controlled sensible growth.