Meeting in the Middle

As I mentioned in my previous blog, I did meet with officials from Sugar Grove last week. Here is is one of the many curious things they told me. They told me the Sugar Grove Trustees had taken a ruler to a map, and that they had determined that the "logical equidistant" point between Elburn and Sugar Grove was Main Street Road.

That just didn't make any sense to me, so I decided to grab a map and a ruler for myself. This is what I found out. The distance from the train tracks in Elburn to Main Street Road on my map was 55 millimeters. Then I checked the distance from Main Street to Cross Street in Sugar Grove. I measured that at 90 millimeters.

Still interested, I decided to take a ride and check it out in my car. This is what my odometer measured. Downtown Elburn is 3.5 miles from Main Street Road. Downtown Sugar Grove, which they say is someday going to be at the corner of Galena Blvd. and Route 47, is 5.3 miles from Main Street. Sugar Grove's "historic" downtown at Cross Street is a full 6 miles from Main Street Road. I'm sorry, but Main Street Road just doesn't check out as "equidistant" to me.

This is what I think is really going on.

Elburn is doing a good job controlling growth on our southern border. Part of this is good planning, and part of this is necessity. Our current waste water treatment plant is located near the corner of Keslinger and Thryselius. Because of this, all of the sanitary extensions south of Keslinger Road have to use lift stations and force mains to return to our plant. It's difficult for Elburn to grow south, so why should we rush?

The situation is different for Sugar Grove. Sugar Grove belongs to the "gargantuan" Fox Metro Sanitary District. For Sugar Grove to grow north, all they have to do is add pipe and hook up to Fox Metro. It's easier for Sugar Grove to grow north, so why shouldn't they rush to fill the "development void" buffering Elburn on the south?

The Sugar Grove officials I talked to last week perceive Elburn's desire to control growth a weakness for Sugar Grove to exploit. They said they are "not afraid" of Elburn, and that they don't think Elburn has the "ability or the desire" to counter their plans to cross the I-88 tollway.

Elburn is being conservative and rational about planning our community. We're trying to use the limitations of our sanitary system and our wetland borders to control our growth. But, because of our sensible efforts, it appears that Elburn stands to be encroached upon by the "go-go-growth" attitudes from Sugar Grove.

Officials from Sugar Grove drove to our meeting in Elburn. They know that Main Street Road isn't the "equidistant" point between Elburn and Sugar Grove. Until we figure out that we're all in this growth dilemma together, nothing good is going to come of this.