The Brawl About Sprawl

Suburban sprawl is a big problem in America. Suburban sprawl has even been featured in a recent article in National Geographic. Studies show conclusively that we are consuming land at a much faster pace than warranted by the percent increase in our population. Who is responsible for this? What is really happening? When will it stop? Where are communities that are willing to do something about sprawl? And, why can't we figure out what to do?

It turns out that that the answers to these questions are slightly more complex than one might initially consider. In 2001, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources completed a significant study that outlined some of the major macro-economic trends that are driving the suburban sprawl "monster" across our landscape.

The following list has been adapted from that study. Here are twelve macro-economic trends that encourage the suburbs to sprawl: (including some that might surprise you)

1. People move to the suburbs because it's a desirable place to live.
2. The total number of people living in each dwelling unit is getting smaller.
3. Gas is still very cheap by world standards and Americans love their cars.
4. The only thing disappearing faster than our farms is the farming life style.
5. Technology is devaluing our downtowns and central business districts.
6. Global competition is eliminating factory jobs and eroding our manufacturing base.
7. Our service economy creates jobs that are less concentrated and more mobile.
8. When local government underestimates the cost of growth, residential development on the fringe appears artificially cheap. Yes, even with impact fees.
9. Our income tax codes, interest rate deductibility and capital gain treatments promote the ownership of the most expensive home one can afford.
10. Municipal competition draws commercial development away from the regional core.
11. Our property tax system encourages communities to annex and build only high-priced housing.
12. Our rigid zoning ordinances arbitrarily separates people from jobs, shopping, recreation and worship. It's not that Americans don't like to walk, there's no place to walk any more.

These trends are working in the background today to encourage suburban sprawl. But, let me give you one very good reason that we should resist those trends and and choose to build compact communities with balanced growth.

This quote comes from growth economics professor Dr. Jeffrey Dorfman of the University of Georgia. In his powerpoint presentation, he states that "local governments must ensure balanced growth" within their communities. He further concludes that pursuing "sprawling residential growth is a certain ticket to fiscal ruin."

Wow! Please read that last quote again and then let it sink in. "Sprawling residential growth is a certain ticket to fiscal ruin." Franky, Dr. Dorfman has not left us a lot of "wiggle" room in that quote.

The IDNR study identifies the trends that are driving the suburban sprawl phenomenon. And, Dr. Dorfman is telling us exactly what is going to happen to our communities if we follow those trends. I would think that most local officials would want to learn as much as they can about suburban sprawl before they risk ruining their communities. Wouldn't you?

Rules of the Blog

I started this Elburn mayor's web blog as an experiment. After noticing the blogging phenomenon that played a integral part in the recent Bush-Kerry campaign, I wanted to see how Elburn residents would respond to a more tech-saavy source of information about their community. I have done my best to create timely essays about our region different from what most bloggers would read in a local newspaper. Please note that I didn't say "better," just different.

So far, your response has been very favorable. Several individuals have posted comments to the blogs, and many more of you have e-mailed me with kind words of encouragement and additional questions. I want each of you to know that I have enjoyed answering your e-mails immensely. One person even wrote to tell me that the mayor's blog had inspired her to start a web log of her own. That was an exceptionally nice comment to make, and it was a pleasure to subsequently meet this person to talk about Elburn, blogging and life in general.

But, as this blogging experiment continues to evolve, it occurs to me that we are going to need a few rules for the blog. It hasn't happened yet, but the "first rule" of the blog is that there will be no profanity allowed in the posted comments section. Many of the national bloggers have found that as their blogs develop, eventually the anonymous comments become so nasty that those sections have to be hidden, or eventually turned completely off. I sincerely hope that we will never have to do that here in Elburn.

The "second rule" of the blog is that I will never publish comments to the blog anonymously, or have comments planted anonymously in this blog by someone else acting on my behalf. For the most part, once a blog is published, I intend to simply sit back, stay silent and listen to you. As long as the comments continue in a responsible fashion, we can have this diaologue about our community. Hopefully, we can learn more about each other, and get a better sense of what each of us dreams about for Elburn and our future together.

That is pretty much it for rules so far. Please don't use profanity, and you can count on the fact that I will never post comments anonymously myself. Those of you that know me well, know that I am not one who looks for the worst in others. The trustees of this Elburn Village Board and I are wholly interested in identifying problems, finding solutions that work, implementing those solutions and moving on the the next issue.

But, as the saying goes, even when it comes to blogging, "You can't please everyone." Bill Cosby once said, "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone." Truer words were never spoken.

A Flood of Misinformation

According to a Sugar Grove official annexing a tiny sliver of Kendall County may pay big dividends for Sugar Grove. He apparently believes that by doing so Sugar Grove would have access to the less restrictive storm water ordinance that applies to unincorporated Kendall County. This official also thinks that then Sugar Grove could choose to enforce a storm water release rate of .15 cubic feet per second in their community, instead of the .10 cubic feet per second standard that is enforced in the rest of Kane County. And, to him this is such great news that he can't wait to share it with us in the most recent Elburn Herald.

Now these release rate numbers don't mean much to the average resident of Kane County, but I assure you that they mean a great deal to professional engineers. As a member of the Kane County Storm Water Management Committee, let me tell you what it really means to actively seek a less restrictive storm water release rate.

A less restrictive rate means that fewer and smaller storm water detention ponds will need to be set aside in a planned development. Fewer storm water detention ponds set aside means that more acres of land will be available to be developed for homes. And, fewer detention ponds and more homes increases the chance that someday those homes will flood. In a nutshell, a less restrictive storm water ordinance increases a community's flood potential.

Why would a Sugar Grove official want to opt out of the Kane County Storm Water Ordinance so badly that he would be willing to trade a higher flood potential for a few extra homes? Especially, when each of those new homes is a net loss to taxpayers. If you don't understand this attitude, take heart, because it doesn't make any sense to me either.

Here's a follow-up question. Can Sugar Grove unilaterally decide not to enforce the Kane County Storm Water Ordinance? Does it strike you as fair or reasonable that Sugar Grove could annex a tiny 40 acre slice of Kendall County, and then all by themselves, choose to enforce Kendall County's ordinance on 40 square miles of Kane County? Well, it pays to read the fine print, because I assure you that Sugar Grove will not be able to do that.

Evidently, the Sugar Grove official isn't aware of that tiny sliver of detail either, or he wouldn't have been so euphoric about trumpeting his Kendall County annexation plans. Unfortunately for Sugar Grove, they are stuck in Kane County. They are going to have to enforce Kane County's more restrictive storm water ordinance just like the rest of us. Yes, because of it, they will have to plan for fewer homes than they like, but their future residents will benefit from less flooding. Thank goodness there are some regional ordinances already on the books that mitigate our desire to grow too rapidly for our own good.

Racing To the Abyss

It is interesting to examine the following statements about rapidly growing communities. Some of the statements are intuitive. Others are not so obvious. However, backed by research and studies, each item listed is a true statement that explains what happens to a community when it grows: (The list is adapted from "The Twelve Myths of Growth" by Eben Fodor)

1. When cities grow bigger, local taxes go higher.
2. When cities grow faster, local taxes increase faster.
3. Bigger cities have a higher cost of living and housing.
4. As cities grow bigger, more people in that city are unemployed.
5. Crime rates are higher in bigger cities.
6. Police protection costs more per person in bigger cities.
7. Building more roads does not reduce traffic congestion.
8. Growth is expensive, and the added costs exceed the added revenues.
9. Undeveloped land produces more net revenues than developed land.
10. Subsidizing local businesses actually reduces prosperity for the residents.
11. Tough environmental regulation has a positive economic effect on a city.
12. If asked, most people support managing local growth.

In spite of all the evidence that growing too fast has a detrimental effect, some communities in Kane County continue to push for rapid expansion. Why are we in such a doggone hurry to grow? What's the rush? I understand that time is money to developers. However, to community leaders time is information, and information is power. Each day we don't annex land in Elburn is another day we get smarter and more sensible about growth.

The challenge is to calculate the "real" costs of growth and to incorporate those costs into development agreements that benefit our communities. We can't accomplish that task with a "pedal to the metal" mindset. If you don't want to put the brakes on growth, the least you can do as a public official is take your "foot off the gas."

It seems that some towns don't know where they are headed, but they can't wait to get there. I call it "racing to the abyss." Unfortunately, it's a one-way trip.

A Roundhouse Has No Corners

My Dad was a great guy. And he had many funny sayings that he used to repeat to us all the time. One of them that I always remember is "Head for the roundhouse! They can't corner you there!" It reminds me of the self-fulfilling predictions and circular arguments that communities use to generate the population growth they really want here in Northern Illinois. Their circular arguments go something like this:

First, local communities make quantitative projections of the "inevitable" growth they expect in their area. They use the word "inevitable" because it implies that they can't do anything about it. These local projections are then fed into the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission that keeps track of all this data. This further validates their projections because now they can say that these are NIPC's estimates for growth, and not their own.

Then multiple local taxing bodies set about to plan and acquire all the infrastucture they need to accomodate the predicted growth. Some of it comes from the development process to be sure, but a significant portion has to be raised through referendum questions and bonded indebtedness that increase our property taxes.

Once bonds are issued to raise the needed money, the local infrastructure is expanded to accomodate the growth.

It is interesting to note that usually the bonds are paid off on a schedule that is based on the growth projections that the community set for itself in the first place.

Then, because everyone wants to make sure that the bonds are paid off, the community and its leaders do everything in their power to make sure that the projected population growth actually takes place.

At some point, the local officials speak proudly of their realistic attitudes and their foresight in predicting all the growth. But, I ask you, who needed the infrastructure in the first place if not for all the planned growth?

Here's the circle. We need the infrastructure to support the growth, and we need the growth to support the debt to create the infrastructure.

And, positioned in this endless loop of logic is exactly where some local officials want to be. It is politically comfortable to simply go round and round. And, they can never be "cornered" to take a stand on the "growth-related" issues in their communities.

If this self-fulfilling prophecy of growth doesn't make sense to you, I assure you that it doesn't make sense to me either.

I found these observations in a scholarly paper written by Professor A. A. Bartlett titled "Reflections on Sustainability, Population Growth, and the Environment."

But, I think my Dad must have known something about this a long time ago. Of course, when he told me to head for the roundhouse, he was talking about a building for trains. We're talking about a roundhouse of arguments to politically support uncontrolled growth. There is no place to be "cornered" in that roundhouse either.

24

There has been a whirlwind of exciting news for Elburn in the past 24 hours. Roll the credits, please!

Yesterday afternoon, we received the official paperwork from the US Environmental Protection Agency that formalizes our $475,000 grant from Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. This is a big "chunk of change," and will greatly help us remove the trace levels of radium from our village water supply. We knew we had been offered the grant for some time now, but it is still exciting to actually have the formal grant documents in our hands.

Last night, Charlie Blood of B&B Development presented our planning commission with his concept designs to establish two new baseball and two new soccer fields in Elburn. They will be built on property donated to our village north of the Blackberry Creek elementary school. Work on the fields should begin as soon as the weather breaks this spring. The two baseball fields will be 10th and 11th shared fields in Elburn. I think that is quite an accomplishment for a small village with no park district.

Late last night, I received an e-mail from author Marilyn Robinson stating that Elburn's history book "The Sidewalks of Elburn" is written, paginated and ready to go to the printer. The book is going to run some 400 pages with 92 photographs. I understand that an absolute "treasure chest" of historic photos came from the Dave and Mary Campbell collection. I haven't seen the draft book yet, but I'm happy for Marilyn and excited to see this interesting project come to fruition. The only thing left to decide is how many books we want to order for the first printing.

Then this morning, I attended the ground breaking for the American Bank & Trust on Main Street. Bank President Harry Coin expects to have his bank finished this year, with substantial completion of the building scheduled by Elburn Days. And, as Dave Anderson reminded us, this is the first major construction in our downtown since the Legion Building was built in the "fifties." Wow! Those American Bank "people" had the shiniest shovels I'd ever seen at their ground breaking. This is going to be an awesome project to watch happen right in the heart of our community!

So, there's 24 hours in the life of Elburn. As fast as we're moving, maybe we could get Keifer Sutherland to do an episode with us.

"Elburn Will Thrive in 2005"

I was talking with Trustee Craig Swan the other day and he made the following observation. Back when we were young, Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, always picked a catchy slogan that rhymed with the year to express his optimism with the beginning of each Cub season. Of course, things never worked out for the Cubbies. They were usually out of contention by the end of June, but that's another story. It is, however, with the same spirit of optimism, and confident in his assessment that Elburn's "glass is way, way, way more than half full," that Craig declared to me "Elburn Will Thrive in 2005."

The phrase may sound a little corny, but Trustee Swan has the right attitude. Good things are happening in Elburn, and 2005 is going to be a "banner" year. In the next 12 months, we should hear about several major issues affecting Elburn. In fact, we are on schedule to see both the trace levels radium removed from our water supply, and the beginning of Metra passenger service to Chicago. It is also quite likely that the Federal government will let us know about the TEA-LU transportation funding for the Anderson Road Overpass, and the Federal railroad people will establish their final rules to allow Elburn to create its own train horn quiet zone.

If those four issues alone were resolved in 2005, and that was all that happened, it would be a tremendous year for Elburn. Of course, that is just the "tip of the iceberg" of what we see headed for Elburn in the coming year. With that being said, here is the list of "Prioritized Goals" for the Village of Elburn in 2005:

1. Award Bid, and Construct Facilities to Remove Trace Level of Radium from Water Supply.
2. Work with Metra to Finalize Passenger Train Service to Chicago This Year.
3. Continue to Lobby Federal TEA-LU Bill for Anderson Road Overpass Funding.
4. Work with FRA and Metra to Establish Elburn Train Horn Quiet Zone.
5. Complete Study to Evaluate Metra "End of Line" Impacts on Police Department.
6. Implement Updated Kaneland Impact Fees and Consider Additional Transition Fees.
7. Continue to Work with Cooperating Government Units to Capture Real Costs of Growth.
8. Plan and Complete Yearly MFT Funded Street Maintainence and Sidewalk Repair Project.
9. Complete Phase I and Select and Bid Phase II of Sidewalk Replacement Plan.
10. Pursue Boundary Agreements with Willing Neighbors to Preserve Our Future Options.
11. Continue to Address Additional Space Needs of Village Government.
12. Evaluate Feasibility Study to Consider Possible Elburn Community Aquatic Park.
13. Promote Continued Commercial Development at the Corner of Route 47 and Route 38.
14. Continue to Use Developer Park Funds to Establish Infill Parks and Improved Ball Fields.
15. Encourage and Implement Initial Downtown Fascade Improvement Grants.
16. Continue to Negotiate Multiple Issues with the Elburn and Countryside Fire District.
17. Plan for Additional Village Staff Needed to Maintain Quality Level of Village Services.
18. Use Developer Contributions to Plan for Orderly Expansion of Waste Water Facilities.
19. Continue to Encourage Creative Concept Plans for TOD around Metra Station.
20. Continue to Evaluate and Critique Kirk Homes Concept Plan for Northwest Side.

I must confess that I lived in Elburn for 15 years before I paid much attention to the typical functions of our village government. However, since becoming involved, first as a trustee, and then as mayor, I am constantly amazed at shear volume of calls, events, issues, permits, projects and questions that are handled at village hall on a daily basis.

The reality of all this effort is that the many fine people working for our village act as kind of "cement" that binds us all together as a community. We are free to choose to have fun and enjoy our daily lives in Elburn because of the "behind the scenes" work that these dedicated people do. When you get a chance, thank a village employee for their tireless efforts on your behalf. Working together, we can make this Elburn's best year yet! And then, as Trustee Craig Swan predicts, "Elburn Will Thrive in 2005!"