The Huntley Farmside

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4-H Awards
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The HiHifleY Famiside
Thursday, September 9,1999
A Press Publications newspaper ar serving the Huntley community
Volume 29, Issue 36
Development plan gets cold reception
Tim Anderson
Press Publications
DRH Cambridge Homes can de¬ velop the approximately 500 acres it conb'ols on the north side of town, but the company's plans are not getting a warm welcome from the Wlage Board.
Trustees on Sept 2 told Cambridge President Jerry Conrad they were not interested in his request to create a Special Service Area at the site, lo¬ cated near Route 47 and Reed Itoad, which is known as the Inland property.
A Special Service Area is a special tax levied only for homeowners and residents living in a particular area or subdivision. The tax raises money for
services such as roads, sewer and wa¬ ter.
Conrad proposed a $32 million Spe¬ cial Service Area for the Inland prop¬ erty. Although there was no official vote last week, several trustees did not hesitate to tell Conrad what chances the special tax had of being approved.
"I'm not even interested in discuss¬ ing the SSA," Trustee Sue Paulsen said.
Conrad requested the Special Ser¬ vice Area as part of a proposal to alter development plans for the Inland property, which has been zoned pri¬ marily for single-femily and multi- family homes.
Conrad said Cambridge would like to create more single-family homes
and fewer multifamily homes (town- houses and condominiums) at the site. The proposal, though, would mean the single-family homes would need to be built on lots of less than 10,000 square feet, which village officials recently have determined as a minimiun lot size for new developments.
"I'm not comfortable with it [the proposed changes] at all," Paidsen said.
Plans for the Inland property ap¬ proved by a previous Huntley Wlage Board allow for 600 sin^e-family homes and 1,200 multifamily units.
Conrad said Cambridge could go ahead with plans already approved by the village when the Inland property was annexed. His alternate proposal calls for 1,050 single-family homes and
600 multifamily units.
He said his proposed changes would help Cambridge and be good for Huntley by creating a more diverse housing stock.
The Village Board, though, appeared luunoved.
"Either do what you have to do as a businessman or propose something else," Paulsen said. .
Trustee Dennis Beeskow said he would rather see the property left un¬ developed.
"We're getting inimdated by build¬ ers," said Beeskow, adding that he would not vote for the Special Service Area. "You know what this town is going to look like in three years? ... It's going to be a zoo."
New beginnings
The recent start of the 1999-2000 school year saw the first classes being held in the new Huntley iUliddle School addition at the iHarmony Road Campus.
Board to consider zoning restrictions for adult businesses
Tim Anderson
Press Publications
The Himtley Village Board on Sept. 2 discussed the pos¬ sibility of creating an ordi¬ nance that would regulate the location of adult- entertainment businesses in town.
The McHenry County Board and some neighboring towns already have passed adult- entertainment zoning ordi¬ nances, which target busi¬ nesses such as adult book and video stores and exotic- dancing establishments.
Village Administrator Carl Tomaso said there are no pe¬ titions before the village re¬ garding adult-entertainment businesses; however, with the number of developers inter¬ ested in Huntley growing, so are the number of uses, Tomaso said.
The ordinance could put restrictions   on   where   an
adult-entertainment business is opened and on hoiu^ of operation.
Municipalities cannot out¬ right ban adult-entertainment businesses from their town. Such actions have been deemed unconstitutional by the courts, said Drew Pet- terson, planner for the village of Huntley.
Petterson said the village can "look at areas to protect," such as schools, parks, churches and residential areas.
After all the restrictions are in place, there must be at least 5 percent of the village left where adult-entertainment businesses are allowed to open, Petterson said.
"The idea is not to regulate free speech, but to prevent some of the negative effects [of adult-entertainment busi¬ nesses]," Petterson said.
Those negative effects in¬ clude lower property values for neighboring residences, he ¦   ZONING, Page 2
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