Construction begins on first residential lots at controversial Crown development in Sugar Grove
Work is beginning on just one portion of the development area, set to be the community's first residential neighborhood, according to a news release Thursday from Sugar Grove LLC, an entity of Naperville-based Crown Community Development. That area, located along Merrill Road, will offer single-family homes on 214 lots, which Crown expects to deliver to home builders in 2026.
Oswego-based J&S Construction was awarded the site contract for the project, according to Thursday's news release.
The Grove has been a long time coming, said Crown's Managing Director Jennifer Cowan on Friday. She said that Crown has owned the property for many years, and that 'a lot of work has gone into positioning the property for development.'
Last September, the Sugar Grove Village Board approved the development project and agreed to annex the property into the village and give its developer financial incentives via a tax increment financing district, according to past reporting.
The project will sit on what is currently mostly farmland surrounding the Interstate 88 and Route 47 interchange. It's set to include neighborhoods, mixed-use commercial and residential areas, a walkable town center and a business park area.
The project faced public opposition, however, both before and after the village gave it the green light. In April, a non-binding referendum question was passed by voters asking the village to reverse its decision on the project. In the same election, former village president Jennifer Konen and an incumbent village trustee — both of whom voted in favor of the Crown project — were voted out.
Still underway is a lawsuit against Sugar Grove by Kaneland School District 302, which is challenging the tax increment financing district planned for the development project.
A TIF district is a form of economic development incentive, in which the value of a property is essentially frozen, with the extra or 'increment' taxes created by developing the property then going into a special fund used to pay for costs related to improving the area.
Kaneland was previously in negotiations with Sugar Grove to create an intergovernmental agreement about the TIF district, according to past reporting. But, not satisfied with those terms, the district floated the possibility of taking legal action against the village in February.
The Kaneland lawsuit was filed on June 13 with the Kane County Circuit Court, according to case information on the county circuit clerk's website.
The district is arguing that the TIF district will mean the school district will lose out on incremental property taxes levied against the area for a period of 23 years, and that there is controversy over whether the area should qualify for tax increment financing in the first place, according to past reporting. Per the lawsuit, the school district is asking the village to dissolve the TIF district.
Sugar Grove Village President Sue Stillwell declined to comment on Friday about the lawsuit.
Kaneland Superintendent Kurt Rohlwing said on Friday that the district right now is waiting on an initial hearing, which will likely not be until September.
'We want to make sure that we have a fair deal for the financial arrangements that impact all of our communities,' Rohlwing told The Beacon-News.
But, despite the opposition and legal action surrounding the TIF district for the development, the Crown project has continued to move forward in recent months.
In late April, the village OK'd a final plat of subdivision, essentially a map dividing up a piece of land into smaller lots, for one portion of the development — the part that just began construction, Cowan said.
The latest approval Crown secured was a mass grading permit, which is required by its annexation agreement with Sugar Grove, according to Stillwell.
Mass grading is essentially preparing the land at a site for construction. The developer is going to be grading nearly 80 acres of the project area, Cowan said, which could take six to eight weeks. From there, the developer will install sanitary sewers, water mains and storm sewers underground, and pave and finish streets by the end of this year or the spring of 2026.
Getting the mass grading permit allows Crown to start construction while its engineering plans are still being reviewed, Cowan explained. She noted that significant rain during the fall could impede the process, so the goal is to have the grading done before then.
Crown will have to go through the engineering review process and plat approval process for each portion of the project it brings forward to the village, Cowan said.
This first development area is expected to offer single-family homes with two- or three-car garages, according to Thursday's news release.
Crown is a land developer, meaning it won't be building the homes that will sit on this development area. But Cowan said she anticipates there could be homes built in this area before the end of 2026.
The Crown project as a whole is set to have as many as 1,500 residences, according to The Grove's website, and at least 200 acres of open space, including parks and trails.
As for the other components, Cowan said that the industrial portion of the land is already under contract for a data center, which could be built in the next three to four years.
For Crown's part, she estimated that its build-out of all the parcels in the project's development area could be finished in about 10 years, not necessarily including the construction of the homes or other buildings that will then be built on top of them.
But, for now, Cowan expressed optimism about the project as a whole and the progress being made on this first residential piece of the project.
'I'm really excited to be able to deliver some additional housing supply to this market,' Cowan said. 'It is a supply-constrained market. … Housing supply is definitely a need here in Chicago, in the Chicago metro area.'
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