AN OPEN LETTER TO THE SOUTH BARRINGTON COMMUNITY
AREA N DEVELOPMENT LLC
Why We Have to Leave South Barrington
This week we filed a legal petition to remove our 32 acre property from the jurisdiction of South Barrington.
This is an extraordinary step, but we have no choice. Even though the property’s zoning allows for a church and a school, we have found ourselves stuck in the morass of South Barrington Village politics.
We’re following the path blazed by Allstate, one of Chicagoland’s most prominent hometown companies. Facing the same barriers and frustration with the Village bureaucracy that we’ve encountered, Allstate recently removed its 65 acre property from South Barrington jurisdiction through de-annexation.
Allstate’s petition to de-annex, which the Village opposed, was recently granted by court order.
Now, Allstate is seeking substantial monetary penalties in its suit against the Village for “demonstrably false” assertions made to the court.
As Allstate’s attorney testified at a recent Village meeting: “Delay, followed delay, followed delay. It did not appear to us at any time that the Village was acting in good faith.”
This is almost exactly what we are facing.
It has not always been like this. When we started dealing with Village officials two years ago, we were initially met with enthusiasm and a collaborative spirit. We enjoyed a good working relationship with everyone from the mayor to the plan commission.
We accommodated both neighborhood desires and Village requirements around building and landscape aesthetics, traffic management, wetland management, and emergency access. We took steps to ensure almost 75% of the property would remain green space.
All along this path we were led to believe by Village officials our project was moving steadily toward approval.
Over the last six months, everything changed. First came a baseless lawsuit against the Parks District about their management of the auction. That litigation became an excuse for the Village to delay progress on our approvals. Those delays that started as weeks then turned into months and now look like years.
Hearings and filings were postponed, sometimes at the last minute without a legitimate explanation. Requests were made for information already provided or changes already addressed. New issues were invented to require more documents to be filed.
Given Allstate’s experience, we believe our only option is to pursue de-annexation from the Village and seek approvals for our development through Cook County.
We remain committed to build a beautiful development where our fellow members of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church can worship and our children can learn in a comfortable and modern environment that is designed for all our members, including those with special needs. Our design plan will integrate perfectly with the neighborhood and drastically improve a blighted property.
We will be a good neighbor to the citizens of South Barrington. We just won’t be part of the Village.
Who We Are
We are the representatives of Area N Development LLC, the company that won the public auction conducted by the South Barrington Park District in February of this year for the Area N parcel. We are the same group (Fourth Avenue) that submitted the previous winning bid for the property, and we have already completed extensive work on the development plans.
The Area N parcel, at the intersection of Route 59 and Bartlett Road, has been overgrown and vacant for nearly two decades. We plan to develop the property into a campus for a new meeting house for a church and a private school for our children. Of the parcel’s 34 acres, roughly 25 acres will be green space under our plan, of which about 6 acres will remain wetlands.
We are members of the Plymouth Brethen Christian Church (PBCC). Our congregation is small – about 65 families in total with about 200 members. We have lived in the Chicago area since the late 1800s. We are a quiet, law-abiding group of people, who believe in being good neighbors, and supporting the communities in which we live.
We look forward to meeting our future neighbors over the next several months as we proceed through the various zoning and municipal approval processes needed to start work on Area N.
How We Will Use This Property
This property is ideally suited for our proposed use. We plan to turn this unkept vacant piece of land into a modern and beautifully landscaped development that will blend in perfectly with the local community.
South Barrington Park District sought to develop Area N and it was voted to approve a sale in a local referendum in 2020. Multiple developers had expressed interest in building residential developments over the years, but none followed through until Fourth Avenue.
We determined this parcel was best suited for our project given its accessibility and that its current zoning allows for church and school use.
Throughout the process of acquiring the property and planning for the project, we have listened to feedback and input from across the community and local neighborhood. This engagement with the community resulted in multiple changes to our initial plans.
The PBCC congregation is committed to being good neighbors and citizens of the South Barrington community.
We are excited to be here.