Sugar Grove annexing land at I-88, Route 47
Sugar Grove officials are poised to annex almost 800 acres at Route 47 and I-88, as it also shores up its argument for getting a full interchange there.
And it will soon sign a letter of intent with the Illinois Department of Transportation to start engineering work for the interchange, with IDOT agreeing to pay $375,000 for the first phase.
The board on Tuesday night informally discussed the annexation of the Crown Development properties, and the interchange matter.
A public hearing and vote on the annexation is Oct. 1.
The land would be zoned for agricultural use for now. Village President Sean Michels said he envisions that, eventually, residences would be built south of I-88 and commercial and other business buildings north of the tollway. It connects to Sugar Grove via the Hannaford Farms subdivision.
“We felt if would be in the village’s interests” to have the land, Michels said, especially since it is “spending a lot of time and resources” to get the interchange. “It’s not a land grab by any means. It should be in the village.”
Michels said the cost of a full interchange is estimated at $20 million. The state has indicated, in principle, that it is willing to pay up to $4.9 million of that. Michels said that the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority has indicated it might pay up to 60 percent of the cost, and he is looking to Kane County for some money, too.
Michels said he wasn’t sure if the state’s money is coming from the pot that was going to be spent on the scuttled Prairie Parkway. Village officials had pressed IDOT for money from that, suggesting it was better spent up in Sugar Grove than farther south on Route 47 for a project in less-populated Grundy County.