Posted in 220, 300, Agendas, Hoffman Estates, Intergovernmental agreements (IGA), Meeting Minutes, Plan Commission, Plum Farm development, Politics, School Districts, Topics Of Interest, Village Code, Village Government on September 15, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The Plan Commission will be holding a special meeting this evening at 6:30 PM. Some of the topics on their agenda include:
A copy of their agenda can be viewed here. The meeting will be held at Village Hall, or residents can try to listen in to the meeting proceedings by dialing 508-924-1464.
Posted in Entertainment, Hoffman Estates on September 9, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Hoffman Estates’ 15th Platzkonzert Germanfest will feature music, beer, food and more
Get ready to hoist your stein this weekend when Hoffman Estates’ Platzkonzert Germanfest returns to the Virginia Hayter Village Green, 5450 Prairie Stone Parkway, just north of the NOW Arena.
The annual celebration will mark its 15th year. Visitors can enjoy authentic German music and beer from 5-11 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10-12. Admission is free, and events take place rain or shine.
“We had limited time to plan due to uncertainty with the pandemic, but this is a perfect outdoor setting at the reconstructed Village Green,” said Gayle Vandenburgh, co-chair of the village’s Platzkonzert Commission.
“There is plenty of outdoor space for social distancing while enjoying German traditions and music.”
New this year will be fireworks at 8:30 p.m. Friday.
The Kinderplatz will offer free children’s activities from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. In partnership with the Hoffman Estates Park District, Kinderplatz will feature arts and crafts, an obstacle course, bounce house and more.
True to the Platzkonzert name, a full lineup of music is planned over the three-day fest. Headliners include Alpine Blast at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Semple Band at 8 p.m. Saturday and the Johnny Wagner Band at 4 p.m. Sunday.
Read more here, or visit www.hoffmanestates.org/platz for more information.
Posted in Agendas, Barrington Hills Park District, Barrington Hills Polo Club, Cook, County, Fox River Valley Hunt, FPDCC, FRVPC, Hoffman Estates, Land Use, Massbach Hounds, Plum Farm development, Politics, Property Taxes, Riding Center Advisory Committee, Riding Club of BH, Taxes, Village Government on August 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The Executive Director of the Hoffman Estates Park District will be providing a report on Plum Farms this evening to the BHPD Commissioners.
The Barrington Hills Park District Board will hold their regular monthly meeting this evening in-person and via Zoom at 7:00 PM. Some of the topics on their agenda include:
A copy of their agenda can be viewed here. Instructions for accessing the meeting remotely can be found here.
Posted in 220, Hoffman Estates, Politics, Property Taxes, School Districts, South Barrington on May 27, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The construction of 189 townhouses and 361 apartments has been proposed around the outside of the main office and commercial building of the Bell Works Chicagoland redevelopment of the former AT&T corporate campus in Hoffman Estates. (Joe Lewnard | Staff Photographer, 2018)
The redevelopment of Hoffman Estates’ former AT&T headquarters into the mixed-use “metroburb” called Bell Works Chicagoland is about to embark on its next phase: a residential component featuring townhouses and apartments.
Ken Gold, vice president of acquisitions and development for New Jersey-based Somerset Development, said his firm is in the process of submitting a formal plan for 189 townhouses and 361 apartments to the village.
Somerset is likely to stick to its original intention of selling the land surrounding the main building on the 150-acre site to another developer, which would execute the plans for housing, Gold said.
He anticipates a 4- to 6-month review of the plans by Hoffman Estates officials. If the project stays on schedule, the first townhouses could be delivered in the summer of 2022, Gold said.
Somerset’s original agreement with the village set the limit on the number of housing units at 550, though a slight variation was permitted in the ratio between types.
This phase of the project comes at a particularly strong time for the residential real estate market, Gold said.
Though the pandemic created a slowdown in the market for office space, it occurred while Somerset was in the process of renovating and adapting the lobby and atrium space. The company also was constructing 32,462 square feet of speculative office space and 2,000 square feet of retail or restaurant space on the main floor of the central building at 2000 Center Drive.
Read more here.
Editorial note: The location of Somerset Development’s planned apartments and townhomes appears to be within the Barrington CUSD 220 attendance boundary (see map here).
Posted in 2021 Elections, Hoffman Estates, OP/Ed, Village Government on April 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »
A friend recently stopped by Village Hall, and something caught their eye in the discarded election signs stacked for recycling at the “public works” barn. Upon closer inspection, they discovered three hundred (300) new, sealed and uncirculated Hoffman Estates election campaign signs left for recycling (seen in the image above).
Now, Barrington Hills does promote recycling at our facility, so there’s no problem with that. And, we actually published a piece six years ago on the overabundance of election signs blighting our roads (see “Too many sign”), but we weren’t advocating wasting donors hard earned money just to please us, so we had to learn more.
The Hoffman Estates unofficial election results show the second-place presidential candidate lost by roughly 900 votes, but the trustee elections were much closer for one candidate named in the heap at our Village ‘pubic works” barn.
She lost by just 28 votes, and according to the Daily Herald, the incumbent trustee who narrowly defeated her, “…said he picked up all 77 of his signs Wednesday morning from throughout the subdivision.”
So, would 300 extra campaign signs have made a difference? There’s no definitive answer, but some might argue it explains why those signs were left in Barrington Hills and not closer by Hoffman Estates. Others might say a little more effort might have changed the outcome for at least one candidate.
Why is this noteworthy? Because ten years ago all it took was one newly elected trustee to spark a change in the momentum of our village government, and it’s a shame to see any opportunity like that squandered.
Posted in Cook, County, Hoffman Estates, Illinois Tollway, Politics, Property Taxes, Real Estate, School Districts, South Barrington on May 17, 2020| Leave a Comment »
To lure Sears into a Chicago suburb, officials crafted the largest tax break package ever awarded to a company in Illinois. It resulted in revenue shortfalls, disappearing jobs and unexpected tax burdens, a Daily Herald and ProPublica review showed.On a hot Sunday afternoon in June 1989, two of the most powerful men in Illinois met to watch a ballgame at Wrigley Field — and, if all went well, to make a deal.
James R. Thompson, the state’s four-term Republican governor, and Edward Brennan, chairman of Sears, Roebuck & Co., the world’s largest retailer, had been deep in talks for months.
The stakes were high. Brennan was threatening to move Sears’ corporate headquarters, located in downtown Chicago in what was then the tallest skyscraper in the world, to another state. The move would rob Illinois of thousands of good-paying jobs, tens of millions in tax revenues and its reputation as a business-friendly state.
As the two men watched the Montreal Expos blank the Cubs 5-0, dropping the “Lovable Losers” out of first place, Thompson told Brennan he’d do whatever it took to keep Sears from leaving. The state had crafted a package of financial incentives that the legendary political deal maker believed was too good to pass up.
After the game ended, Thompson called up one of his closest associates, Jay Hedges, director of the state’s Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. In a recent interview, Hedges recalled Thompson delivering the news of his breakthrough.
“Well, Jay, Sears is staying in Illinois,” Thompson told him. “And they want to move to Hoffman Estates.”
Read much more here.
Posted in 220, Board of Education, Hoffman Estates, Plum Farm development, Politics, School Districts, Uncategorized on January 15, 2020| Leave a Comment »
This is an artist’s rendering of one of the seven apartment buildings planned for the Plum Farms development at the northwest corner of routes 59 and 72. A Cook County judge last month dismissed a lawsuit Barrington Unit District 220 filed over the proposal.
Barrington Unit District 220 won’t challenge a Cook County circuit court judge’s decision last month to dismiss a lawsuit the school system filed against Hoffman Estates and developers of the stalled Plum Farms proposal at the northwest corner of routes 59 and 72. Hoffman Estates’ development agreement limits Plum Farms to 1,250 homes of various types. The most recent plan submitted by a development partnership calls for 1,035.
But the last indication of progress on Plum Farms was interrupted by the filing of a lawsuit in July 2017 by residents of the nearby Regency at the Woods of South Barrington retirement community.
District 220 intervened in the complaint on the side of the residents, with the developer and village named as defendants. The density of the proposed development and the potential for additional students’ costs to exceed the increase in tax revenue were at the heart of the school district’s concerns.
While the residents’ original lawsuit was settled last summer, District 220 kept its part of the case active until it was dismissed in December. School board President Penny Kazmier announced at a meeting Tuesday night that the district will not pursue any further legal action in the case.
Read more here.
Posted in 220, 300, Cook, County, Hoffman Estates, IDOT, Plum Farm development, Politics, School Districts, Sears, South Barrington, Traffic on January 7, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Hoffman Estates village board members voted 6-1 Monday to approve a tax incentive to spark economic development on 64 acres along the village’s stretch of Higgins Road west of The Arboretum of South Barrington shopping center.
A larger, 185-acre area of the same site at the northwest corner of Higgins Road and Route 59 has been the subject of the concept plan for the controversial Plum Farms mixed-use development that’s been idle for the past 2½ years since a lawsuit was filed over its residential density.
That lawsuit was originally filed by residents of the nearby Regency of the Woods of South Barrington retirement community. After Barrington Unit District 220 intervened in the suit on the side of the residents, the retirement community settled its portion.
Last month, District 220’s own lingering case was dismissed by a judge based on a legal precedent. But at its next meeting on Jan. 14, school the board intends to choose among its options to file a motion for reconsideration, file a notice of appeal or let the judge’s ruling lie, Superintendent Brian Harris said.
Read more here.
Posted in EJ&E/Canadian National, Hoffman Estates, Topics Of Interest, TRAC on January 3, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Residents in Hoffman Estates and Elgin are enlisting elected officials in their fight to block plans for a second railroad track beginning here at Shoe Factory Road in Hoffman Estates and running south to Spaulding Road in Elgin.
Hoffman Estates and Elgin residents fighting an expansion of Canadian National Railway tracks near their homes are enlisting federal, state and local leaders in their efforts to raise concerns with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which could issue a permit for the project later this month.
CN, through its subsidiary Wisconsin Central Limited, wants to build a second line of railroad track spanning 4.27 miles from Shoe Factory Road in Hoffman Estates to Spaulding Road in Elgin. Together with existing track, the project would create a 6.1-mile stretch of double track.
According to the proposal, the double track would allow the railroad to boost “fluidity” and reduce train idling. CN said in its permit application that it expects to run an additional nine trains per day in 2020.
Both the Hoffman Estates and Hanover Township boards have passed resolutions objecting to CN’s plans.
Read more here.
Posted in Hoffman Estates, Politics, South Barrington, Springfield, Taxes, Topics Of Interest on December 30, 2019| Leave a Comment »
Ahead of the legalization of adult-use recreational marijuana starting Wednesday, elected officials across the suburbs have been debating whether to allow pot sales within their borders.
Addison, Antioch, Aurora, Bartlett, Buffalo Grove, Carol Stream, Carpentersville, Cary, Crystal Lake, Des Plaines, Elburn, Elgin, Fox Lake, Fox River Grove, Geneva, Gilberts, Hoffman Estates, Island Lake, Lake in the Hills, Lombard, Mundelein, North Aurora, Oakbrook Terrace, Palatine, Pingree Grove, Prospect Heights, Rolling Meadows, Round Lake Beach, Round Lake Heights, Round Lake Park, Schaumburg, Sleepy Hollow, South Elgin, St. Charles, Streamwood, Villa Park, Volo, Wadsworth, Warrenville, Wauconda, West Dundee, Wheeling, Winfield.
Algonquin, Arlington Heights, Barrington Hills, Barrington, Batavia, Bensenville, Bloomingdale, Campton Hills, Deer Park, Downers Grove, Elmhurst, Glen Ellyn (moratorium until Oct. 26), Glendale Heights, Grayslake, Green Oaks, Gurnee, Hainesville, Hawthorn Woods (moratorium until May 31), Inverness, Itasca, Kildeer, Lake Barrington, Lake Villa, Lake Zurich, Libertyville, Lincolnshire, Lindenhurst, Lisle, Long Grove, Mettawa, Mount Prospect, Naperville, North Barrington, Oak Brook, Park Ridge, Roselle, Rosemont (moratorium until June 30), Round Lake, South Barrington, Sugar Grove, Vernon Hills, Wayne, West Chicago, Wheaton, Wood Dale, Woodridge.
Burlington: next discussion Jan. 6; East Dundee: leaning yes, next discussion Jan. 6 or later, vote expected in January; Elk Grove Village: next discussion Jan. 14 or later; Hampshire: leaning yes, vote Jan. 2 or Jan. 16; Hanover Park: next discussion in late January or early February; Huntley: leaning yes, vote Jan. 9; Lakemoor: planning and zoning commission discussion in January, followed by village board discussion expected in February.
Read the full Daily Herald article here.
Editorial note: The names of municipalities that are adjacent to or nearby Barrington Hills appear bolded for reference.
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