If there was any doubt whether McHenry and Kane counties aredestined for growth, state Rep. Dick Klemm has ended it.
The Republican from Crystal Lake in McHenry County is draftinglegislation that would enable the two counties - and perhaps Kendalland Will - to charge transportation impact fees on new construction.
Such fees have become almost a confirmation - an expensiveconfirmation - that an area in California, Virginia, Florida orIllinois is growing rapidly.
Already, the two fastest growing counties in Illinois have thepower to charge them. Du Page County has fees of $459 to $908 perhome, and Lake County is studying them.
The fees would be used to improve and maintain roads that wouldget extra traffic from development. The fees also have generatedobjections from home builders and commercial developers, who say theadditional costs must be passed on to home buyers and commercialtenants.
Klemm, who moved to McHenry County from Cook County in 1961,sees impact fees as a solution for the whole Chicago area.
"I would think you're looking at the (whole) collar-county area,not just one or two counties," Klemm said. "I find that the problemsshared in Lake County are not too dissimilar for McHenry or Kane."
The problems are financial. Both new and current residents wanttop-quality roads, schools and services, but aren't too keen aboutpaying higher taxes. In Tuesday's election, for example, voters inMcHenry County rejected at least four of the six school referendumson the ballot.
So, government officials seek new sources of income, includingimpact fees. And new construction is an obvious target.
The population in McHenry County is expected to reach 222,000 bythe year 2010, up 32.6 percent from the 1987 Census Bureau estimateof 167,4000, according to the Northeastern Illinois PlanningCommission.
"And if the trends of the last handful of years were tocontinue, you could reach a figure of 266,000," said Max Dieber, thecommission's director of research services.
"Certainly, there will be a need to improve facilities and addlanes," said Jim Rakow, McHenry county superintendent of highways.
He cited major roads in the southeast corner of the county,including Randall Road, Huntley-Algonquin Road, Crystal Lake Road,Virginia Road and Cary-Algonquin Road.
In Kane County, which includes Aurora, St. Charles and Elgin,the population is expected to reach 434,000 by 2010, up 37.9 percentfrom the 1987 estimate of 314,700, Dieber said.
To accommodate all these new residents and their shopping andemployment needs, lots of new homes, stores and offices must bebuilt. A fee structure that nets even a small fraction of totalconstruction costs would be lucrative, government officials know.
Developers can add up the numbers, too, and aren't happy withthe bottom line.
"They seem to think that home builders have large profitmargins, which they don't," said Richard Brown, a home builder andvice president of the Home Builders Association of Illinois, a tradegroup. "Everything they (government officials) do is inflationary.
"There is a desperate need for affordable homes," said Brown,who is president of Cambridge Homes, based in Libertyville. "We'renot just talking about low-cost homes. People earning $50,000 or$60,000 can't afford a house because prices are going up faster thanthey can accumulate a down payment."
The disagreement probably will be settled by the IllinoisGeneral Assembly, which passed a 1987 law that allowed only Du Pageand Lake counties to charge impact fees. Though the phrasing isundetermined, Klemm expects his legislation would extend the power toother collar counties.
In recent weeks, the Illinois House GOP Task Force on ImpactFees held hearings in Du Page and Lake counties to learn more aboutthe issue.
"I felt some of them were listening, and some were just goingthrough the motions," Brown said. "I think there's a real question ofwhether this whole impact thing is being thought through fairly."
"There are legitimate concerns," said Klemm, a member of thetask force. "There has to be a justification to it. You have toidentify what the impact is.
"I don't think it's necessarily the responsibility of the newhomeowners to pay for all the services themselves."
On Wednesday, a second task force began work on the issue.Created by House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, a Democrat from Chicago,the bipartisan panel also includes business leaders, developers,municipal attorneys and local government officials, said Steve Brown,Madigan's press secretary.
"There are a number of bills that have been introduced, fromabolishing the fees to expanding them to allow townships to chargeimpact fees," he said.
"It's been Madigan's practice that the best way to get somethingaccomplished is bring all the interested parties in a room and letthem reach a consensus among themselves about the next step theLegislature should take," Brown said.
"Ideally, you'd want something developed and acted on beforethe end of the (Legislature's) session, which is in June," he said.
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