EDITORS NOTE: Unincorporated Briarcliff, Summit Ridge and Lakeview residents received their 15-day notice of annexation last week. Much of the information in this piece comes from the Village Administration. Annexation is on the study session agenda for 3.19.2018. We will bring you more information then.
Below this article is a video of Briarcliff and Summit Ridge residents talking to the Village, then an audio file of the Village administration and board members discussion. While the discussion about the topic of annexation was brought up as part of the board member comment time, which is listed on the meeting agenda, the topic was not specifically on the agenda and interested parties had already left the meeting.
By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Within what is perceived as “Mahomet,” there exists a modern-day “Twilight Zone.”
Travelers can find themselves within the village boundaries before crossing into what is officially an unincorporated area without exiting the street they were traveling.
These folks can then retrace their route, turn in the opposite direction from where they entered and soon be further away from the community’s business district, yet back within the village limits.
Examples aren’t hard to find.
Travel north on IL-47 and turn east into the decades-old Briarcliff subdivision. The area closest to the highway is within the village limits. As travelers moves further to the east, they reach an unincorporated area.
Following the winding road will eventually lead a person back to IL-47.
If so inclined, then turn north and within a couple miles the subdivision along IL-47 on the east side of the highway, known as Thornewood, is within the village limits.
It can be confusing.
There are different sets of guidelines, sometimes even for neighbors.
Folks within the village limits, for instance, are not allowed to burn. Those outside the official limits are less regulated in that regard.
Using Briarcliff as an example, residents in the western portion of the subdivision can not burn. Those in the eastern quadrant have options for outdoor fires.
Those folks, however, are not under the auspices of the Mahomet Police Department. They are under protection of the Champaign County Sheriff’s Department.
But — under the theme of “it can be confusing” — a Mahomet Police officer may well be dispatched to an unincorporated area.
Village President Sean Widener explains: “Police protection for areas not in the Village of Mahomet are served by the Champaign County Sheriff’s office whereas they are responsible for the entire county in addition to communities and unincorporated areas without a police department. This reach of services is one of the reasons why the Village’s Police Department has a mutual-aid agreement with the County where we provide emergency response services routinely throughout the year.”
The boundaries for the Mahomet-Seymour School District and the Cornbelt Fire Protection District feature larger areas than the actual Village limits.
“We contend that the Village of Mahomet serves many of the same users, however is faced with the disparity of only seeing approximately 60 percent of the tax base,” Widener said.
Non-Village residents — those living in unincorporated areas — pay a higher fee when they sign up for programs offered by the Mahomet Parks and Recreation Department.
However, those added fees are more than offset by the savings they receive by paying a lower tax bill from not being in the Village.
Everything is not equal for all residents who receive their mail at a Mahomet, Il., 61853 address.
As long as rural, farmlands are in existence, there will never be total uniformity for those with a Mahomet address.
For the past decade, the village has sought to get more of those living in predominantly residential areas adhering to the same set of codes and regulations.
Periodically, there have been reports about areas that are annexed into the Village.
Another series of annexations are in the works that Widener estimates would add “approximately 300” more residents for the upcoming 2020 census.
Residents in unincorporated areas of Lakeview, Summit Ridge and Briarcliff subdivisions were notified by mail earlier this month that they will be annexed, pending approval by the Mahomet Village Board.
That vote is expected on March 26.
Briarcliff residents aren’t enamored by the prospects of suddenly being within the Village limits.
“Everyone is against it,” Ron White said.
And yet, it wasn’t always that way.
In a strange twist of ironic fate, representatives of the 43-acre Briarcliff parcel asked to be annexed into the Village in 1981.
“They said no,” White said.
Now — in a different century — the Village wants to include the subdivision.
But the shoe is on the other foot and it’s the residents who are saying, ‘no thanks.’
When Briarcliff was previously denied admission, it entered into an agreement for services with the Sangamon Valley Public Water District.
“We took out a 40-year loan and have been paying $20 a month (for the past 37 years),” White said. “That comes due in 2022. About the time we’re done paying for water and sewer, we’ll get hit by a $47 a month increase (for taxes after the annexation).”
Briarcliff residents consider themselves in more of a rural area than in a city environment.
“We thought so,” White said. “People bought for the quiet and solitude of the neighborhood.
“We don’t have sidewalks, street lights, gutters. It almost feels like everything is private.
“We’re in the forest and that’s the way we like it. We walk in the streets because there are no sidewalks.”
White said the Briarcliff residents have been told of other impending changes if the annexation takes place. One is a connecting road from the eastern side of Briarcliff north to Thornewood.
“A road would be devastating to us,” said White, who anticipates that Briarcliff will have legal counsel present for the March 26 Village Board meeting where the annexation could come to a vote.
“We have a few different technicalities we can leverage,” White said.
One point is that the subdivision is what the Village regards as “wholly bound,” a situation it traces back to 1994.
To the east and south of Briarcliff, however, is the Champaign County Forest Preserve. The Sangamon River is also behind the subdivision.
“If municipalities can jump through parks, then we are surrounded (wholly bound),” White said.
Three sections of Lakeview are also eligible for annexation (due to being contiguous to the Village) and will automatically be annexed.
The affected areas of Lakeview became contiguous when the newest phase of the Prairie Crossing subdivision was annexed in December, 2017.
“Property owners of these three (sections) of Lakeview legally agreed to annexation as a condition of the property being developed and before any home was built,” Widener said.
It is not unusual, Widener added, for some subdivisions to have annexation clauses written into their covenants.
Because all parcels in a subdivision are not built at the same time, some sections could be without the annexation clause.
“Subdivisions are often done in phases which may or may not coincide with their HOA (Home Owners Association),” Widener said. “As such, each have their own unique set of covenants, which it has been our practice to include annexation clauses.”
However, regardless of the language, Widener expects the end result to be the same: Annexation will happen.
“Ultimately, the Village has legal authority to enforce the subdivision covenants and annex properties that we are legally allowed to annex in accordance with state statutes,” Widener said.
“The Village of Mahomet has been and will continue to expand regardless of annexations as evidenced with our community size being much larger than the Village Corporate Limits.
“This disparity is indicative of the challenges of annexation in decades past. There is a purpose and a need for annexations and when done uniformly, will promote logical growth and enable functionality of the Village’s comprehensive plan and governance.”
Lakeview resident Patti Glumac recognizes that to fight the annexation might be a losing battle.
“What can you do to stop a train that is progress,” Glumac said. “One way or the other, annexation is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean we’re not frustrated in the way it came about.”
Like others in her neighborhood, Glumac didn’t keep track in the past of Village regulations and restrictions.
“In unincorporated Mahomet, we didn’t pay attention to the new Village ordinances because they didn’t apply to us,” she said. “Will we be addressed by the Village and told about ordinances we never had to deal with before?”
Glumac has spent time this week talking with the Champaign County planning and zoning office as well as the Village lawyer.
“It’s important to question things and inform yourself, even if it won’t lead to a change of outcome,” Glumac said. “It has been very enlightening. I have a better understanding of the situation.”
One detail Glumac was told is that covenants expire, “if not renewed,” she said.
The 25-year window for annexation of the Lakeview properties would expire within three years.
“This spring my husband, Nick, and I will have lived in our Lakeview home for 19 years,” Patti Glumac said. “We moved here from the East Coast, happy to turn in our condo for a home with a yard in a small town.
“We’ve been very content in unincorporated Mahomet and have gotten accustomed to the way things are done out here.
“This letter from the Village attorney was a surprise, although in retrospect it shouldn’t have been. Either way, we weren’t prepared for it.”
Moving forward, she doesn’t see a clear cut solution.
“It depends on your perspective,” she said. “I don’t think there’s one right answer.”
With this decade coming to an end in about nine months, Widener said the timing seemed right for more annexations.
“The census (in 2020) is one factor to initiate the annexation process at this time,” he said.
There are a variety of benefits for the Village, although Widener contends that encouraging new business growth is not an expected direct benefit.
“The benefit to the Village is improved functionality with regards to overall governance,” Widener said. “There are tax gains with annexed properties in the form of local property taxes, Motor Fuel Taxes, and the State’s Local Government Distributive Fund, which are based on a per capita basis.
“The Village of Mahomet is highly dependent on state funding and as a non-home rule community, we are at a significant disadvantage when compared to our neighbors.
“Annexation alone is not going to attract businesses. It is true that population plays a role when prospective businesses are looking at a community, however we continue to create our own message of being much larger than the Village’s population sign (8,400) indicates.”
The Village receives about $25 per capita in Motor Fuel Tax funding from the State of Illinois each year.
“This money is managed by the Village and used to maintain all our streets,” Widener said. “Like many other examples within the Village, our roads see a disproportionate amount of funding when compared to the number of users of the transportation network.”
Widener estimated that homeowners with $200,000 homes in the areas soon-to-be annexed would find their tax bills rising. “The average increase in taxes paid to the Village of Mahomet will be approximately $40 per month,” he said.
The Village President said there aren’t other unincorporated areas of Mahomet currently on the list to face immediate annexation.
“At this time, there are no other subdivisions that satisfy the legal requirements (for annexation),” Widener said.
He emphasized that there is no recent policy change.
“The issue of annexation is nothing new, nor are we charting a new direction for the Village,” Widener said. “We cannot reevaluate decisions of the past and the challenges they leave us today.
“The fact that Mahomet is growing with or without annexation is fact and we must come together and manage to the best of our abilities. The future of Mahomet is only sustainable if we take pause and consider what is truly in the best interest of the entire community.
“It is the policy of the Village of Mahomet to review and consider annexations individually according to Illinois statutes and the uniqueness of each parcel of real estate. The Board of Trustees may consider many factors when considering annexation of a parcel, including the individual circumstances, benefits, costs and existing conditions.”
The following are additional comments from the Village of Mahomet board and staff after the study session agenda was completed.
