Disagreements between the Sangamon Valley Public Water District (SVPWD) and the Village of Mahomet started when the District was formed in 1966, and that dispute still runs deep today.
SVPWD was founded by the Parnell family when the Village voted against developing the area north of the Village limits in the 1960’s. SVPWD now serves the Mahomet area north of Interstate 74 and east of Route 47, and the Village serves the Mahomet area south of Interstate 74 and west of Route 47.
Today the Village limits run to the west and south of SVPWD facility. The SVPWD purchased a 3.6-acre lot at 709 North Prairieview Road last fall to build a needed water treatment facility which is within a mile-and-a-half jurisdiction of the Village.
SVPWD has also purchased land on North Route 47 near the Living Word Omega Church to install a water storage tank, which will help with water pressure for higher elevations areas, such as the Thornwood Subdivision.
With expansion of the Village, SVPWD now falls within the mile-and-a-half jurisdiction of the Village, which allows the Village to have some say in what is built as the Village expects to continue to grow. The Village subdivision ordinance states that new construction must comply with the subdivision zoning requirements.
According to Village Administrator Mell Smigielski, Village policy also states that they request contiguous organizations annex into the Village for rezoning to occur.
SVPWD sought an intergovernmental agreement for a building permit with the Village in October, but while SVWPD agreed to comply with Village construction standards, they refused to annex into the Village.
When an agreement could not be reached, SVPWD went to the Champaign County Board to get a building permit for the new water treatment facility.
The Village of Mahomet board filed a formal protest in November with the Champaign County Zoning Board of Appeals to stop SVPWD from building the new facility. The Champaign County Zoning Board voted 27-0 in favor of SVPWD.
While the Champaign County Board recognizes the Village’s jurisdiction, the Champaign County Zoning Board Administration recently approved a variance which will allow the Champaign County Board to consider issuing building permits to rural water districts if the Village requires annexation for approval of a permit.
The Village board voted on May 28 to file a formal protest against the Champaign County Zoning Board variance.
SVPWD and Mayor Brown had a friendly discussion last week. After Village staff decided to continue with the protest Smigielski contacted SVPWD manager Kerry Gifford, who said the parties could talk again after the Champaign County Board votes on the variance on June 24.
The protest needs a super-majority 17 of 22 votes to pass.
“From our perspective we are here to serve the county,” Gifford said. “With all the growth (in Mahomet) we’ve bloomed and grown as an organization. In order to expand, we have to replace infrastructure.”
During the drought last summer, the current SVPWD plant reached its capacity, and they were close to issuing water restrictions. Residents along North 47 were not receiving adequate water pressure. The new water treatment facility will give them the needed capacity to fill the tank.
SVPWD serves over a third of the residents in the Mahomet area, including some within the Village limits.
“We have fire safety and health issue,” Gifford said. “We’re trying to provide adequate fire service to these folks. They are paying tax dollars to the Village off of our fire hydrants for that fire serve. We need to meet that need, and right now we can’t.”
Gifford feels the Village wants SVPWD to annex so that they can control the SVPWD water system.
“They could allow us to continue to operate, but (the water system) would all be under village control,” he said. “They would have that option, but I’m not saying they would exercise that option.”
Because the Village water system and the SVPWD water system are not connected anywhere, there would be a large expense to integrate the two.
While the Village acknowledges that annexation provides police and fire protection services, the real issue for the Village is continued growth over the years.
The Village can only annex land that is contiguous to current areas. With the new water treatment facility, Village limits will not be contiguous to land that runs along north Prairieview Road, although the outlying areas still fall within the Village jurisdiction.
With the potential for a residential or commercial subdivision to be built on north Prairieview Road, the Village wants to make sure that new construction follows Village zoning guidelines.
“At some point in the future it is an expectation that we will be annexing that area,” Smigielski said. “That doesn’t mean we will annex it, it just means that the future is bright for that. Our concern is that if someone wants to purchase a property, and they want to be part of the village, they can’t because they won’t have anything touching (Village limits),”
Smigielski also said that when small parcels of land are sold from a larger parcel either for residential or commercial use, short-sighted planning often forgets about future growth and connectivity for other developments.
“We want people to look to the future,” Smigielski said. “Right now that area is being farmed, and it may be farmed for the next 20 years. We don’t know. You could make a plan now and in five years be totally wrong. Or the plan could last 30 years and be totally right.”
The Village has the right to jump over forest preserve property to annex land if Village land is contiguous to the forest preserve. Smigielski said measures such as this would benefit the Village in terms of the SVPWD water treatment facility.
While the Village plans to extend Village limits to the north, SVPWD is still required to serve residents in that growing area with water services.
SVPWD has submitted design plans for the water treatment plants and tank designs which are slated to be begin construction in the fall.
