• the217
• Life
• The costs of development

Related Media

Final Concept without Limestone Outcroppings

• See Slideshow (2 images)

Less than four years ago, Helen Birkett was working in the front yard of her home on Duncan Street in southwest Champaign. A young woman from the Illinois Department of Transportation approached her. She told Birkett of the coming Interstate 57 interchange. Urban development would come with it.

An eight inch gas line soon found its way into her front lawn. A sewer line came through next. Birkett recently received a letter of easement from Illinois-American Water. They, too, will lay pipe.

“It’s worded very nicely,” Birkett said. “But eminent domain is mentioned in the end of the letter.”

City officials agree that the interchange will provide a significant development opportunity for 640 acres. The more than 13 million dollar project is part of the $959 million apportioned to the state from the Federal Highway Administration, which apportions more than $34 billion in funds nationwide.

Birkett owns property southeast of the interchange. The other surrounding land is also in private hands, according to the Champaign County Assessor’s Office. David McGrath of Champaign owns the northeast. Butz Farms, a limited liability company, owns the southwestern plot, care of Mervyn Flory Realty of Riverside, Calif. Calls to McGrath and Flory Realty were not returned.

“We’ve already got it arranged to sell,” said Charles Zahnd, who holds the northwestern property. “We’ve done everything but the exchange.”

The Illinois Department of Transportation identified the need for the interchange in 1971, Dennis Markwell said. The area project coordinator said it was one of seven locations identified in the CU area as in need of an interchange. He said the ramps will open with warmer temperatures, most likely in March.

For many, Curtis Road’s prospects have antecedence in another avenue.

“However it turns out to be, it better turn out better than North Prospect,” said Mark Darling, the chairman of the planning commission of Champaign. It turned Champaign into a regional retail center. However, the area’s rapid, segmented development resulted in a sprawling asphalt pancake of parking, he added. North Prospect has 25,000 parking spaces, compared with the 3,600 of Market Place Mall or the 3,000 of downtown.

“I don’t think you could consider either North Prospect nor Curtis Road to be sprawl,” said Ken Pirok, the City Council member whose district includes the interchange and associated development. Champaign has grown markedly for 20 years, he said, and it will continue to grow. He said Curtis Road marks an extensive project for a local government.

Shoppers will see bricks, trees and grass rather than just pavement, said Lacey Rains, a Champaign city planner. North Prospect’s development outpaced regulations. The city took a reactive role. In the case of Curtis Road, the city will have a plan.

The area will be built for people rather than cars, she said, contrasting Curtis Road with a North Prospect scene.

“When it’s warm out, you’ll see kids with bread feeding the geese in the detention pond,” Rains said. “That’s unpleasant; there are cars everywhere. You don’t want to take your kid to see nature at Target.”

Development within the master plan area will follow “new urbanism,” a city planning school that seeks to emulate city centers, Rains said. New urbanist developments have more public than private space, as well as interspersed post offices and schools. Multiple-purpose parking will ease the need for wide parking lots, she said.

The four quadrants surrounding the interchange will be developed individually, Rains said. Each quadrant will have a core with shared parking. Roads and bike trails will unite the four sections. Residents will have the option of walking to the grocery store or pharmacy, she said.

“We’re going to have development that’s more intensive, more self-contained, more inviting and more interesting,” Darling said.

Some are less enthusiastic about the additional growth.

“It is an ugly and evil necessity,” said Michael La Due, a City Council member. “(It is) one of the prices we pay for growth. I have a great reluctance for anything that makes us resemble a far southern suburb of Chicago.”

Birkett moved to Champaign from a farm in Plainfield. She said the suburb’s growth prompted her move to Champaign, which was closer to her son and daughter. Development seems to chase her, she said. She said one developer she talked with joked that they would follow her to where she might move next.

“People are really interested in this property,” Birkett said. “But the economy has sort of put a hold on that. When the economy turns around, more development will come in. I’m sure the city would like the revenue.”

One Broeren Russo representative said the state of the economy may actually aid construction. Developers will be eager to build projects with cheaper money, the construction company spokesperson added.

“We want to be part of that project,” he said, referring to Curtis Road. “But the owners need to get together and make a decision. Several major players are involved.”

The development is going to happen, Darling said. He expects landowners are willing to sign off on their property, and if not, the city may force eminent domain.

The Friendship Lutheran Church of Joy has vacillated between staying and selling. The 10,000-square-foot church stands at the corner of Curtis and Duncan, the first intersection east of the imminent off-ramp.

Pastor Brian Pape said he could see the church in what could be a busy, metropolitan area. The church could grow with the community, he said. He liked the idea of people heading into and out of Champaign and passing by the church.

“They want to go to Target, PetSmart or whatever is going to be there, and there we are!” Pape said.

Pap said the church feels pressure to expand. The original 10-acre plot acquired by the Missouri Synod has contracted to 7.5 acres due to the interchange. Pape said he recently considered a move to a 44,000-square-foot building in Mahomet, but it was spoken for. Developers such as the Fox-Atkins Group have offered to purchase the property. While the right sum could afford the church a larger structure, the decision to sell remains out of Pape’s hands.

“If a developer says, ‘We want you to leave,’ and God says, ‘No,’ we’ll stay here,” Pape said.

As for Birkett, the process has been a bit more secular. She said she’s close to a deal with an out-of-town developer, but the arrangement is at a standstill. She said multiple companies contacted her regarding the property.

“It was sort of first-come, first-serve with the best deal,” Birkett said.

For the moment, she said she scopes out the construction with binoculars.

“In total, all of these people, they’ve all been quite good with this,” Birkett said, referring to her relinquishments. “It’s been my decision, but they have the upper hand, they know they can say, ‘We can take this.’”