Maple Park residents to open Sadie’s Attic in Elburn

ELBURN – Maple Park resident Gina Smith and her husband, Marc, soon will reopen the former Ottosen and Britz law firm building at 303 N. Main St. in Elburn as Sadie’s Attic, a store that will sell personalized wood products, quilted and sewn items, printed T-shirts and other items.

Gina Smith, a teacher at Wasco Elementary School, will retire at the end of the school year. Smith said she and her husband have successfully operated the business online on Etsy for the past two years, in addition to marketing their products at craft and garden shows.

Vendors will lease space from the Smiths to display items for sale in the store. Marc Smith compared the concept with the Little Travelers space in Geneva, although not quite as “fancy.”

“My wife has had her eye on that property for the last 10 years,” Smith said at the Feb. 19 Planning Commission meeting where the Smiths were requesting a special-use permit to open the store in an area zoned business (B-3) district.

The Smiths want Sadie’s Attic to become a destination, bringing people to town to shop at their store and others in the area, eat at Elburn’s bars and restaurants, and shop at Ream’s Meat Market.

The items for sale will be displayed on repurposed furniture and fixtures, which also will be for sale.

“We want to keep the store fresh, keep it moving and with new stuff all the time,” he said.

The couple will put in a new sprinkler system, per the new fire regulations, fix cracks in the stucco exterior and repaint the building, which originally had been a house. They will install a sidewalk leading to the front door from the parking lot to the north, which has 20 parking spaces.

“We won’t make any changes to the building,” Marc Smith said. “We love the character of the architecture. The building won’t look any different.”

“I think it’s a great concept,” Planning Commission Chairman Jeff Metcalf said. “Years ago on the board, we talked about where we were going to be in terms of Main Street, and this is exactly the kind of store we were talking about, retail and cyber, very unique, very different. ... I think it’s going to be a great asset to the village.”

The vote was unanimous to approve the special-use permit. Commissioner Rob Houtz was absent.

Gina Smith said they plan to open the store by Aug. 1 in time for Elburn Days.

Legion obtains special-use permit

for live entertainment

American Legion Post 630 also came before the Planning Commission on Feb. 19 to request a special-use permit for live entertainment in its building at 112 N. Main St.

The building is in a B-1 (central business) district, where live entertainment is a special use for a business that serves food and alcoholic beverages. There are three other businesses featuring live entertainment within a block or so of the Legion, including Schmidt’s Towne Tap, Eddie Gaedel Pub and Grill and the Old Elburn Hall.

Village Administrator John Nevenhoven and commissioner Chris Mulvihill recused themselves from the discussion and the vote because of their membership with the Legion. The vote was unanimous in favor of granting the special use.

Vote takes place for final draft of

Elburn’s revised comprehensive plan

Savoy Consulting Group President Kon Savoy presented the final draft of Elburn’s 2020 comprehensive land use plan, which was updated from the previous plan from 2013.

Nevenhoven introduced the plan, and said that according to Illinois state statute, the planning area for Elburn extends one and a half miles outward from its corporate boundaries, the area for which Elburn is allowed to plan. Those boundaries are roughly a little north of Beith Road on the north, Harley Road on the east, almost to Francis Road to the west, and south to Main Street Road and the area around Blackberry Oaks Forest Preserve. He said the comprehensive plan provides guidelines to the community, as well as developers, as to how the village would like to see the property around it developed.

Key changes in this plan include the expansion of the quarry to the south, scaled-back additional retail development around Route 38 and Anderson Road, and limited additional expansion of multi-family development.

New with the revision are two new sub-area plans with more specific details than the previous plan’s description. For the northern sub-area north of Route 38 to Beith Road and east of Route 47 to Anderson Road, where the Lennar Homes development will be located, the plan places an emphasis on interconnectedness, and recommends connecting interior trails to regional trails, the elimination of cul-de-sacs and the use of a road network to border green areas to make them more accessible.

The southern sub-area, south of Keslinger down to Rowe Road and west of Route 47, provides the greatest opportunity for commercial growth, such as smaller industrial development and manufacturing, Savoy said.

He said he heard loud and clear that the Elburn community is not interested in expanding down to Interstate-88.

A number of residents from Sugar Grove and Blackberry Township attended the Planning Commission meeting as well as the Feb. 18 Village Board meeting to reinforce their opposition to the possibility of Elburn considering the annexation of the Crown warehouse development. Several encouraged Elburn officials to restart discussions with Sugar Grove on a boundary agreement in an attempt to block the development from moving forward.

Elburn and Sugar Grove officials had restarted discussions last year on a potential boundary agreement, but Elburn put the discussions on hold after Crown Development withdrew its petition to Sugar Grove.

The planning commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the comprehensive plan update. The Village Board will review the plan for its approval no later than March 16.