No joke: How many ousted officials does it take before village leaders start listening to their residents?

Look no further than Sugar Grove to see that people are fed up with unpopular decisions being jammed down their throats.

Since the winter of 2019 the hottest topic in that village has centered on its plans for 760 acres of prime farmland owned by Crown Community Development at the Interstate 88/Route 47 interchange that initially included 4 million square feet of potential warehousing.

Residents didn’t just react, they revolted, with hundreds of Sugar Grove and Blackberry Township residents packing large convention rooms expressing their concerns at village meetings.

The pushback worked. Crown withdrew its plan and in 2021 several elected officials were kicked off the Village Board, including President Sean Michels, who was crushed by Jennifer Konen, a trustee who ran on an anti-warehouse campaign.

A few years later Crown was back, this time with a more palatable mixed-use proposal that, in addition to the potential for warehouses, included “The Grove,” a residential/retail development that featured a “town center” a good six miles from the heart of the village.

Backlash against this “Crown light” plan was not as monumental but still significant, led mostly by Blackberry Township homeowners who were not only incensed all the industrial development was on their side of the interstate but that, because 98% were Elburn residents, they had no vote in what would forever impact their homes and their futures.

Much to their frustration – and outrage – they felt they were once more dealing with Sugar Grove leadership that heavily favored Crown, specifically Konen.

And so, the Thoughtful Progress Facebook page that was started in opposition to Crown in 2019 was revived. More recently Neighbors for Sensible Growth was formed and the battle was on again, picking up considerable steam in the village throughout last year, especially as the board voted to approve zoning changes and annexation, then gave Crown financial incentives via a tax increment financing (TIF) district, which in essence declared this fertile farmland blighted.

It was a bridge too far for lots of people. And it wasn’t long before opponents put together a slate of candidates to run against Konen and for three open trustee seats. The opposition also went a step further, gathering 500 signatures to put an advisory referendum on the ballot asking how voters felt about the Crown development.

Once more, they made their displeasure known. Not only did Susan Stillwell soundly defeat Konen for village president (unofficially as of Thursday, 57.71% to 42.29%), all three candidates backed by the anti-Crown movement won seats on the board, which ousted an incumbent trustee who had voted for the development last fall.

If that wasn’t a strong enough message, the advisory referendum asking for a reversal of the Crown project got (unofficially as of Tuesday) nearly 58% of the votes.

“Time and time again we would hear that it’s only Blackberry Township people opposed to the development … that Sugar Grove residents want it,” said Pat Gallagher, who put together the referendum.

“No, they don’t … and this election proved that,” Gallagher said.

So it seems. The nearly 35% of registered Sugar Grove voters – up from close to 19% in the election four years ago – who cast a ballot in the April 1 election soundly rejected the Crown plan. Imagine how high the numbers would have been with Blackberry votes added.

“This is an incredibly educated force that wants to come to the table and have a voice in how we grow,” said Thoughtful Progress founder Carolyn Anderson. “We welcome progress but not at the cost of who we are.”

As a Blackberry Township resident myself, all of this is positive news.

The not-so-great? It’s likely too little too late, with the best hope in the hands of Kaneland School District, which is considering legal action against Sugar Grove to challenge the TIF district on the grounds it would limit property tax revenue to the school district.

“It’s a litigation nightmare that could have been avoided,” said Gallagher, who drew up the advisory referendum and helped gather the signatures that put it on the ballot. “Municipalities should not have carte blanche over all the taxing bodies impacted by a TIF.

“There is such a paternalistic attitude that ‘we know better than our constituents,’” he added. “There is too much power in the hands of a few.”

And that, he says, all “goes back to representation.”

Jaden Chada, a Blackberry Township resident and 20-year-old nursing student at Aurora University, got involved in this movement after attending a Sugar Grove meeting two years ago discussing the comprehensive land use plan where, “nearly every person was against it and yet they approved it anyway.”

“That’s not right,” he added.

Even at his age, Chada realizes that to make a difference it often takes more than showing up and voicing concerns, that there also has to be a plan and those willing to do the hard work to implement it.

Chada got so involved that he became the manager of Stillwell’s campaign which, he noted, spent only $3,000, a mere fraction of the opponent’s. Among his duties: hitting the streets of Sugar Grove day after day, distributing door hangers and flyers to nearly 2,500 of Sugar Grove’s 3,000 homes.

Thousands more hours went into this effort by a small but determined group that included Anderson, a former insurance specialist and now self-described “housewife” who estimates she put in 40 to 60 hours a week.

“Our team has spent years researching this development and especially the TIF financing behind it,” she told me. “The idea that the taxing bodies and public should be forced to bear the financial burden of a project they overwhelmingly opposed is nothing short of immoral.”

Sugar Grove is “uniquely positioned,” she went on, to attract high-caliber development, including health care options.

“With its access to large tracts of land near the tollway, proximity to a strong network of educational institutions and its location within reach of an underserved population, it offers tremendous potential for meaningful investment,” she said.

To Gallagher, a software engineer with a master’s degree in American legal history, the results on April 1 not only sent a message that local elections are important, but that change is possible.

“It might just be a moral victory at the moment,” he added. “But we still have a lot of irons in the fire.”

dcrosby@tribpub.com