Elburn will not become a golf cart community – at least for now

The effort to make Elburn a golf cart community will not move forward – at least for now.

After months of research and several drafts of an ordinance, Village Board members did not second a motion made by Trustee Chris Hansen to approve it.

The concept had plenty of interest when it was introduced, with 582 residents signing a petition for the board to consider it.

The impetus began with Melissa Bollivar, a relatively new resident to the community, and Beth Simmons, co-owner with her husband of Main Street Golf Cars in Elburn.

Simmons and her husband have worked in the golf cart industry for almost 20 years. Bollivar experienced living in golf cart communities in several towns before moving to Elburn. They presented information about the concept at a November 2024 board meeting.

Bollivar said having that casual way of getting around encouraged people to get outside to take kids around the neighborhood or just meet their neighbors.

Elburn Police Chief Nick Sikora and village attorney Bill Thomas brought information to the board regarding state laws governing these vehicles, interviews conducted with police chiefs and sample ordinances from other municipalities around the state. Trustees obtained feedback from residents and did research of their own on the pros and cons, the safety risks and the liabilities.

Trustees Pat Schuberg and Ken Anderson did not support the idea from the beginning. At a December 2024 meeting, Schuberg said despite being such a small village, Elburn had two major state highways, a large county road and a railroad crossing, which make the safe operation of golf carts throughout the village difficult to maintain.

Anderson said the state statute addressing a municipality authorizing the operation of non-highway vehicles, such as golf carts, on roadways under its jurisdiction included the language “if … (it) determines that the public safety will not be jeopardized.”

Anderson said he was thinking about Route 47 and neighborhoods with industrial parks where semitrucks are prevalent.

“I don’t think a semitruck running into a golf cart would be a good thing, let alone a car,” he said during the Feb. 18 Committee of the Whole meeting.

Sikora also was not in favor of the idea. He gathered information for the board to make its own decision and said he was committed to doing all he could to make the resulting policy as safe as possible.

The concerns the trustees discussed over several months of meetings mainly were about public safety, especially the risks that would be involved if golf carts were allowed to cross major streets in the village such as Route 47 and Keslinger Road.

Because of these safety concerns, trustees were leaning toward limiting the use of golf carts to only within one’s own subdivision or neighborhood. Trustee Sue Filek said that had been her assumption from the beginning.

Trustees offered their final opinions on the subject during a discussion at the March 17 Committee of the Whole. Village President Jeff Walter said the ordinance would be placed on the agenda for a vote at the Village Board meeting at the beginning of April.

The final ordinance would allow residents to drive golf carts only on village roads with speed limits of 35 mph or less and residents would not be allowed to cross streets such as Route 47, Route 38 and Keslinger and Hughes roads. The ordinance included a list of other restrictions with resulting fines if drivers were found not to be in compliance.

When Hansen made the motion April 7 to approve the ordinance, no one seconded the motion, the step necessary to initiate discussion and ultimately to vote.

Although that motion was dead, the ordinance still was an open agenda item, Walter said after the meeting. He said he would bring it back to the Village Board in the new term.

Three members of the board will step down at the end of April. They are Filek, who had stepped in to temporarily fill trustee Bill Grabarek’s spot after he died, and Anderson and Schuberg, both of whom decided not to run again.

The new term will start at the May 5 Village Board meeting with the swearing in of newly elected trustees John Bolger and Megan Mussano, as well as an appointed trustee who will take over the remaining open position.