Margo Griffin Oversees the Village of Huntley

Margo Griffin did not always work for the Village of Huntley as the economic go-between—she first took a career in marketing and graphic design, then as a paralegal before she decided to get a Bachelor's degree in geography and a Master's degree in planning and development at Western Illinois University. 

Griffin said she uses her prior experiences to her advantage.  She uses her paralegal experience to review documents and her marketing and graphic design to work with companies and plan sites. 

Griffin, Business Development Coordinator for the Village of Huntley, has been working for the village manager's office for eight years now. 

Jobs she has include bringing new business to the village, sending out marketing-type letters and conducting restaurant surveys.  The restaurant survey was a 2009 online survey publicized in the Huntley newsletter with over 1,000 online responses with questions such as what the most popular restaurants in town were, what influences restaurant choice and what restaurants patrons wanted to see in the community in the future. 

Griffin started out as an intern in the planning department and when took over the role of village planner for five years where she reviewed plans for new businesses and subdivisions.  For the past three years, she has focused more on economic development. 

While Village Planner, she would receive plans from developers for subdivisions, review them, and bring the final plats before the Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals. She guided the process through the village board, which approved the plans. 

Now, she deals more with commercial and industrial growth. 

She also works with the International Council of Shopping Centers, which is where retailers and developers come together and pitch properties.  She helps get the word out on what is available for the town by meeting with different retailers, like Panera Bread for example, and putting together marketing materials, demographics and site plans. 

"I also work with our existing businesses," she said. 

Griffin works with businesses and how the Route 47 widening projects, which will expand Route 47 from Kreutzer Road to Reed Road, affects them as well. 

"All the businesses will be affected some way," she said.  There is also an e-news blast that is put out stating what will be done on the road that day.

"Businesses should know ahead of time so they can plan for it," she said. 

Some other activities Griffin has participated in are ribbon-cutting ceremonies for businesses, reaching out to businesses, retention and expansion of companies and visiting companies.

"I want to see businesses grow instead of stay the same," Griffin added. 

She also thinks the community will continue to expand. 

"It is important for people to know this community is going to continue to grow," Griffin added.  She mentioned that Del Webb's Sun City, where residents must be 55 years or older, has about 9,000 residents and there are other subdivisions growing with younger families in Huntley as well. 

Plus, Huntley has grown a lot in the past ten years from a population of 5,730 in the 2000 U.S. Census to a population of 23, 229, according to a special 2010 U.S. Census.

In her spare time, Griffin likes to go spend time with her husband and two children who attend Lake Zurich High School at the moment—her daughter is involved with music and her son with sports.  She also likes going to the dog park with her dog and hiking. "I like to spend time outdoors if the weather is nice," she said.