Almost 200 acres of environmentally sensitive nature areas would be given to the Kane County Forest Preserve system in exchange for helping a local park district buy the land necessary to construct a multi-use athletic and recreation facility in western St. Charles Township.
St. Charles Park District Director Jim Breen said his agency proposed the land swap plan because it is the only way it can afford to buy and preserve a pair of former family farms totaling 160 acres near Bolcum and Crane Roads.
“We don’t have the money to just outright buy the land,” Breen said. “So we have to look at alternative possibilities.”
Under the proposal, the Park District would deed over to the Forest Preserve District 187 acres, including holdings known as Ferson Creek Woods, Otter Creek Bend and the Ferson Creek Fen, which is an Illinois Nature Preserve.
The forest preserve would also receive an as-yet undetermined amount of private funding that developers will be required to pay for wetland restoration on those properties.
Breen said the farmland, if purchased for open space, would be combined with an adjacent 70-acre parcel the district owns and be developed into a major activity center.
The facility could include athletic fields, a recreation building, a skating rink, an outdoor pool, an equestrian center, a model farm and a nursery.
Forest preserve Supt. Jon Duerr said commissioners are interested in the offer, but may want to retain partial ownership of the farmland proposed for purchase. A forest preserve committee is scheduled to discuss the plan again Saturday.
Although still zoned for agriculture and is not subdivided, the land the Park District covets is being targeted for residential development by its owners and the Kane County Development Department.