The Kane County Forest Preserve Commission is asking the state attorney general’s office for clarification on state laws before it agrees to swap property with the Park District.
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In the meantime, the commission’s Executive Committee is recommending that the full commission vote to buy the 160-acre parcel that park officials had hoped to acquire by trading almost 200 acres of environmentally sensitive nature areas.
“The property is still valuable as open space,” said Forest Preserve Commission President Brad Sauer. “It fits in with (the Northern Illinois Planning Commission’s) Greenway Plan because it is along Ferson Creek.”
Last week, the proposed swap was almost rejected when a forest preserve attorney advised that state law precluded the county conservation agency from trading land with other governments.
But Sauer said other state laws let governments swap real estate, and he has asked the attorney general for an opinion on which law prevails.
The Park District wants the 160-acre parcel, known as the Primrose property, to develop a multi-use, recreation and athletic center in the northwest part of the township. The property, at Bolcum and Crane Roads, is slated for residential development.
In exchange for the forest preserve commission’s buying power, the park district has offered title to 187 acres of pristine wooded wetlands including Ferson Creek Woods, Otter Creek Bend and the Ferson Creek Fen, which is an Illinois Nature Preserve.
If the attorney general’s opinion determines an outright swap would be illegal, the transfer of title could occur if the deal is structured as a sale from one government to another, Sauer said.