A Forest Preserve District official wants to raise the rent on more than 2,000 acres leased to farmers.
Larry Troutman, vice chairman of the district’s Citizens Advisory Committee, told members this week that the district should reap more than the $150,270 it is to receive under the latest licensing agreements.
Troutman criticized the revenue structure this week during the committee’s annual review of 22 three-year farm licenses.
“I want you to put it in the record that I think we’re getting shortchanged,” said Troutman, noting some of the leases were for as little as $50. Troutman is also Channahon Township supervisor and a former forest district commissioner.
Another member of the committee disagreed. Scott Lagger called the individual leases “fairly well pegged.”
Lagger, who represents the Will County Farm Bureau on the advisory body, credited the forest district with establishing “fair cash value” for the properties.
The district’s 16-year-old agricultural land-use policy tends to allow former owners or tenants to continue cultivating land acquired for forest preserves and greenways. The lease program enables the forest district to obtain operating revenue from acquired land that it can’t immediately restore or develop.
Leases are constructed “pretty much on a case-by-case basis,” said Marcy DeMauro, planning and operations director.
Under the latest leasing proposal, the most expensive lease is $6,800 for 68 acres in the new Black Walnut Creek Preserve south of University Park. The least expensive is no charge for 89 acres in the new Prairie Creek Bend Preserve south of Manhattan.
The no-charge arrangement was negotiated during purchase of that property, according to a memo from district Executive Director Michael Pasteris.