The Hampshire Village Board recently approved turning three different sections of Crown Community Development property into farmland, a composting facility and a wetland mitigation bank.
Ten aces was sold to Lane and Carol Burnidge of Enjoy Pioneer Farm and 40 acres is expected to be used by Midwest Organic Recycling for composting. Both sites had been eyed for residential development and that will remain the eventual goal for the compost site, said Daniel Olsem, Crown director of engineering.
The Burnidges want to expand their egg operation at 17N400 Big Timber Road in Hampshire. They bought their farm in 1978 and run it with their son Martin.
“The 10 acres is a heavily treed area with tall oaks,” said Olsem. “It’s located on the boundary of the village. It would have provided a third access to our property that we don’t need. The Burnidge family wants to keep it zoned as agricultural.”
Trustee George Brust said 13 residential lots originally planned for the parcel could have provided tax dollars for the village. He also mentioned the large mound of dirt on the future Hampshire Veteran’s Memorial Park site along State Street and asked if Crown could move it.
“We can move the dirt when funding for the park is established,” Olsem said.
While Trustee Mike Reid said selling the 10 acres made sense, he added, “I don’t want this to start a trend as a way for developers to make money.”
The site for the proposed composting facility is part of the Oakstead subdivision of the Crown property.
“We are not abandoning the residential zoning,” Olsem said. “It will be the last section of Oakstead to be developed. In the meantime, the land can be used for composting.”
Midwest Organic Recycling, in business for 10 years in McHenry, believes there’s a need for a composting site in Kane County, said Andy Klink, the company’s compost site manager.
“Compost is created during the natural decomposition of organic matter. Our main customers are large waste haulers, landscapers, nurseries, landscape supply yards, vegetable growers and homeowners. We provide compost for community gardens free of charge,” he said, as he showed trustees the composting process of tipping and grinding, mixing and turning, and screening and loading.
“We accept clean landscape waste, manure, food scraps and yard waste,” Klink said. “We do not accept non-organic materials like railroad ties. Recycling organic materials takes pressure off the landfills. We especially want to get food scraps out of landfills. We are active in the Illinois Food Scrap Coalition.”
When asked about odors, Klink said, “It will be an earthy smell like a mulch yard.” As far as the facility attracting rodents, he said, “We have owls, foxes and hawks patrolling the area.” He added that the heat produced by composting normally repels rodents.
Olsem said the composting facility would be in operation from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. It would not be open on Sunday. Tours could be arranged for school groups and Master Gardener groups.
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The third repurposing of Crown property involves turning 100 acres of the Prairie Ridge subdivision into a wetland mitigation bank.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers defines a wetland mitigation bank as “a wetland, stream or other aquatic resource area that has been restored, established, enhanced, or preserved. This resource area is then set aside to compensate for future impacts to aquatic resources resulting from permitted activities.”
“The Prairie Ridge parcel is a perfect site for wetland mitigation,” Olsem said. “The land was originally scheduled for open space. It is very flat and wet. One quarter of the site is flood plain. Crown will remain the owners of the mitigated land. One of the reasons we are doing this is we need mitigation credits. Our first customer will be ourselves. Once we sell mitigation credits, it will always remain as wetland.”
Denise Moran is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.