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News
Forest preserve won't buy part of subdivision : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisForest preserve won't buy part of subdivision
| Board rejects Henneberry Woods proposal in split 5-3 ballot
| by Matt Schury
| 12/31/2009
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The Kendall County Board, acting as the Forest Preserve District Board, shot down a proposal Tuesday to purchase 230 acres of land that is currently part of an undeveloped portion of the Henneberry Woods Subdivision.
The property is located south of Oswego in unincorporated NaAuSay Township, north of Ill. Route 126, along the west side of Grove Road.
Despite a 5-3 split vote defeating an ordinance to purchase one-third of the subdivision's existing land, the board said they wanted to hear from the landowner, Ron Wehrli, Naperville based custom home builder Crestview Builders Inc.
Though it wasn't disclosed during the meeting, Wehrli is the cousin of Kendall County Board member Jeff Wehrli who owns Jeff Wehrli Excavating and says he has done work for his cousin's company.
Voting against the purchase were Board members John Purcell, John Shaw, County Board Chairman Anne Vickery, Bob Davidson and Nancy Martin. Casting approving votes for the purchase were Forest Preserve President Pam Parr, Jeff Wehrli and Elizabeth Flowers.
Ron Wehrli offered the Forest Preserve the land for $25,638 per acre for a total price of $5,460,894. The money was expected to come from referendum funds, Parr said.
Board members Jessie Hafenrichter and Suzanne Petrella stepped out of the board meeting room before the vote was taken.
After the meeting, Petrella said she would have voted against the land purchase had she been in the room during the vote because she was concerned about how the Forest Preserve's purchase would affect the rest of the subdivision.
After the vote, the Forest Preserve Board came to a consensus that they wanted Jason Pettit, the county's Forest Preserve Director, to contact Ron Wehrli about coming before a Forest Preserve or Kendall County Board meeting to talk about his plans for the remainder of the lots he owns in the subdivision. Moser Enterprises, Inc. is the developer of Henneberry Woods Subdivision.
That meeting could take place as early as next Tuesday's Forest Preserve Finance and Operations Committee or at a later meeting in January.
"I'd like to give this guy the courtesy of meeting with all of us first before he goes through a whole lot of money," Jeff Wehrli told the board. "If there is a consensus that this group doesn't want to buy this piece of property then we need to let him know."
Vickery said that she supported the purchase of the property but had some apprehension about a lack of communication from parties involved.
"I have never been involved in something that has cost so much money with absolutely no input from the existing landowner, their attorney, the land planner, nothing," Vickery said. "We are going by, what I think is, only hearsay," she said. "I would like to know what their intentions are."
'Absolutely against it'
Purcell told the board he couldn't support the purchase unless the County Board approved the final subdivision plan first.
"I'm opposed to this now, absolutely opposed to it and I will not support it," Purcell said. "We can buy other land but we have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of this county not just to the person selling this property."
Purcell added that as much as he wanted to purchase the property for the great location, there was no way right now he could support buying it without final plans because the county would be responsible to homeowners who would abut the property in Henneberry.
"It could be Mount Rushmore and it wouldn't be worth it to me," he said. "My real concern is if we do this, and there is no definite plan for the remaining property, there's no escaping that as an action and we will have people come back and say 'you county (board) are responsible,'" Purcell said.
"Right now I'm looking at blue sky," Davidson said. "Can the property owners-because they have to come back and renew their subdivision ordinance-can they put us in a Catch 20 situation where we could be forced to give them something we don't want to?" Davidson asked.
Assistant State's Attorney Brian Lombardi said that they are voting on it as the Forest Preserve Board, which has no authority to zone.
"You are only voting on the agreement as presented, which does not include anything that has to do with zoning," Lombardi said.
He added that if the developer wanted to make a change to the zoning on the property, they would have to come before the proper committees and ultimately the County Board.
Vickery mentioned that buying a third of the property affected the existing preliminary plan, which calls for a pool and clubhouse.
"The parcel we are looking to buy goes right smack dab through the pool and the clubhouse," she said. "It's going to have an effect on the people who live there."
Petrella said she could see both sides of the issue.
"I think that is a really wonderful piece of land for the forest preserve," she said. "I keep looking at the map and keep seeing where there are no forest preserve spots in the county and that would be a prime spot to be looking at."
However, Petrella added that she could see how landowners would feel who thought they were buying property that would be next to the clubhouse or pool facility.
"What would become of those folks dreams when they had thought they would be in the center of a subdivision at some point and all of a sudden they're at the end of public property?" Petrella said.
Taking a unique step
Wehrli responded that he assumed the subdivison's pool and clubhouse would be smaller because the Forest Preserve would be taking one-third of their lots away. He admitted that buying the land was a unique step for the Forest Preserve.
"We've never done this before. We've never taken a final platted ... piece of a subdivision and bought it," he said. "We're setting new ground here."
Davidson agreed that he wanted to see "something in black in white" about what the homebuilder intended to do with the remaining property.
Parr estimates there are about eight houses in the subdivision currently, and added that the board has been discussing the matter behind closed doors in executive session for about three months since Wehrli offered to sell the property to the Forest Preserve.
The Illinois Open Meetings Act allows decision-making bodies to enter into executive session for the purchase of buying land.
Martin said she couldn't support the purchase because she was concerned about the neighboring homes.
Martin added that she was worried that the Forest Preserve is buying a piece of land when none of the residents of Hennerberry know about the purchase.
"It's going to change what they thought that whole subdivision is going to look at," Martin said.
Hafenrichter said that they usually don't consult the neighbors
"Just because someone new next door owns the land doesn't mean you get another shot at zoning," Hafenrichter said. "I'm very much in favor of this."
Martin said that part of the property would be open to the public.
"There are other people who like privacy and this forest preserve is going to be open to all of the citizens of Kendall County-desirable and not," Martin said.
Pettit mentioned after the meeting that the Forest Preserve has applied for a $750,000 OSLAD grant from DNR, which is contingent on them owning the property. The grant would go specifically for the Henneberry property and if they did not buy the property, the grant would disappear, he said.
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