Forest district considers buying land near Volo
The Lake County Forest Preserve District is set to expand its holdings with the pending purchase of about 18 acres in Wauconda Township near Volo.
Known as the CadleRock property, the open land abuts Route 12 on the east between Route 120 and Case Road. Comprosed mainly of wetlands and thought to be home to the threatened Blanding's turtle, the property is under contract and is considered as an addition to the Singing Hills Forest Preserve.
"It's an important turtle habitat and wetland bird habitat," said Jim Anderson, the district's director of natural resources. The forest board's finance committee on Thursday recommended approval of the $100,000 purchase, and the full board will consider the buy at its regular meeting Tuesday.
Ohio-based CadleRock Properties of Illinois LLC took title to the property last summer and the district contacted the company in October, according to Ken Jones, the district's land preservation manager.
"We've been aware of the property for quite a long time," Jones said. "The reason we're interested in protecting it is for the wetland."
He said the property has always been vacant as far as he could determine.
The wetland there is specially protected and would require more detailed approvals to develop, Jones added, which is why the price is low compared to other acquisitions.
For example, the district earlier this year approved the purchase of 20 acres at Erhart Road and Fremont Center Road in Fremont Township for $650,000 as an addition to the Ray Lake Forest Preserve.
Funding for the CadleRock purchase will come from proceeds of a 2008 voter-approved tax hike for property acquisition and restoration. There is about $20 million left in that fund.
"We're really trying to be very careful with what we have left," Jones said. "We're concentrating on important natural resource parcels or trail connection parcels, things like that."
District holdings amount to about 30,100 acres, with another 100 acres under contract.
"We still have money (but) we're being very picky," said Ty Kovach, executive director.