How 4 Naperville parks reverted back to forest preserves

For a quarter-century, Naperville Park District maintained 100 acres of woodlands that actually belonged to the DuPage Forest Preserve District.

Now that era has ended.

The park district allowed 25-year leases for land at Burlington Park, Goodrich Woods, Pioneer Park and Pioneer Greenway to expire Feb. 19, which transferred control of the land back to the forest preserve.

"We really didn't see the benefit to the Naperville taxpayer and the park district," Executive Director Ray McGury said about maintaining the land, which the park district was doing without reimbursement. "If the situation was reversed, I'd expect the same thing from the forest preserve."

When staff members projected maintenance costs, they found it could cost between $250,000 and $500,000 to keep up the four open spaces for the next quarter-century. McGury said he doesn't know why the park district wanted the sites when it signed the leases in 1991.

"I didn't understand why we were taking care of these parcels of land. I was hesitant to sign another 25-year lease," McGury said. "The board agreed it's not in the best interest of Naperville citizens, who will still be able to enjoy those parcels."

Park board President Mike Reilly said he's sure there was a good reason for the deal when the park district committed to maintaining the land, but now he and fellow commissioners felt "it didn't really make sense anymore."

The leases included all of Burlington Park at 1003 Douglas Ave., all of Goodrich Woods at 25W505 Hobson Road, the southern nine acres of Pioneer Park at 1212 S. Washington St. and about half of Pioneer Greenway at 1095 Hobson Mill Drive.

Without these lands on its rolls, the park district now maintains 137 parks instead of 140, comprising 2,400 acres instead of 2,500, McGury said. The change will not cause any layoffs or decreases in park district staffing.

The forest preserve intends to keep the lands as natural open spaces. Workers will care for native vegetation, remove invasive species and aggressive shrubs, monitor the sites, and open and close the preserves as part of daily operations, spokeswoman Audra Bonnet said.

Reilly said the park board knows the land is in good hands and won't go into "disrepair."

The amount of green space in and near Naperville will stay the same, but Bonnet said decisions have not been made about whether trails, picnic shelters or other amenities in the four affected preserves will be changed.

"We're still assessing the natural areas and the features and habitats," Bonnet said.

In Pioneer Park, Naperville Park District will continue to maintain the northern 14 acres as well as the DuPage River Trail throughout all of the property. The park district also keeps maintenance responsibility for seven acres of Pioneer Greenway.