Kane County approves M.A. Center housing

Neighbors of the M.A. Center religious retreat near Elburn may need a hug after a Kane County Board decision Tuesday to support new housing on the 142-acre campus.

With the approval, center officials will move forward with construction of 72 duplex units and 192 dorm-style apartments on the Keslinger Road property. Seminar and retreat attendees, as well as paid and volunteer staff members, would occupy the residences.

The location is the former home of a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school. It closed in 2007 and fell into disrepair. The M.A. Center bought the property in 2012. It is now the Midwest base of operations for Mata Amritanandamayi, a woman known in India as "the hugging saint."

Three direct neighbors to the property have joined a handful of other area residents to oppose the plan. Peter Storm, an attorney representing the neighbors, threatened a lawsuit during remarks that characterized the housing as being on the level of a "major subdivision or a small village." The housing will be capable of accommodating up to 500 people.

Storm said thinking of the new dwellings as temporary housing is a mistake.

"The occupancy is as much as six months," he said. "That's an apartment building. If it's anything less, then it's a hotel. Either way, there is no provision in your ordinance that permits the construction of an apartment complex in a farming district."

But county board members sided with the interpretation of Charles Radovich, the attorney representing the M.A. Center. Radovich said the 192 apartments are just a replacement for a derelict structure that was already there when his clients purchased the property.

The duplex units are new, but the center is foregoing its religious tax exemption on that housing. Center staff members will discourage all guests from staying longer than six months or placing their children in the local Kaneland school district.

"This was already a full campus that was used by a religious order for educational purposes," Radovich said. "That's what's being continued here by the M.A. Center."

Twenty-one out of 24 county board members agreed in voting "yes" on the center's plan. Board member John Hoscheit was absent. Board member Drew Frasz abstained. He's done private business with interests on both sides of the issue.

Board member Phil Lewis was the lone "no" vote. He believes the housing will create a more intense use of the rural site than local taxpayers want.

"Over the past two decades our community has invested $200 million in the investment of the preservation of open space," Lewis said. "I have an obligation to keep being mindful of that investment."