Campton Hills open space spat continues
Tensions ran high Tuesday night over how Campton Hills trustees should negotiate having the Kane County Forest Preserve possibly take control of and maintain some 270 acres of open space in Fox Mill, the village's largest subdivision.
Trustees said at a town-hall meeting last summer that they wanted to end litigation over control of the land. But in the fall, the village board approved spending up to $6,000 to have the Palos Heights-based Montana & Welch work with the forest preserve and homeowner's association board.
The homeowner's group took control over the land decades ago after the forest preserve said it didn't want it. Fox Mill households currently pay $1,200 a year each to maintain the land.
Fox Mill residents, including its homeowner's association president Bill Iwanski, say they are frustrated because they've been kept in the dark about negotiations. For months, trustees have retreated behind closed doors to discuss the issue or passed over the agenda item at board meetings.
Village President Harry Blecker complained last month that he was kept in the dark. After a Nov. 23 letter from Montana & Welsh to the forest preserve lawyer became public, Blecker accused Trustees Laura Andersen, Jim McKelvie, Mike Tyrrell and Mike O'Dwyer of having the village law firm overstep its negotiating authority.
Instead, Blecker proposed the forest preserve transfer the land and the Fox Mill Homeowner's group lease it for, say, $1 a year for 100 years, and the two parties work out an agreement.
"This type of agreement would satisfy the trustees' argument that the public open space be owned by a public entity yet transfer responsibility to the (homeowners association," Blecker said, later adding "I have always stated that I wanted this to end, and I didn't want to spend another penny on it."
McKelvie noted Blecker had been unanimously censured by the board for speaking to the media about hiring the firm, a topic he said should have been confidential.
Tyrrell acknowledged it was an "emotional issue" for homeowners but emphasized leaders were attempting to adhere to a 1992 development agreement that mandated the Fox Mill open space should be owned by a public entity.
"Residents of Fox Mill don't lose anything," Tyrrell said. "But they end up with the stewardship of Kane County (Forest Preserve) as originally intended and originally agreed upon."
The board did not take any action.