Rezoning talks postponed in West Chicago
Dozens of north-side West Chicago residents ready to protest the rezoning of a large cornfield left a plan commission meeting disappointed Tuesday after discussion on the item was postponed.
The public hearing, held at Wheaton Academy High School, centered on the annexation and rezoning by West Chicago of the 200-acre parcel, which lies on the west end of Klein Road.
Forest Preserve District of DuPage County officials have been vying since March to buy the same property because they say it provides needed water to an adjacent fen, or fragile wetland, in the West Branch Forest Preserve. Under the West Chicago rezoning, the whole tract could be developed at a higher density than surrounding properties.
Seconds after West Chicago planning and zoning commissioners opened the public hearing, Wheaton-based attorney R. Terrance Kalina told the board that the hearing should be put off.
Kalina represents the property owners, the Jemsek-Hinckley family, who also own the adjacent St. Andrew's Golf Club. He said that, at a forest preserve meeting that morning, district commissioners had considered an ordinance that called for the acquisition of the 200-acre parcel "through negotiation or condemnation."
The forest preserve board put the ordinance off Tuesday morning after Kalina agreed to ask for a continuance of the public hearing Tuesday night so that negotiations could continue, Kalina said.
"The outcome would greatly impact how the matter is handled by the city," Kalina told the plan commission.
Outside the meeting, Kalina said that property owners had made several proposals to resolve the situation. He said that forest preserve district officials had claimed they were "very close" to accepting one.
"We want to continue negotiating with the owners," said Marsha Murphy, commissioner of the forest preserve's District 1.
Wheaton-based attorney Thomas E. Sullivan, who represents the nearby St. Andrew's Hills homeowners association, said that residents oppose any development on the parcel; if there must be a re-zoning, the Hills association would like it to be lower-density.
"We're very pleased that the respective parties have decided to continue negotiations," he said
Members of another major resident group, the Friends of the Fen, declined to comment.
The forest preserve district had previously asked West Chicago to delay annexation until talks wrapped up. District President Dewey Pierotti has complained that annexation could drive up the price of the parcel.
But St. Andrew's club President Jerry Hinckley has said that they don't plan to develop the site and that they don't want to sell. Further, the district has had many opportunities to buy the land, rumored to be valued around $20 million, and is now offering to pay a fourth of what it's worth, he said.