Kane Co. looking at new kind of rural development

A 405-acre development that may represent the future of Kane County farmland as the population grows might be ready to move forward in the next month or so.

Serosun Farms, near the borders of Hampshire and Burlington, has been a long time coming. Developers first pitched the concept to Kane County staff in 2005. Since then, the development has been praised by county officials and conservationists as a forward-thinking approach to marry Kane County's open space and farms with the demand for housing in a period of booming population growth.

Construction hasn't begun yet, but that's not so much because of the economy, or financing issues, but more because the county board is taking a slow approach to a project that will set a precedent for the next 20 years.

Indeed, Serosun Farms will likely spark both a revision to the county's 2030 plan and the creation of an entirely new agricultural land use category for future developers.

The project calls for 117 single-family homes built on nearly one-acre lots and more than 300 acres of open space, farmland and parks. The idea is to preserve the rural character of the existing land by using about 60 percent of the property for continuing some of the farm uses and the existing equestrian operation. The homes will be built near the middle of the property, around a woodland area. The farms would ring the outside and have uses that developers said would be compatible with any future or existing development adjacent to Serosun Farms. In other words, there would be no hog farming.

Oddly enough, it's not the homes nor the farms causing the most concern. The Kane County Development Committee focused most of its suggestions Tuesday on how best to handle the open space portions. Until now, the woodlands and fields on the property were set to be used only by the private landowners within the development.

However, the county is making a notable exception to existing rules for donating land or cash to offset the increased burdens on existing parks, fields and open space maintained by the county. Requiring the normal contribution for a development as large as Serosun Farms would kill the project from a profit standpoint for the developers. Never before has private open space inside a development been allowed to compensate for the land or cash payment to the extent proposed thus far for the project.

In trade for that concession, Development Committee members asked the developers Tuesday to consider allowing full public access to all the open space within the development.

With that alone as a possible major precedent, the committee voted to table the project for another 30 days to allow county staff to work out an agreement with the developer.