Forest district set to acquire land once eyed by Costco

A wholesale giant's loss may become the Lake County Forest Preserve District's gain.

Land near the Tri-State Tollway in Lake Forest that was eyed for a Costco store until a public backlash scuttled the project is set to be bought by the forest district. The 19-acre site will be an addition to the neighboring Middlefork Savanna.

The land, now owned by the city of Lake Forest, will cost the forest district slightly more than $1 million.

The deal is one of two proposed land buys forest district officials are set to discuss today. Officials also are set to spend nearly $1.6 million on more than 93 acres in the Lake Villa area for an addition to the Fourth Lake Forest Preserve.

That deal, if approved, will provide land for a key extension of the long-planned Millennium Trail through the county, forest district Executive Director Tom Hahn said. District officials have been pursuing the land, now owned by a local family, for seven or eight years, he said.

"This is one of the most important properties we had on our property list," Hahn said.

Middlefork will grow to 689 acres if the purchase goes through. It's renowned as a national ecological research site and has been used as an outdoor classroom by schools and colleges.

The proposed addition is on the east side of the Tri-State Tollway and north of Route 60. District officials have been after the land since the Costco plan sunk in 2005, Hahn said.

The move will further safeguard many protected species living at Middlefork, said forest district commissioner Susan Loving Gravenhorst, a Lake Bluff Republican whose district includes part of the preserve.

"Anytime you can expand the forest preserve areas, it's a wonderful opportunity," she said.

The city and the Lake Forest Open Lands Association are funding a natural restoration of the site. By the time the deal closes, Hahn said, a pond and wetlands there will have been restored.

"The city of Lake Forest is pleased to have been able to work closely with the Lake County Forest Preserve District and Lake Forest Open Lands Association to preserve this important buffer to the Middlefork Savanna," Lake Forest Mayor Michael Rummel said in an e-mailed statement,

Lake Forest officials are building a municipal facility elsewhere on what once was the Costco property. The wholesaler is moving ahead with plans to build a store in Mettawa, across the tollway from the Lake Forest site.

The proposed Fourth Lake expansion will bring that preserve, which is on Grand Avenue west of Route 45, to nearly 687 acres.

Fourth Lake is a key cog in the Millennium Trail, a route that will stretch 35 miles through much of the county and link several other preserves and the Des Plaines River Trail. Eleven miles of the trail are open, with three to four additional miles scheduled to open within a year, officials said.

The proposed addition will connect two pieces of the Fourth Lake preserve and allow for a major development of the trail, Hahn said, including a leg between Rollins Savanna near Grayslake and McDonald Woods near Lindenhurst.

It also sets the stage for a trail construction project that could cost $8 million to $10 million, Hahn said.

"It's a big piece of property, and it does so much for us," he said.

The forest board's land preservation and finance committees will discuss the proposed purchases today. The land preservation committee meeting is set for 9 a.m. at the district office, 2000 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville. The finance committee is set for 1 p.m. in the same building.

The full board could vote on the deals Tuesday, Feb. 10.