A big issue in Wayne is keeping lot sizes at a 4-acre minimum

Here's a campaign issue you're not likely to find in many suburbs: How to keep residential lot sizes at a minimum of 4 acres.

In the affluent village of Wayne, this is a primary focus of the spring election.

"It's just the way Wayne is, and we don't want to lose it. This is why we bought homes in this community, the fact that everything was 4-acre zoning," said village board candidate Joseph Mascetti.

It's also just the way it is in sprawling Barrington Hills, where candidates are vowing to protect the village's 5-acre minimum lot size.

In Wayne, a total of seven candidates are seeking three village trustee positions on the April 7 ballot. Among them, Mascetti and two of his neighbors - Robert Schless and Christopher Thoms - are running on a platform of preventing a 160-acre farm near their homes from being subdivided into lots smaller than 4 acres.

The slate is challenging incumbents William Jensen, Howard Levine and Anna Marie Tigges. Also in the running is Scott Coryell, a police officer not associated with the other candidates.

Mascetti said his slate believes the village board is "giving in" to developers by considering less-stringent zoning standards that would allow the horse farm next to his home off Route 25 to be developed in potentially 2-acre lots, disrupting a trend of estates and open space in the semirural community.

"There seems to be a feeling this village should reduce the zoning," Schless said. "But it's a countryside area and it's been that way since I have lived here over 50 years. We'd like to keep it the same."

With a population of 2,100, Wayne is situated along Army Trail Road in both Kane and DuPage counties between St. Charles and West Chicago. The median home value was $442,500 at the last census in 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Tigges, who was first elected four years ago, said the 160-acre property in question is still unincorporated land but officials are interested in the possibility of annexing it.

She said the owner wants to develop the property, which is north of May Lane on the east side of Route 25, but he might be unlikely to annex it into Wayne if lot guidelines are too harsh.

Tigges said one alternative might be an annexation agreement with South Elgin, where zoning is more relaxed and Wayne would have little say in how the land would be built out.

"We're doing everything we can to entice the owner to become part of our community," Tigges said. "All of us (on the board) prefer to see open space and 4-acre zoning. Believe me, that's ideal. But when you're looking at the whole picture, there's the possibility somebody else could take the land and then you're playing a totally different ballgame. South Elgin may not necessarily agree 4-acre zoning is the way to go."

Not all of Wayne consists of 4-acre lots. To the east of the Kane-DuPage line, residential lots tend to be 2 acres or more. Four-acre lots are the norm west of the county line. There are some 1-acre lots along Army Trail Road in the village's downtown area.

Jensen, who was elected eight years ago, said he would like to see the horse farm developed and serving as a buffer along the part of town with the largest lots.

"One has to be a little pragmatic about it," he said. "You can't stick your head in the sand and just say zoning is 4 acres. You have to be a little practical about it."