McHenry County long-range plan turned over to county board

After three years, thousands of volunteer hours, dozens of meetings and a pair of public hearings, the McHenry County 2030 Comprehensive Plan finally is in the hands of the county board.

Leaders from the volunteer Regional Planning Commission that drafted the plan made it official Tuesday morning, turning over the 131-page document intended as a road map to guide county development, conservation, water protection and transportation decisions for the next two decades.

"We view this as a start, not a finish," said commission Chairman Charles Eldredge. "This plan will be no good if it just sits on a shelf for the next 30 years."

A key principle of the plan is a "land first" approach to development, a strategy by which the county, other governments and developers will first be expected to take into consideration a location's natural ecology and features when deciding an appropriate design and use.

Unlike the last time the county tried to create a comprehensive plan - which ultimately ended with the county board scrapping months of work and tens of thousands of dollars in investment to start over from scratch - the process to create the 2030 plan moved relatively smoothly.

The plan is not without its critics, however. The only commission member to oppose it did so on grounds it did not do enough to preserve farmland. And one of the county's leading environmental groups voiced concerns Tuesday that it fails to adequately protect open space and water resources.

"This will defer difficult decisions onto our children," said Kim Willis of the McHenry County Environmental Defenders.

The plan on Thursday will go before the county board's Planning and Development Committee and could be before the full county board for a vote in January, officials said.

The plan can be viewed at mchenrycounty2030plan.com.