Valley View Youth Center on its way to becoming open space

The dilapidated and shuttered Valley View Youth Center outside St. Charles could be gone by the end of the year.

The Kane County Forest Preserve, which owns the property, wants to raze the buildings and use the land as open space.

"We want to get the property open to the public as soon as we can," said Monica Meyers, forest preserve executive director.

The county board's development committee approved a measure Tuesday to declare the center a "slum and blighted area." With that designation approved by the county board, the forest preserve district could move forward for federal grant money to raze the center.

The site was bought by the forest preserve last fall with money from its recent open space referendum.

The buildings are beyond repair and couldn't be used, said Mark VanKerkhoff, director of the county building and community services division.

When the center was closed in 2002 by the state, the utilities were shut off, so there are burst water pipes, flooded basements and deteriorated building facades, VanKerkhoff said.

Since its closure, proposals to reopen it or use it as a drug treatment center were floated, but those never materialized.

The forest preserve plans to work with the St. Charles Park District to come up with a plan for the land, Meyers said.

There is a gymnasium among the buildings, which district officials might be interested in salvaging, she added.

The land is across the street from the Tekakwitha Woods Forest Preserve. A bike trail planned for the property could connect Tekakwitha Woods to the Jon J. Duerr Forest Preserve, Meyers said.