Stony Creek developer trades cash, land in sewer pipe deal

A Kane County Forest Preserve commission panel agreed Friday to grant a developer an easement in exchange for land and cash despite objections from the neighboring community.

The majority of the commission's executive committee voted in favor of allowing the developer of Elgin's 900-home Stony Creek subdivision to build water and sewer pipes beneath the Corron Forest Preserve in Campton Township.

Developer Residential Land Fund would be able to access the utility via a 90-foot easement along the south side of McDonald Road.

In exchange, the developer will donate 52 acres of adjacent high-quality wetlands and $100,000 to the forest preserve.

Both the Campton Hills village board and the Campton Township Board passed resolutions opposing the easement donation, saying it would set a bad precedent for other developers in the rapidly growing area.

"The grant of public property for the benefit of a private developer is not in the public interest," states Campton Hills' resolution, approved in June.

Committee member Barb Wojnicki, who represents the area, concurred. But she was the only one of nine committee members present to vote against the measure.

"A question we need to ask ourselves is, 'How much money are we saving the developers at the taxpayers' expense?' " said Wojnicki, a Campton Hills Republican.

If the forest preserve commission, which is expected to vote on the measure later this month, rejects the easement donation, the developer would use the north side of McDonald Road to access the utility system, a more expensive and cumbersome endeavor that would require the razing of many mature trees, a representative of the developer said.

"There's some magic words here: the donation of cash, the donation of land," said forest preserve commissioner Mike Kenyon. "I wouldn't want to cut down any old trees to prove a point. We would be foolish. We'll get a little more out of this than we'll give up."

The land to be donated to the forest preserve contains high-quality wetlands, rare orchids and unusual plants found nowhere else in the county, forest preserve planning director Drew Ullberg told the committee.