Why Cook County residents are being asked to pay more taxes for forest preserves

When Cook County residents head to the polls next week, the ballot will not only include choices for governor, state representatives and local judges. Voters will also be asked for a property tax hike to support and grow the county's nearly 70,000 acres of forest preserves.

The county's forest preserve system is the first and largest of its kind in the country, making up about 11% of Cook County. A coalition of more than 150 organizations that support the quest for additional funds laud the environmental and human health benefits of the preserves, which advocates say became particularly evident during the isolation of the pandemic.

“In our DNA is an affection for nature and the need to be in nature: the smells, the sights, the sounds, all those things,” said Dave Simmons, the president of Friends of Cycling in Elk Grove. “Because we have so many forest preserves in Cook County, we're really fortunate someone had the fortitude and the forward thinking to say we need to set this land aside.”

The group of cycling enthusiasts regularly volunteer at the Busse Woods Forest Preserve to help with restoring and maintaining the land. Simmons said the tax hike feels like “a really small price to pay” to be able to continue to preserve the highly metropolitan area's pockets of nature.

If the proposal in the Nov. 8 referendum is approved, homeowners would pay about $20 more in property taxes per year. Currently, about $36 to $48 of an owner's annual property taxes goes to the forest preserve district.

Arnold Randall, general superintendent of the Forest Preserves of Cook County, said the question for additional funding has been a long time coming. After the district developed a Next Century Conservation Plan to celebrate its centennial in 2015, it became evident more resources were needed to meet the plan's ambitious goals.

Among them is restoring 30,000 acres of land to greater ecological health, acquiring 21,000 acres of land for open space, and expanding programming that educates and welcomes visitors to natural areas.

The forest preserve board — the same commissioners who make up the Cook County Board — unanimously voted to put the referendum on the ballot.

If the vote goes through, the district will receive an additional $43 million per year. Randall said the extra funds would go toward immediate goals such as continuing to restore acreage, expanding and maintaining trails and other amenities, and acquiring 2,700 acres of land — primarily in the South suburbs.

The increase would additionally resolve the district's pension shortfall: Without an additional annual contribution of $9.7 million, Randall said, the pension fund is estimated to become defunct by 2044. The majority of district retirees don't receive Social Security benefits.

Help for two attractions

A portion of the funds will also go to Brookfield Zoo and Chicago Botanic Garden, both of which sit on Cook County forest preserve land and already receive funding from the district. The cash will go toward addressing capital maintenance needs at the organizations — improvements that Botanic Gardens President and CEO Jean Franczyk said are “unglamorous” but essential.

At the garden, which recently celebrated its 50th birthday, those upgrades will involve restoring the original paths of its prairie walkway, replacing the heating systems in its greenhouses and updating the decking on its many bridges that connect the campus' nine islands.

Michael Adkesson, director of Brookfield Zoo, said similar projects will be funded on the zoo's 235 acres should voters approve the tax hike.

Adkesson said work is needed at older facilities such as the seal and sea lion pools as well as the pachyderm building where the rhinoceroses and pygmy hippos reside. The latter is nearly as old as the zoo itself, which opened in 1934.

In other counties

In the past, other Chicago-area forest preserve districts have expanded their acreage with voter approval.

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County was able to add thousands of acres of land after voters in 1997 and 2006 gave the district permission to borrow tens of millions of dollars to buy open space and improve its preserves.

Officials have said both ballot questions were needed because properties throughout DuPage were being developed.

The $75 million loan voters approved in 1997 was split among the county's six forest preserve districts — each got $10 million, while an additional $15 million was spent at large.

Then in 2006, taxpayers endorsed borrowing $68 million more to buy land, improve facilities and restore woods, prairies and wetlands.

Similarly, the Lake County Forest Preserve District sought voter approval for borrowing money to acquire open space in 2008. Voters authorized $185 million to buy and develop land.

Among the county's final acquisitions using that funding was a 99-acre wooded parcel off Gilmer Road in Fremont Township at a cost of $958,000. That property, which sits about a mile north of Route 176, was an addition to the Ray Lake Forest Preserve.

Forests: Botanic Garden, Brookfield Zoo would benefit