Will Kane County sell historic government center property?

Kane County officials will begin in-depth consideration of the sale of the government center campus on Batavia Avenue in Geneva. It's a decision complicated by the historic nature of the property and a multimillion-dollar cost to taxpayers.

Leaving the aging government center property is a topic that's arisen multiple times since the county completed its last major infrastructure project. The Kane County jail opened in 2008 at a cost of nearly $60 million.

Building a new government center campus likely would top that figure as the current Geneva property hosts multiple county buildings and functions, including the county clerk, assessor, treasurer, development department and the county board offices and meeting rooms.

This week, the Chicago-based architectural firm Wight & Co. told a county board committee most of the buildings at the government center are in "fair to poor condition."

"These buildings were not purpose-built for the functions you have going in here," said Wight's Jason Dwyer.

The county purchased the property in 1972. Up to that point, it had served as the Sacred Heart Seminary. There are vestiges of the historical use visible throughout the campus - from a grotto maintained by volunteers to the chapel that is used for county board meetings.

Dwyer said county officials have done the best they can to retrofit the buildings for their current uses. But even the layout of the buildings makes it difficult for the public to find the county offices and officials they need to do business with.

The older the campus gets, the more the costs of patchwork maintenance add up, officials said.

"These buildings here are not serving our constituents," county board Chair Corinne Pierog said. "We are serving the buildings because we have a romantic relationship with what they may have been in a distant past."

Any move away from the current government center will be years in the making. The county board must develop plans, involve the other county elected officials who would be affected by a move, and figure out where to move, what a new government center facility would look like and how much it would cost.

But the biggest hurdle may be the initial decision to start all of that work. Multiple discussions about a move in the past never progressed beyond lamenting the current state of the buildings.

"The No. 1 hurdle is the political will of this board to decide it's time to act," county board member Mark Davoust said. "It starts by recognizing that it's been a great run for us; this is not the home for us, and we need to move on." The main force weakening that political will is a price tag that may be more than $100 million.

"I always feel like I'm the brakes on this freight train," county board member Mavis Bates said. "How many generations will it take to pay off any building? This building is performing the function it was intended to. It may not be as slick as some new buildings. But let's make sure we're not taxing our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren because the bathroom needs to be remodeled."

The county would need a master planning document looking out as far as 2050 as a first step toward making sure whatever they build meets future needs. The committee will discuss those first steps next month.