Sure, he once offered to sell land for use as a garbage dump, a prospect his McHenry County neighbors found so revolting that they wore garbage bags in protest.
And, yes, he recently made other land available for use as a gravel pit, a prospect just as loathsome to the folks living nearby.
He’s been called nasty names. He’s received death threats. But really, Bill Kaper says, he’s not a bad guy. Consider the deal he did not make.
After learning about his negotiations with a mining company for land near Ridgefield, Kaper said, another firm called and encouraged him to lease, not sell. That way, the other firm could buy the land afterward and turn the gravel pit into . . . a garbage dump.
“All these people are saying this guy is awful and this and that, but they don’t know the offer I turned down,” Kaper said.
He’s something of an anomaly, William Kaper Jr. is. He’s a lawyer who doesn’t practice law and an influential McHenry County landowner who doesn’t live in McHenry County. Asked to define what he does for a living, Kaper doesn’t hesitate.
“I’m a hustler,” he says.
Kaper lives on a 7-acre estate in the posh northwest suburb of Barrington Hills, yet he has managed to be a central figure in the shaping of McHenry County.
A land speculator who has speculated well, Kaper has sold one lot after another for commercial development and has become embroiled in two of the county’s most volatile issues: gravel pits and landfills.
The latest brouhaha involves 132 acres of farmland that Kaper owns on the northwest edge of Crystal Lake, just west of the tiny town of Ridgefield.
Vulcan Materials Co., the country’s largest gravel producer, has acquired an option to buy the land and wants to mine it for five to eight years. If Vulcan gets the necessary permits, Kaper said, the company will pay him $1.8 million. He bought the land in 1980 for $575,000.
It was not one of his better investments, Kaper said. Crystal Lake’s water and sewer services don’t extend to the site yet. Otherwise, the sales price would be six to seven times higher, Kaper estimated.
The threat of having a gravel pit as a neighbor has alarmed nearby residents so much that they formed a group called NO PITS and have vowed to fight. Kaper, for one, has seen this before.
Seven years ago, McHenry County offered Kaper $2.06 million for 384 acres near Woodstock. The county wanted the land for a garbage dump. His neighbors in Hartland Township wanted nothing of the kind.
They organized an anti-dump group some 300 members strong. At one public hearing, they wore garbage bags. The anger reached such a pitch, Kaper said, that he received phone calls from four people threatening his life.
“I’ve been called a bastard and everything else, but that, that scared me,” Kaper said. “The atmosphere was so charged then you didn’t know what could happen.”
The deal wound up falling through when engineers determined that the site was unfit geologically.
John Howell, a leader of the Hartland Township group, remains critical of Kaper, saying he shows little regard for the environment or others living nearby.
“Bill has a history of disregard for the neighbors of property he has purchased,” Howell said.
However, neighbors of the property proposed for a gravel pit have voiced no beef with Kaper. Most don’t even know who he is.
“Let’s face it. If it was your property or my property and somebody offered us God knows how many millions, well, money does talk,” said Billy Gariepy, a spokeswoman for the NO PITS group.
Kaper, 57, is an engaging man, open about his business and personal affairs alike. He grew up poor in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood and spent his Sundays on Maxwell Street helping his father, a machinist, sell tools at the famed flea market.
He received a law degree from DePaul University but practiced only briefly. It was boring, Kaper said. He preferred to wheel and deal.
About 20 to 25 years ago, Kaper said, he began buying farmland in McHenry County, paying $1,500 to $3,000 an acre. At the time, Kaper said, the high-growth areas were DuPage and Lake Counties, not McHenry.
“People would say, `Why the hell are you buying that? It’s not worth a thing.’ And I would simply say, `Well, it may be someday,’ ” Kaper said.
Sure enough, someday came. McHenry County boomed. So did Kaper’s fortunes. Over the years, Kaper said, he snatched up some 2,300 acres of farmland. Now he sells it for as much as a half-million dollars an acre.
The one downturn was in the 1980s when the real estate market collapsed. Were it not for the help of his banker, Kaper said, he would be selling popcorn at Wrigley Field.
Kaper doesn’t develop the land himself. Instead, he normally gets it annexed, rezoned and outfitted with utilities. Then he sells to a developer.
And he’s not the only winner, Kaper said. McHenry County wins too.
The landfill site, had the deal gone through, would have eventually been converted into a park, Kaper said. The proposed gravel-pit property could likewise be turned into a recreation area, including lakes and beaches.
As for the land he’s sold for commercial development, Kaper said he deals only with top-flight developers. The results, he said, have been good for the county.
Joe Misurelli, Crystal Lake’s city manager, said Kaper has a track record of honoring his annexation agreements and bringing in developers who understand the city’s requirements.
“He’s been a very cooperative and decent person to work with,” Misurelli said.
Kaper takes particular pride in a cluster of businesses at the corner of Randall and Algonquin Roads, close to the county’s southern edge. The businesses include groceries, a Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor and a Burger King.
“When you see an area grow like that, that is fantastic,” Kaper said.
Randall Road cuts through the kind of country many people associate with McHenry County-long stretches of fields dotted with barns and grazing horses. But communities have boomed around it too. Around here, then, some people welcome having a Burger King nearby. Others don’t.
“Most people will say, `Have you been down Randall Road lately?’ You could be in Anywhere, USA. It doesn’t look like McHenry County anymore,” said Cindy Skrukrud, executive director of the McHenry County Defenders, an environmental group.
Many people are drawn to McHenry County by the rural setting, but according to Kaper, it’s naive for any homeowner to assume that open land will remain that way. A case in point, he said, is the property he owns that has been proposed for a gravel pit.
The parcel is mostly farmland, but it is zoned for manufacturing. So the site can either be a gravel pit for several years-then turned into an attractive recreation area-or he’ll wait awhile and sell it for use as an industrial park, Kaper said.
“I’ll do it for $4 million instead of $2 million,” he said. “The only one who’s going to win is me.”
Kaper’s office in Barrington reflects his two passions: 18th Century art and the art of the deal. He found the painting behind his desk, a Madonna, in a bargain bin for $495.
“I won’t tell you what it’s worth,” he said, “but it’s worth a fortune.”
The same might be said of Kaper’s remaining land holdings in McHenry County. He still owns just under 1,000 acres.
So a word to the wise: If you’re moving to McHenry County to escape to the country, check the property records.
The farmland next door may not be farmland forever.
