Development. It’s a word that brings fear and loathing to the hearts and souls of many Lake County residents, often for good reason.
During the last 20 years, many of the region’s once-ubiquitous farm fields have been transformed into cookie-cutter subdivisions, their rows of corn replaced by the suburban version of rowhouses. Significant areas of woods, prairie and wetlands have also been lost to new housing projects, many developed with little regard for preservation of trees, land or wildlife.
The good news is that, compromised though it may be, paradise is not yet lost in Lake County. And if a pioneering few have their way, it never will be.
Several forward-thinking individuals and organizations are pioneering new ways to build houses and protect the environment at the same time. Their tried-and-true approaches focus on the preservation of trees, land and wildlife long before building begins, and when they do start construction, they do so using a carefully planned, team-executed approach that ensures preservation of important natural resources in economically viable ways.
Following are the stories of a few of those who are leading the way to a greener Lake County as champions of environmentally responsible development.
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Environmental groups are supposed to oppose new development, right? Not always, according to Stephen Christy, executive director of the Lake Forest Open Lands Association.
“Development is inevitable. People have to accept that and then get actively involved in managing it so as many natural areas can be preserved as possible,” Christy said. His organization is dedicated to preserving open space in and around Lake Forest through land acquisitions, donations, conservation easements and limited development, as well as education.
The not-for-profit association, established in 1967, has proved that environmentally sensitive development can be achieved when people on both sides of the issue decide to work together. The group has broken new ground by working hand in hand with developers, municipal officials and others to help create development plans that preserve large areas of open space and valuable wildlife habitats while allotting other space for building homes.
For example, the organization worked with Lake Forest developer Richard Kendler to create a land-use plan for 76 undeveloped acres west of town. The plan calls for 50 acres to be preserved and maintained as public open space by the Open Lands Association. Only 26 acres will be used for single-family homes.
“Our first choice was to buy the land ourselves. . . . When we were outbid, we approached Mr. Kendler with a joint proposal for the property which enabled him to build homes and us to preserve as much open space as possible. That land includes one of the largest and oldest oak savannahs in this area,” Christy explained. “It was a good compromise for everyone.”
In another recent project, the association, using money from contributions and fundraisers, bought 32 acres of a private estate in southwest Lake Forest at its fair market value. Sixteen acres of important wetlands, a large oak savannah and “a green belt” of woods and fields that connects to other public lands were made into an Opens Lands preserve; the rest of the land was divided into several lots and sold to builders, recovering the not-for-profit organization’s original cost for all the land.
“It was a risk, but all pioneers have to take risks to effect change,” Christy noted.
He thinks that one key area that needs to be addressed is the way people think of personal land use.
“Often the real culprits are the communities themselves. They don’t realize that by letting certain municipal codes exist that they are actually adding to the problem,” he explained. “For example, a half-acre minimum isn’t necessarily a good idea in terms of new development. Why not limit the number of homes built on a large piece of property, put them on smaller lots and then preserve that many more acres of open lands for everyone’s enjoyment? Otherwise it all becomes back yard at a great loss of habitat.”
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Builder Ross Friedman, owner of Windward Builders, grew up in Highland Park and now is raising his own young family in Lake Forest. He loves the bucolic nature of these communities and is as upset as any other resident when he sees poorly planned housing developments claim important woods, wetlands and fields unnecessarily.
“We can do better than that,” Friedman said. He should know. Since 1986, he and Jeff Kleckner of Waverly Affiliates of Highland Park have been working to create their own dream of an environmentally sensitive development. Called Emerald Woods, it is set on eight heavily wooded acres in west Highland Park.
Secured over seven years from several private owners, the land includes more than 400 mature trees and thousands of smaller ones and is home to dozens of native species of flora and fauna.
“Getting the land was a slow and costly process, but we saw an opportunity to preserve a forest and at the same time create high-end housing for people who value nature and privacy,” Friedman said.
Starting with the goal to save trees at all costs, the partners hired arborists, ecologists and landscape architects to evaluate the land and map every tree over 10 inches in diameter on the property, which amounted to about 400 specimens. They also took into account many hundreds of smaller trees and bushes on the property, noting which should be saved and which could be culled. Some culling was actually recommended to make the forest healthier. In sparser areas, new trees and plants were added, all native to Illinois.
The developers then created their building site plan around the trees, determining where houses could be built with the least amount of damage to the environment. The exact location of each major tree is noted on the development’s survey.
Larry King, Highland Park’s city forester, has high praise for the Emerald Woods project. In dealing with several other developers, he has encountered problems with violations of the town’s strict tree-preservation code, imposing fines and even shutting down jobs as a result. On the other hand, he said, Friedman is among a handful of builders who police their crews and subcontractors as vigilantly as forestry department officials, actually surpassing the requirements of the city’s codes in several areas.
King explained, “Even if a builder says he’s committed to preservation, it won’t work unless he educates and controls his people, too.”
Three of the seven lots in Emerald Woods are now sold and are under construction or completed. Home prices start at $1.3 million. One homeowner-to-be (he asked not to be identified), a businessman now living in Wisconsin, said, “The preservation of the environment played a big role in my building my home here. The natural beauty of the forest has been preserved, and the way they’ve maintained the ecosystem of the area is incredible.”
The future of the forest is also protected. Everyone who buys in Emerald Woods signs a restrictive covenant that prohibits removing healthy trees. “We wanted a legally binding document that would protect the trees in perpetuity, long after we’re gone,” Kleckner said. “Initially it costs us more, but it’s an investment that we’re confident will pay us and the community back overall.”
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Prairie Crossing in Grayslake is considered by many urban-planning experts to be the Midwest’s premier conservation community, a development that has dedicated itself to creating a natural and ecologically responsible “landscape for living.”
The 667-acre, 317-home community includes a remarkable 350-acre preserve of prairies, wetlands and woods and has attracted considerable regional and national attention as a result.
In early June, ecologists, land planners, developers, landscape architects and other land-use experts from around the country toured Prairie Crossing. Their visit was part of the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute’s national symposium on environmentally responsible development, held in Chicago.
Among those attending was Patrick Noonan, chairman of the Conservation Fund and former president of the Nature Conservancy, who said, “Prairie Crossing is a new model for development in the Midwest which reflects our definition of conservation: a blending of economic return with environmental principles.”
How is it possible that nearly 700 highly marketable acres of prime Lake County land did not become home to an equal or greater number of houses, plus a strip mall or two? It wasn’t easy.
The land is part of what is now the 2,000-acre Liberty Prairie Reserve. From the early 1970s to 1987, a battle raged over the property, in and outside the courtroom, between those who wanted to develop it and those who wanted to preserve it. One Chicago developer proposed building 1,600 housing units on the 700 acres now called Prairie Crossing. He sued the county, unsuccessfully, when it rejected his plans over concern about the impact of such a high-density development on the surrounding environs.
The property’s salvation came in 1987 when a group of 15 longtime residents of the area, led by conservationists Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley, formed a partnership called Prairie Holdings Corp. and bought the site for $15 million. To recoup their investment, the partners planned what they hoped would be one of the best low-density, ecologically sensitive developments in the country. Today that dream seems to have become a reality.
Prairie Crossing unveiled its first model homes in February of this year and has already sold nearly 30 houses, most under construction. Ranging in size from 1,478 to 3,500 square feet and built with the most energy-efficient materials and construction techniques, the homes sell for $199,900 to $409,900, making them much more economically accessible than those in similar conservation developments. Each home site adjoins part of the 350 acres of open lands, protected and preserved through conservation easements and recorded covenants. Amid the woods and fields are a community-supported farm, 10 miles of trails for walking, bicycling and horseback riding and several recreation and fitness facilities.
“We abandoned the notion of trying to achieve maximum density at the outset because we feel strongly that’s not what people today should be looking for or what we should be providing,” said Eve Lee, the community’s director of sales and marketing.
The six-acre community farm is operated by Tom and Denise Peterson and provides 10 pounds of produce each week during the growing season to subdivision members who pay an optional annual fee of $375. The farm also rents out individual plots to homeowners.
Carol Sonnenschein of Chicago, an urban sociologist, tracked the aforementioned conservation/development controversy involving land in and around what is now Prairie Crossing as part of her doctoral dissertation.
“I stopped in to see Prairie Crossing when it opened because I’d been studying the whole area for years and was simply curious to see what this development would really look like. . . . But once there, my husband and I were totally captured by it.” So they bought a home.
Sonnenschein believes Prairie Crossing is a model that other developers will soon follow. “One recent study found that 85 percent of the people in Lake County want to preserve wildlife habitats, even if the land can’t be used for recreation,” she said. “This is obviously an issue people really care about, and that’s ultimately going to drive changes in the way developers do things.”
