The Glenview Park District’s unsuccessful attempt to buy 20 acres of historic farmland underscores the difficulty public bodies and nonprofit groups face when bidding against private developers, open space advocates said Tuesday.
The Park District, which wanted to buy and preserve Wagner Farm, was outbid for the property by Dartmoor Homes, a Hoffman Estates-based company that builds houses. The local landmark, which might disappear, is one of the last large rural properties on the North Shore.
But Park District officials and other supporters vowed to try to preserve the farm. The Park District Board is scheduled to meet Thursday night to consider filing a lawsuit seeking to acquire the property through condemnation.
Catherine Crowley, president of the seven-member board, said she favors using the board’s power of eminent domain. She expects the board to go along with the plan, she said.
“Their gut reaction is like mine: Let’s go for it,” Crowley said.
Glenview Park District officials said they briefly considered whether to develop part of Wagner Farm, as a way to raise money and increase their bid, but rejected that idea because they wanted to save the entire property. The partial-development strategy has been used by some nonprofit groups hoping to preserve larger, adjacent parcels.
“We’ve played the same game and we usually won,” said Stephen Christy, a spokesman for the Lake Forest Open Lands Association, a nonprofit land conservation group. That group has completed three projects in which it bought large chunks of land and developed portions of those properties in order to help finance the purchases.
In an ongoing project, the association has purchased 200 acres on Waukegan Road in Lake Forest, where two-thirds of the property will remain open space and the remainder will be used for single-family homes, Christy said.
“Where nonprofits get beat is they’re not out there to get a profit,” Christy said. “It’s tough to compete with a developer, who’s going to get all of his money back, plus 30, 40 percent.”
In Glenview, the Wagner Farm had to be sold to the highest bidder, under terms of the will left by the farm’s owner and last surviving family member, Rose Wagner, said officials with Glenview State Bank, administrator of the Wagner trust. Dartmoor made the top offer and has signed a contract to buy the property, believed to be the area’s last working farm, bank officials said.
Bank officials, who would not disclose the sealed bids, said they expected Dartmoor to try to develop the property, which is zoned for three houses per acre.
Other advocates said if the condemnation strategy fails, they would challenge any development plans submitted to the village planning commission and other municipal officials.
“If it comes down to that, you can be certain we’ll appear at meetings and use the conventional types of protest,” said Norma Morrison, a former village trustee and vice president of COWS–Citizens Organized for Wagners. “Glenview is already overdeveloped.”
In March, Glenview voters approved a referendum propsal allowing the Park District to raise taxes–by about $52 a year for the average homeowner–to buy Wagner Farm. The district hoped to maintain it as a working farm and a museum of rural life.
The district was one of three finalists for the property, located at the corner of Lake Avenue and Wagner Road. The farm, founded by Thomas Wagner, a German immigrant, once encompassed 135 acres. The 20 remaining acres were purchased by the Wagner family in 1902.
