Aldermen do not want the DuPage County Forest Preserve District encroaching on Darien, according to a resolution approved unanimously by the City Council.
The Forest Preserve District had decided to reach into a $75 million reserve fund to buy 80 acres of mostly undeveloped farmland in the Oldfield Triangle area of Darien, between Lemont Road, Oldfield Road and Interstate Highway 55.
The City Council opposed the proposed land purchase, citing the loss of a tax base and a “significant part of the city’s undeveloped property,” said Rick Curneal, Darien administrator. Curneal said the City Council had hoped developers would build a hotel complex, conference center or regional shopping center.
“Unlike every other county in the state of Illinois,” Curneal said, “in this case, we have no say in the matter (of the Forest Preserve’s purchasing land in Darien). Now we are saying that enough is enough. If they want to buy more land, then they can buy it somewhere else.”
