Fending off urban sprawl, Libertyville Township officials have announced the purchase of 18 acres to expand a 1,500-acre open-space district.
The land, in a trust held in part by Cynthia Wirtz MacArthur, sister of Blackhawks owner William Wirtz, was bought for $600,000. It is at the southwest corner of Casey Road and Milwaukee Avenue in unincorporated Lake County.
“It is the most vulnerable piece of land,” said F.T. “Mike” Graham, Libertyville Township supervisor. “It eventually would have been sold for a gas station, a convenience store or a hotel. Once that corner went, the whole section of Casey Road would go.”
Graham has long advocated buying land to preserve it as open space and to discourage urban sprawl.
“Libertyville Township is working to curb growth and hold down the costs to the public of runaway development,” Graham said. “The public pays either way, but several times more for development. Plus, we lose our enviable quality of life, coupled with depreciating property values to boot.”
Township officials have been negotiating for months to buy the land. MacArthur, who lives in Florida, had a half interest in the property, while the Bank of South Miami had the other half under a 1937 trust created for MacArthur by her mother, Virginia W. Wirtz.
