The beauty of the Fox River is a glittering jewel that attracts thousands of visitors to the Tri-Cities, but it is not the only gem for those who look beyond the waterway.
The Park Districts of St. Charles, Batavia and Geneva, both cooperatively and separately, have acquired an impressive inventory of woodlands, wetlands and trails to protect and preserve the environment and add to the recreational benefits for a growing population.
Few acquisition attempts end in disputes as heated as that dealing with Braeburn Marsh, which involves a private land developer, the Kane County Forest Preserve District and the City of Batavia. But this controversy typifies the “save the land” mind-set of forest preserves, park districts and a growing segment of the population.
“We’re running out of land,” declares Jim Breen, who for nine years has directed the St. Charles Park District. “Certainly if there were more land, we would be trying to get it. Whenever there’s a new subdivision, we fight for land, and we’ve got people knocking on our door telling us it’s nice you got this and that but you should have gotten more.”
Breen has crossed swords with developers many times over green space and park donation issues, seldom conceding ground or losing his arguments at City Hall.
“Developers will always tell you that if we have to give up more land the houses are going to be too expensive,” he said. “Well, most of the people who talk to us say they want the ambiance of natural areas, green open space, because they’re tired of seeing urbanization.”
Although the Fox River is the big drawing card among the towns that share its banks in Kane County, there are dozens of other parcels within the three Park Districts that offer sanctuary to flower and fauna.
“Look at the beauty of this place,” said Mary Ochsenschlager, manager of natural resources for the St. Charles Park District.
She was speaking from the 46-acre Ferson Creek Fen Nature Preserve, along the west bank of the Fox River, one of six large natural areas that represent more than 450 acres of the Park District’s overall 1,400 acres.
“It’s wonderful so many people can see so much nature so close to their homes,” she said, crossing a long catwalk over wetlands filled with greenery.
Largest of the district’s natural areas is the 330-acre Campton Hills Park, west of the city off Peck Road, between Illinois Highway 38 and Campton Hill Road.
“We lease from the Illinois Department of Corrections,” Breen said. “We have a number of athletic fields, community gardens . . . and 240 acres of natural area, woods, restored wetlands and where we have replanted prairie.”
The district’s northernmost park is Otter Creek Bend Wetland Park, which Breen proudly notes is “the nation’s first re-created wetland bank in the nation . . . the prototype of wetland banks now being developed all over.”
This 50-acre wetland park and 210-acre Primrose Farm Park are bridged by Kane County’s Ferson Creek Woods Forest Preserve to form a 368-acre greenway that runs 1.6 miles south from Silver Glen Road.
From the McKay Overlook and nature trail off Crane Road, Ochsenschlager said a dedication by developers will “eventually extend the (uninterrupted) greenway another mile to the north.”
Although the city’s west side projects are impressive, the district’s east side also has an inviting array of natural areas that require continuing attention from Ochsenschlager and her corps of volunteers. (“I’m always looking for more,” she says.)
Directly across the river from Ferson Creek Fen is the 73-acre Norris Nature Preserve, a red oak forest with a trail system that rewards hikers with glimpses of nearly every kind of flower and fauna in the region.
Persimmon Woods features 30 acres of forested wetlands, which Breen said is an upland swamp whose fragile nature “needs its neighbors as a friend.”
One of the district’s newer acquisitions is Delnor Woods Park, a 24-acre native oak forest with large, 200-year-old trees, just north of downtown, off Illinois Highway 25.
“There are deer, fox, owl and egrets that make it an absolutely beautiful piece of property adjacent to the downtown area,” Breen said.
The St. Charles Park District goes about acquiring and developing properties in a relatively quiet, businesslike fashion, but things are a little more turbulent in Batavia.
In this southernmost of the Tri-Cities, a battle is currently being waged over 14 acres of the Braeburn Marsh, part of a 50-acre natural area, on the southeast corner of Fabyan Parkway and Randall Road.
A Chicago-based developer, Aetna Development Corp., has proposed a commercial retail center for the site, sparking sharp opposition and questions by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the authority in issues concerning wetlands that are considered to be federal waterways.
Attempts by the city and private groups to purchase the marsh have been largely ignored by the developer.
Christine Slattery, director of the Chicago office of San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land, whose aims are conservation of land, said, “We’ve been working to put together a funding partnership, but the real hurdle is the lack of a willing seller.”
Brook McDonald, executive director of the Naperville-based Conservation Foundation, said his organization is supporting the fundraising efforts of the Braeburn Marsh Defenders, an organization of Batavia city officials and residents, in its efforts to buy the land from Aetna.
“This is a classic example of municipalities, as open space becomes more scarce, (trying) to get these marginal properties,” he said. “We’re working with about a dozen different groups like this.”
Batavia, whose parks board recently adopted a new master plan to cope with growth over the next five to seven years, has several projects in the works to expand its 42 parks and open space areas that now encompass about 262 acres.
Jim Eby, director of property and planning for the city, said he is working with several developers on properties that will be donated to or purchased by the city or park district.
One of them is a “large chunk of about 23 acres,” he said. “We are working with the developer in accordance with what they have to do to fulfill their Army Corps of Engineers permit.”
The property, situated in the Savanah subdivision, features a pond and manmade wetlands.
“We are just beginning a 58-acre site, which is currently a tree nursery that we purchased,” Eby said. “It has a small creek, and with a design consultant’s help we are re-creating some upland prairie and wetlands to help with filtering storm water that goes back into the creek.”
The district is working with Naperville-based developer Oliver Hoffman in Tanglewood Hills, just west of Randall Road, which is a “real preservation project,” according to Eby. “Its 30 acres contain a number of different types of ecosystems,” which include “Mill Creek and a corridor of marshlands, upland prairie remnants, as well as some really beautiful oak savannah type remnants.”
“None of these areas is controversial because we have made a point of trying to work with the developers, who (usually) accept our efforts,” he added.
Geneva, sitting in the middle of the Tri-Cities, also is expanding its open space and parks. Operating almost 400 owned or leased acres in its system, the Park District there recently saw the approval of a $7.9 million referendum proposal to buy 210 acres, six of which are on the east side of the Fox River and 204 across Randall Road.
Steve Persinger, director of the Park District, said that “we know by 2010 we will be headed toward 700 acres. But we also know the population, now approximately 23,000 residents, will be increasing . . . making our growth (in size) very important.”
Property just north of Illinois Highway 38 on East Side Drive that is owned by the Good Templar Organization is of the type Persinger covets.
“If they were ever to sell this beautiful, wooded property, I know the Park District would be interested,” he said.
Persinger said he believes taxpayers’ support of referendum proposals in the county since 1995 reflects an appreciation of open space, parks and their importance to quality of life in the suburbs.
Prairie Green, a $10 million restoration involving the partnership of the Geneva and St. Charles Park Districts with the Kane County Forest Preserve District, “looks very promising,” Persinger says.
“It was one of our selling points for the 200 acres we purchased through the referendum,” he said
Persinger says the district’s master plan calls for three parks to be developed in the Fischer Farm subdivision, west of Randall Road.
“We also have plans for another four or five parks in the Mill Creek subdivision, which is in our Park District but not within the (limits) of the city,” he said.
Geneva’s Island Park offers virtually everything expected in parks and open space. This Works Progress Administration project of the 1930s is an 11.5-acre mix of wood stands, marshes, bike paths and playground. The old stone from its newly refurbished river retaining walls were recycled into sitting walls at Peck Farm Park, a 161-acre spread bought in the early 1990s and still under development as an “active park,” Persinger said.
Selling the public on the value of open space and preservation of woodland, wetlands and natural areas in general has become easier in recent years, park officials say. But they say residents still have concerns, primarily about the cost of land and taxes to support park districts.
