Long Grove sells seven acres to park district

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Updated: February 20, 2012 8:57AM

Originally intended for development, a section of green space next to Long Grove’s major forest preserve should now remain open land forever.

Long Grove Village Hall sold seven acres of empty ground it has held for decades to the Long Grove Park District during the Village Board’s Jan. 10 meeting. Records show that the district bought the lot for $500,000.

Park Board President Jane Wittig said the land will be folded into the Reed-Turner Woodland Nature Preserve, which it was part of previously.

“We’re not going to do anything with it, other than keep pulling weeds,” Wittig said. “We’re all excited, because this ensures that we will not be building a McDonald’s or houses or anything on that property.”

The land is next to the nature center’s eastern border, just south of Illinois Route 22 and along the west side of Old McHenry Road. Wittig said the park district will look for ways to make the new addition a seamless extension of Reed-Turner.

“It will just be beautiful land,” she said. “We’ll probably blend them together.”

The land’s original owner meant for the site to include beautiful houses, Wittig said. Barbara Turner, daughter of the Harold Turner whose name the park bears, donated 36 acres to the state for use as a nature center in the 1950s, but sold a seven-acre piece of the original plot to Long Grove Village Hall, expecting the municipality would have it developed.

That never happened, and Village Hall, in need of cash as building permits and sales tax revenues have dried up since 2008, decided to sell the still-green space to the parks. Wittig said the park district emptied several accounts to buy the land with cash.

Long Grove has seen a few successful commercial developments nearby in recent years, such as the Menard’s at Illinois Route 53 and Lake Cook Road, Sunset Foods at Illinois Route 83 and Aptakisic Road and a shopping center at Illinois Route 22 and Old McHenry Road.

The seven-acre site is too distant from major streets to make it a likely candidate for any kind of business, though, and housing in southern Lake County has yet to rebound.

“The property would better serve the public benefit if the property were transferred to the park district,” the village’s sale ordinance reads.

Recalling the village’s origin as a rural outpost in spreading suburbia, Wittig agreed.

“When Long Grove was established, open space was a major issue,” she said. “That’s what I call one of Long Grove’s best-kept secrets.”