Forest district wants to buy open land along Prairie Path

An 8.3-acre patch of land on the west side of Glen Ellyn along the Illinois Prairie Path, believed to be one of the last undisturbed pieces of land in DuPage County, might stay that way.

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County wants to buy the land, dubbed the "Special 8" by members of the not-for-profit Illinois Prairie Path Corp. fighting to preserve the land near Whittier Avenue.

"It's open space preservation as well as preserving natural areas which are very few in DuPage County, that's the primary reason, (for buying the land)," said Forest Preserve Commissioner Michael Formento of Glen Ellyn. "The Forest Preserve is not anti-development."

In August, Glen Ellyn-based Gayle Homes pitched a rough plan to build 15 single-family houses at the site, but the Glen Ellyn plan commission informally said no. The developer has yet to return with another proposal.

DuPage Forest Preserve District commissioners representing Glen Ellyn recommended that money from the $75 million open space referendum in 1997 be used to buy the 8.3 acres. Formento declined to say how much has been budgeted.

The entire forest preserve commission is expected in mid-January to OK the start of negotiations, which could include condemnation. After the land sale, the Forest Preserve will work out an agreement with the Glen Ellyn Park District. The park district will lease the land for a nominal amount and maintain it.

"We're always in support of open space, that's part of what we do," said Park District President Sandra Minogue. "We didn't have the money to purchase the land."

Wedged between the Union Pacific Railroad tracks to the north and the Prairie Path to the south, the land also is home to 10,000- to 15,000-year-old stretches of kame - sand and gravel deposited when the glaciers blanketed the area.

"We are very happy that the Forest Preserve is trying to move forward," said Don Kirchenberg, president of the Illinois Prairie Path Corp., which has spearheaded a letter writing campaign to save the land from development.

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