Ordinances approved by the Kane County board over the last decade will preserve much farm acreage in coming years against encroachment by urban sprawl.

County’s effort to preserve farmland saluted

The significance of Kane County’s groundbreaking effort to preserve and protect its agricultural roots is being showcased nationally by the American Planning Association (APA).

The Kane County Farmland Protection Program is featured in “Farming at the Fringe,” an article included in the August/September 2012 special issue of Planning, the APA’s monthly news publication.
In the article, Minneapolis?based writer Adam Regn Arvidson, a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, reports on how exurban areas like
Kane County are embracing family farms in what the publication calls a “sustaining places” story.
“The residents of Kane County place high value on quality of life issues and believe that protecting farmland and open space provides a strong legacy for future generations,” said county board chair Karen McConnaughay.
“The County Board has a very proactive, award?winning record for preserving farmland. As the only funded county program of its kind in Illinois, our program guarantees that land will stay on the tax rolls for agricultural use and will never be developed,” she added. “And funding through riverboat and federal grants provides the added benefit of no property tax dollars being used for the program,”

Suburban sprawl meets farmland near a Sugar Grove subdivision.  Photo by News Bulletin staff.

The concept of farmland protection is not new to Kane County. In both the 2030 and 2040 Land Resource Management Plans, the County Board has expressed its recommitment to preserving more than 50% of the county’s land area in agriculture and open space uses three decades from now. 

Among the Kane County “firsts” in the area of agricultural policy were county board votes to: protect farmers by ordinance from nuisance lawsuits; develop a storm water ordinance to protect farmland; establish a Farmland Protection Program; and assist farmers in maintaining productive soils with a farmland drainage assistance program.
“Farmers feel they are part of the entire picture here,” said county board member and farmer Mike Kenyon. “That’s not always the case” in other counties, he said.
Since it was created by ordinance in 2001 the program has permanently protected some of Illinois’ most productive farmland at the metropolitan urban fringe.

Equipment stands idle near Sugar Grove last weekend as harvest season starts after a disappointing growing season plagued by drought.  Photo by News Bulletin staff.

The county board has received honorable mention awards from the Trust for Public Land and the Illinois Chapter of the APA for its notable accomplishment of permanently protecting more than 5,500 acres without the use of county tax dollars, according to Executive Planner Janice Hill, who manages the county’s Farmland Protection Program. 

Roughly $20 million in riverboat grant funds have been invested by the county and leveraged with another $13 million in federal matching funds to underwrite the program.
All of the farms are locally owned and operated and are located in Kane County’s western tier Agricultural area.