Aurora Beacon-News
December 19, 2001
By Steve Lord
STAFF WRITER
GENEVA ó Although Kane County's 2020 land use plan has only
been in effect for five years, officials already are looking at
revising it into a 2030 plan.
The plan, which seeks to balance growth with preserving farmland and
open space, seems constantly under attack by development forces.
That's why Kane planning officials want to revisit it and make it as
viable and tough as possible.
"Our plan has been a good plan, very successful," Sam Santell of the
county's Development Department told the County Board Development
Committee Tuesday. "So how do we push that, pump it up?"
What is going to pump up for sure is Kane's population in the coming
years. Santell said the county currently has about 550,000 people,
and the 2020 plan was built to handle about 650,000. He and Phillip
Bus, Kane's planning director, told the Executive Committee that
private estimates show Kane County having as many as 800,000 people
by the year 2030.
"The Chicago area will grow by half-a-million people each decade for
the next three decades," Bus said. "The
question is, how many will live in Kane County?"
Transportation fears
Bus added that the Chicago region
will create between 1 million and 1.5 million jobs during that
time.
"This region will simply not tolerate another 1 million cars," Bus
said.
That's why Kane planners, as part of the 2020 plan, incorporated new
ways to develop to accommodate pedestrian uses, and more public
transit. The 2030 plan should keep that commitment, officials
said.
Santell said the planning department and Planning Commission already
have begun work on the 2030 plan. They are planning to have a draft
plan ready by mid to late 2003.
"This does not happen in a vacuum," Santell said. "This goes back to
the first land-use plan, in the 1960s. It's part of the history of
planning here in Kane County."
Open space Committee member Paul Greviskes, D-Aurora, said he does
not want planners to "lessen the commitment to open space" in the
2030 plan.
"It's much easier to develop a green site than redevelop an old
site," Greviskes said. "We should get as many green spaces as
possible."
Santell said to that end, planners already have done a green map
identifying all green spaces left in the county.
"One of the most successful parts of the (2020) plan has been the
open space portion," Santell said. "We want to continue that."