With a strong economy and many lovely communities, Lake County is a great place to live and work. Lake County has the highest per capita income in Illinois. We also boast an enviable setting—just outside a world-class city, hugging the shores of one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes and featuring 200 other lakes.

That’s part of the reason why Lake County is growing at the rate of approximately 10,000 people per year. That rate is projected to remain intense for the next 15 years, adding the equivalent of five new towns the size of Gurnee. The creation of over 70,000 new jobs is projected to accompany this tremendous growth. These are, then, exciting times that will shape the character of this landscape for generations to come.
 
To keep Lake County a great place to live, we need to balance growth with preservation of a certain amount of open space—farmlands, woods, prairies, streams and other undeveloped areas. The impact of development on property values, economic vitality, traffic, schools, flooding and quality of life can be severe if we don’t.

• During the past decade, an average of four acres per day were developed in Lake County.1

• The greatest change in land use is expected to be the conversion of farmland to homes, with 24,000 acres of farmland expected to be lost between 2000 and 2020.

• Of all counties in the nation, Lake County ranks ninth in terms of demand for land.2

Another—lesser known—quality about Lake County is that our ecological diversity is higher than that of any other county in the state, resulting in a surprisingly large number of rare native plants and animals taking refuge amongst our midst. We also have a diversity of native plant and animal communities that is much richer than those found in other Illinois counties, featuring such rarities as “sedge meadows,” “flatwood forests” and “graminoid fens.”

BENEFITS OF OPEN SPACE
Whether or not you're an outdoors enthusiast, open space works for you around the clock. It provides a variety of benefits confirmed by a significant body of research.

• If we carefully balance growth with land preservation, property values are almost guaranteed to grow. There’s strong and consistent documentation on this from throughout the nation.

• Traffic congestion—and the gasoline wasted from sitting in traffic—is checked.

• Higher property taxes due to overcrowded schools are checked. It has been said that preserving open land is the ultimate tax cap.

• Businesses remain vibrant by attracting well-qualified employees who wish to live in areas with a high quality of life.

• Both frequency and severity of flooding is reduced. On undeveloped land, heavy rains soak into the soil. But in heavily developed areas, that water instead flows across the impermeable surfaces of streets, parking lots and buildings, and is channeled directly to streams and rivers that quickly overflow.

• Clean air is plentiful. In one year, the average tree can absorb the amount of greenhouse gas emitted by a vehicle that travels 11,000 miles, while also producing enough oxygen to keep a family of four breathing.

• Clean water is plentiful. Lake County is particularly lucky because of its large number of wetlands and the water filtration services they perform. Municipalities are coming to recognize the economic value of that “green infrastructure.” New York City, for example, acquired watershed lands in the Catskill Mountains for $250 million in the 1990s, and avoided having to spend over $6 billion on new water filtration and treatment plants.

• Groundwater is replenished at healthy rates. Groundwater supplies are replenished primarily through wetlands and, again, Lake County is fortunate to boast many. Now that additional uses of Lake Michigan water are highly restricted, Lake County expects to see an increasing reliance on groundwater.

• Regionally significant habitat is preserved. Lake County supports 130 threatened and endangered species, more than any other county in Illinois. Wild species provide many essential services. For instance, over 90% of all flowering plants and over 75% of staple crop plants rely on pollinators. Pollinators also fertilize plants from which many leading medicines, dyes, beverages and fibers are derived. Further, advances in medicine frequently come from undomesticated species. A majority of today’s most popular medicines were derived from wild plants, animals or microorganisms.

These benefits can be enjoyed now as well as decades into the future.
Gentling rolling prairie and farmland—dotted with woodlands and wetlands—have long defined Lake County as a lovely place to live, work and play. These amenities are now at risk, and constructive action is needed. Lake County’s character will be forever affected by the achievements of this critical period.
Taking action now, rather than later, means we can protect key parcels while they are still available and affordable.

1.  Lake County Regional Framework Plan, 2004.

2.  Endangered by Sprawl: How Runaway Development Threatens America’s Wildlife, 2005, by National Wildlife Federation, Nature Serve and Smart Growth America.