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LAKE COUNTY 2014 IS ON PAPER

A panel of Lake County leaders agreed Monday on the ideal picture of the perfect suburban landscape.

According to a 20-year plan adopted after months of discussions, the Lake County of 2014 should feature a healthy base of local businesses, interspersed with plenty of green space. And, they agreed, the county should take the leadership role in making the dream come true.

“Now we’ve got a map we can put on the wall and say, `This is what Lake County should look like,’ ” said Dick Raftis (R-Wildwood), chairman of the County Board’s Planning and Zoning Committee. The plan is expected to win approval by the full County Board in July.

But even as the majority of the committee wholeheartedly endorsed the “framework plan” update on Monday, officials who are key to making the plan happen were nowhere near the drawing board.

The county has no legal authority to make cities and villages obey the plan when deciding what new development should come to their towns and how it should be done. An estimated 90 percent of all development takes place within the corporate boundaries of local communities, whose leaders have sole authority over how things are done there.

And while some municipal officials have given their opinions on the framework plan over the last few months of public hearings, none of them are under any obligation to follow the rules.

The long-awaited framework plan is “just bull,” said the sole dissenter on the committee.

“We don’t outrank the village council members,” said County Board member Larry Leafblad (R-Grayslake). “They don’t want the county telling them what to do. And they know they don’t have to obey the plan.”

But defenders of the plan say it could be a valuable guide for county and municipal planners alike. The draft includes population and growth projections, and suggests ultimate municipal boundaries.

The plan has been controversial since discussions began earlier this year. Several municipalities and open-space advocates feared the plan would encourage new, highly dense developments around major roadway interchanges.

The communities of Long Grove and Mettawa were particularly miffed by ongoing debates over whether W.W. Grainger Inc. should be allowed to build its controversial corporate headquarters near woodsy Mettawa. Local leaders thought the plan tacitly endorsed Grainger’s project.

Now, however, some original objectors say they think the most offensive parts were cut out of the plan before its passage Monday.

In particular, the plan no longer calls for dense development around interchanges. But it does say that developers can apply for “urban zones” even if they don’t appear on the framework map.

Also, the plan calls for a “conservation” designation in the county zoning code. Developers of projects in unincorporated Lake County given that designation would be held to certain agreements about preserving open space and making other environmental considerations.

Mettawa village Trustee Jere Zenko said the plan is acceptable only because of the fierce opposition by Mettawa, Long Grove and other municipalities to some basic tenets of earlier drafts.

But Raftis said the whole process of drafting the framework plan was marked by discussion and compromise. He predicted that, even though municipalities don’t have to follow the plan, they might do so of their own accord. The plan calls for county officials to work on intergovernmental agreements between the county and local municipalities.

Because the plan contains a wealth of data about expected population growth, it also will help the local communities plan for the future, Raftis said.

It also will be used by county policymakers when they plan road improvements and sewer extensions, planners said. “It gives a general idea when our planners think things will happen,” Raftis said. “It’s a good guide.”