December 22, 2024
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Kendall County Forest Preserve advances plans to connect Hoover and Fox River Bluffs preserves

Project includes $189K from Kendall County Transportation Alternatives Program

By Eric Schelkopf

The Fox River stretches along the northern edge of Hoover Forest Preserve in Yorkville, with paths bordering the river, reaching up into the hills. (Shea Lazansky)

If all goes as planned, Kendall County residents by next year will be able to hike and bike from the Hoover Forest Preserve to the Fox River Bluffs Forest Preserve.

Earlier this year, the Kendall County Forest Preserve District’s Board of Commissioners approved plans to construct a multi-use trail extending from the northeast corner of Hoover Forest Preserve in Yorkville at the Eldamain Road Bridge to Fox River Bluffs Forest Preserve in Yorkville. The connecting trail would include land on the forest preserve property as well as land owned by Kendall County through its highway department.

Hoover Forest Preserve, 11285 W. Fox Road, Yorkville (John Etheredge)

The district is applying for an Illinois Department of Natural Resources $200,000 grant to help pay for the project. The project would also be funded by a $189,000 commitment from the Kendall County Transportation Alternatives Program.

The program is funded through a 0.5% transportation sales tax.

If the grant is awarded, plans are for the project to be completed by fall 2025. The Kendall County Forest Preserve District’s Board of Commissioners recently approved a $42,000 contract with Plainfield-based Upland Design to do design work for the project and do a wetland delineation report.

Earlier in August, the district broke ground for the Mary M. Subat Nature Center in the 71-acre Subat Forest Preserve on Eldamain Road in Plano. The nature center is expected to open by June 2025.

The nature center will feature an interpretive pavilion with open-air conservation exhibits, a wetland boardwalk and trail connections to Hoover Forest Preserve, expanded parking for visitors and school buses and other campus improvements.

Funding for the project comes from an $800,000 bequest by the late John and Mary Subat, from whom the forest preserve district purchased the property in 2001, along with a $600,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources for the Subat Forest Preserve.

A separate portion of the property was donated to the district by The Conservation Foundation.