Kendall County is continuing to grow. Now, it's asking residents how it should develop.
They spoke about augmenting Forest Preserves, transportation access, agricultural tourism and what kind of development they want to see in their county, particularly against a backdrop of substantial development and population growth happening on the current edges of the Chicago suburbs.
The workshop is part of a larger effort by the county to update its current Land Resource Management Plan. Through meetings, surveys and mapping tools, the county is attempting to gauge public opinion to form a county plan that will guide how they should develop over the next 10 to 15 years.
Kendall County is the fastest growing county in the state in terms of percent population increase, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau. From 2020 to 2024, it posted more than 8% growth — the next highest was just under 3%.
That increase amounts to an influx of more than 11,000 residents to Kendall County since 2020, the largest numerical increase in a state that lost more than 100,000 residents over that same time frame.
It currently sits as the 14th largest of 102 counties in the state, according to census data.
In the past few years, the city of Chicago has begun to reverse a downward population trend, with its population increasing in both 2023 and 2024. At the same time, its suburbs have seen a wave of growth.
For example, Plainfield — which sits in both Will and Kendall counties — led the region in terms of arrivals since 2020, according to past reporting.
But with population growth comes the challenge of accommodating it, particularly in areas people move to for their rural characteristics and green space, local officials in the suburbs have said.
Currently, Kendall County is mainly agricultural, according to a presentation from the county about its land use plan. The more developed area is primarily along the Fox River Valley corridor, with municipalities like Oswego and Yorkville along it.
But it's growing rapidly, per the recent census data.
'The county has changed in terms of population makeup, as well as land uses, since the last plan was done,' said Matt Asselmeier, Kendall County's director of planning, building and zoning, which has spurred on their interest in the project.
The county adopted a development plan in the 1990s, according to Asselmeier. There have been amendments to the plan since, but this project is the first major overhaul in several decades.
According to the city's website for the development plan, the plan will be broken down into phases, looking at issues like land use, transportation and sustainability. The county has formed a land plan committee made up of county officials and employees along with a resident and local business owner to provide insights and community perspectives.
Right now, the county is in the process of gathering survey responses (at https://teska.survey.fm/vision-kendall-comprehensive-plan) and taking input via an interactive comment map.
They're also holding community meetings — like the most recent one at the Oswego Township building. Their future workshops are happening at the National Night Out event on Aug. 5 at the Kendall County Sheriff's Office in Yorkville, and at the Plano Community Library District on Aug. 13.
The county is receiving technical assistance from its consultant, Evanston-based Teska Associates, Inc., which is doing research, existing conditions analysis and working on outreach to the community via workshops and digital tools. They worked on the county's original plan in the 1990s, according to Asselmeier.
The idea is that this plan would then serve as a guide for the county on how land should be used, as well as zoning and development project approvals.
At the community workshop on July 14, Teska vice president Mike Hoffman said Teska developed the plan's logo and the project website and has been conducting interviews with individuals at the local townships and municipalities and with developers and engineers working in the county to gather information on the county.
Teska senior associate planner Yuchen Ding described the mapping tool, which allows residents to mark places they like, ideas they have for the county, places that need improvement and transportation issues. Teska has used this tool for several of their other projects, Ding said, like Plainfield's recent transportation plan.
Hoffman told The Beacon-News that this sort of program is essentially a tool put on top of Google Maps, that allows residents to select locations and leave comments.
Ding also outlined results of Teska's existing conditions analysis, which essentially looks at the current social, economic, physical and environmental conditions of an area, he said, to set a baseline before developing goals and recommendations.
The workshop also took community feedback. As part of a survey at the meeting Monday, the group of residents gathered selected balancing development with the rural nature of the county as the biggest challenge the county is facing, along with issues like water supply and property taxes.
Residents also shared their thoughts on local housing developments, and maintaining open space by way of Forest Preserves, something Hoffman said could function to bring in tourism.
The county is also facing transportation issues, said Jeff Wehrli, a member of the land plan committee and the county's Historic Preservation Commission and a former Kendall County board member. He pointed to Oswego Township, saying that, as farmland goes away and the area develops, the county should prioritize, for example, making bicycle paths to connect the area.
Residents also discussed transit access, like extending a Metra line into Oswego, a project that's been discussed for decades but that hasn't come to fruition.
Agricultural tourism, or agritourism, also came up, with Hoffman noting that the industry is on the rise in the county.
'I think, people of all around this area, where do you go to see the farming community?' asked Carlo Sesta, a resident who said he recently moved from Plainfield to Oswego. 'It's Kendall County, right?'
Sesta suggested the county needs to balance that industry with other county priorities to ensure individuals continue coming to visit.
And the balance between the rural and urban is one of the major questions they're facing, Hoffman told The Beacon-News, particularly as Kendall grows.
'There's people that have lived here a long time and love the rural county character,' Hoffman said. 'You've got a lot of people that are moving out from…denser suburban areas out to this area for that very reason. Yet, when you develop these areas, you create conflicts between the agricultural areas and the new, growing residential areas….Because it's growing so fast, it is that conflict (that) is a significant thing that we have to work into the plan and figure out ways to buffer and transition those things and educate people.'
As for what's next for Kendall County, the comprehensive plan is still early in the process. Getting resident feedback is set to happen in rounds, Asselmeier said, with preliminary recommendations based on the community feedback they receive again being put to the community in the future.
Hoffman said the goal is for the county and Teska to do another round of workshops in the winter, subsequently form the official comprehensive plan and have it approved early in 2026.
Asselmeier said the future will depend on the community feedback they receive and what recommendations are ultimately made, and noted that changes will not likely be felt until down the line.
'It takes years to build roads, of course,' Asselmeier said. 'So, just because somebody identifies a road location, that might take years to actually see that into fruition.'
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