Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Village can't decide between rural and urban

A group of 28 alpacas have stirred up a considerable controversy in Kane County, Illinois, at the edge of metropolitan Chicago. Jack and Denise McGarels keep their animals on their 10-acre plot, but that land that now lies in Campton Hills, a newly incorporated village where livestock are not allowed. When faced with the threat of $750-a-day fines if the alpacas were not removed, the McGarels sued the town. They are not the first to take legal action against the town on the Lincoln Highway west of St. Charles.

"Before, during and after Campton Hills incorporated, a flood of landowners have sought to disconnect from the village, many of them seeking to preserve a rural lifestyle or resisting another layer of government," writes Russell Working of the Chicago Tribune. "At least 2,600 residents have or are seeking to disconnect some 3,500 acres from the new town of 12,000, which covers 20 square miles." Resistance to a more urban lifestyle is strong enough in Campton Hills that a proposal to disband Campton Hills failed by only 367 votes.
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