The outdoor Par-King Skill Golf course is famous for its imaginative designs and moving obstacles. Founded in 1955, this miniature golf course moved to its current location just on the outskirts of Lincolnshire in 1977. In January 2016, Lincolnshire annexed the property into the official village boundaries.
Daily Herald file photo
When Buffalo Grove and Lincolnshire came to terms on a boundary agreement in 2005, they settled future territorial disputes over undeveloped land.
Now Buffalo Grove officials say the agreement has served its purpose. The village board voted Monday to send notice to Lincolnshire allowing the agreement, which was set to expire this year, to terminate.
The boundary agreement determined where the two towns could develop. On the Buffalo Grove side, it included parcels zoned for residential on Prairie Road, land zoned for office/research on Industrial Drive and the Land & Lakes property on Milwaukee Avenue that was the subject of heated discussion more than a decade ago.
On the Lincolnshire side were areas for single-family detached homes north of Port Clinton Road, the Meadows of Prairie View and the Prairie Ridge subdivisions, office/research property on Industrial Drive and the site of the Par-King Skill Golf course on Milwaukee Avenue.
Prior to the agreement, the two towns were in competition for development. One of the properties both villages eyed was what is now the City Park at Lincolnshire.
Deputy Village Manager Chris Stilling said City Park was the catalyst for the agreement.
“There were a lot of unincorporated parcels,” he said. “We shared some boundaries with Lincolnshire, but there was no defined agreement.”
“What was happening about 20 years ago was sort of turf wars between communities on annexing,” he said. This pitted communities against each other and in some cases resulted in legal action.
‘The whole idea was for this to sort of prevent that,” he said.
Now the villages have a great relationship, Buffalo Grove Village Manager Dane Bragg said.
“In a lot of ways, the need for the agreement 20 years ago has run its course,” Bragg said, adding there aren’t many key parcels under dispute.
Among the developments that occurred in Buffalo Grove following the boundary agreement was a residential development on the Hoffmann farm property, as well as the Link Crossing development.
As for Lincolnshire, it annexed the Par-King property in 2016. Lincolnshire has also seen the development of Loft 21, a multipurpose event space on what used to be the Cubby Bear North property on Milwaukee Avenue, as well as the Lincolnshire Trails residential development.
Lincolnshire Assistant Village Manager and Community and Economic Development Director Ben Roesler said the village board is expected to discuss whether to terminate the agreement in the next few weeks.
“When it was first adopted in 2005, the goal was to provide more predictable development between Lincolnshire and Buffalo Grove,” he said. “It has accomplished a lot of the purposes it was set up to accomplish.”