Didier Farms Dropped from Flood Relief Plan

Didier Farms will remain a farm.

The Prairie View site has been dropped from a master flood relief plan that called for constructing a reservoir on the Didier property, at the northeast corner of Buffalo Grove and Aptakisic roads, an official confirmed Thursday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers removed the Didier property and adjacent Hoffmann land from its plan due to opposition from a Lake County agency and the pending sale of the Hoffmann property, Jeff Zuercher, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District, said. 

“At this point in time, that site is going to be dropped from consideration,” he said. 

“We had known that it wasn’t a site that was looked upon favorably by some of the agencies we were working with,” he said, noting that it received “no support” from the Lake County Stormwater Management Commission.

Farm owner John Didier said Thursday that he had not been informed of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision. When notified by Patch, he was hesitant to celebrate the news.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “I haven’t been told that officially.”

He said his family has received strong support from the community in recent days, from organizations such as the Village of Buffalo Grove, which passed a resolution opposing the plan, to individuals who have come to the farm’s defense. 

“It’s amazing all the support that we’ve got. It’s great to see so many people are behind us,” he said.

Zuercher said his agency had not told the Didiers of the decision, which was made late last week. He said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had not recommended a forced purchase of the land through eminent domain, but property acquisition methods are ultimately left to local project sponsors.

He said the overall flood relief plan can go forward without the reservoir that was proposed for the Didier Farms property, but “it’s always better if we have a reservoir site.” The agency will need to identify another location for compensatory water storage, he said. The Didier and Hoffmann properties would have served both purposes, he said. 

“It wasn’t our intention to go after Didier Farms in any way,” Zuercher said. The property simply was, he said, “just a good location.”